In 1986, Château Margaux was the first vineyard of the Médoc to practise crop thinning, which is to eliminate a certain number of grape bunches per vine before the grapes begin to ripen. The aim is first of all to correct the excesses of nature which is sometimes over-generous. For the majority of young vines, the harvest is in fact too abundant to produce a quality wine. By reducing the crop at the half-way point, i.e. when the grapes begin to change colour, around the beginning of August, we boost the ripening of the grapes left on the vine, without increasing the vigour of the vine.

This technique also enables us to choose the best-looking bunches and to cull out those which are badly placed on the vine, or which are behind in the ripening process. It really is a job that involves giving individual attention, not to each vine, but to each berry. It is also a good reflection of the careful, precise and rigorous attention that is today lavished on the vines. But once again, we can wonder if «better» can turn out to be the enemy of «good». In denying the vine the right to live in excess during its early youth perhaps we will simply prolong the vigour that we were claiming to hold back. After nearly twenty years of crop thinning, it sometimes seems to us that the vines are rebelling against our mad demands by refusing to grow old ...