The Winegrower's Log The Winegrower's Log is an online journal by winemaker Guillaume Fabre and his wife and inspiration, Solene.  We hope to share our passion through this log with updates on where Clos Solene has been and what's to come. After a wet winter the vines are ready to give good fruits; they are growing strongly and evenly. The bud break started late April, depending on the varietal. I did the shoot thinning two weeks ago and kept only the best shoots to give the best fruits. Most of the time, I reduce the crop by half the production to allow the vines to grow well on this very hard limestone soils. With the cool summer, it didn’t exceed 85 F, the fruit are looking great. The delay is about 2 weeks meaning we won’t start before mid September! The Syrah, was very cropped, I had to reduce the yield dramatically. On the Grenache, the crop was perfect but I had to operate on the big wings of the fruit, produced by that varietal: it always make a very nice cluster with wings on the side. My goal: concentrate all the energy on the main fruit. The new focus for this coming harvest is to start making a Cabernet Sauvignon with a bit of Petit Verdot from Russel Family Vineyards. A beautiful tight spacing, around 2300 vines per acre, which allows me to keep only a few clusters for a better concentration.. Watch out! Whereas La Petite Solène 2008 is available and almost sold out, the Essence de Roussanne 2009 will be release soon as well as the Hommage à nos Pairs 2008. Kind Regards, Guillaume