Great attention to is paid to detail during the harvest at Pontet-Canet. In fact preparations begin as soon as the previous harvest is over! Alfred Tesseron designed a new system starting with the 1999 vintage. Grape picking baskets were replaced by small crates. Once full, these go directly from the vine to sorting tables. This avoids transferring the grapes from the basket to a back basket), and from the hod to a trailer. This also enables the château to manage lots of seven and a half kilos of grapes rather than two tonnes, which was the case when trailers were used…

The grapes are kept unbruised and uncrushed, and not pumped to avoid the risk of oxidation. The two sorting tables and the two reception areas located above the vats run non-stop, but at a slow rate to allow for extremely careful sorting and absolutely minimal handling of the grapes. This close surveillance – the natural continuation of the care and attention lavished on the vineyard throughout the growing season – makes it possible to separate lots according to plot and grape variety with extreme precision, and to fine tune the final blend.

Since the very hot 2003 vintage, sorting has been further improved. A second vibrating sorting table, located behind each destemmer, provides perfect quality control.  Eight people sort the uncrushed grapes by hand in order to remove all matter other than grapes, including small pieces of stems. This method ensures that only the ripest, healthiest grapes make it to the fermenting vats. However, it is also very labour-intensive, calling for some 30 workers at the grape reception area and to do the sorting, or the equivalent of one person per three pickers.