The Changing Seasons

October to January in the Languedoc are the quiet months that shape the next vintage.

Harvest gets all the attention with the team doing the picking, the full crates, the first ferments. But talk to anyone who works a vineyard and they'll tell you the year doesn't end when the last grapes come in. In many ways, the next vintage starts right then.

At Laurent Miquel, the months from October to January are when the team steps back to look at what the season taught them and to get the vines ready for the year ahead. It is slower, less visible work but it is also where a lot of the decisions that end up in the glass are made.

October: taking stock of the vintage

With the grapes in, the cellar is at its busiest as fermentations run and the new wines take shape. Out in the vineyard, attention turns to how the vines have come through the season.

Every vintage is different. Rainfall, heat and the timing of budburst, flowering and ripening all leave their mark on the vines and the fruit. We walk the estates to assess which parcels performed, which struggled, and why, all of which feeds straight into decisions for next year. Over time, this plot-by-plot knowledge is what allows a winery to keep quality consistent, especially with the impact of climate change.

November: a dormant vineyard

As the days shorten and temperatures drop, the vines begin to shut down for winter. The leaves turn and fall, and the pace in the vineyard changes.

This is a good moment to read the vineyard closely. In the Languedoc, managing heat and water is central to growing good grapes. Experience handed down through the family gives the team a strong starting point. But each vintage is also a chance to test that experience against new conditions and changing weather patters to refine what works.

December: planning ahead

With the vines dormant, winter is the time for maintenance and planning. Soil care, the health of individual vines and the upkeep of posts, wires and other vineyard infrastructure all matter for how the vineyard performs over the long run.

Winter rain can help refill the soil (and our lake) after a dry growing season, although how much it helps depends on the site and the year but in 2026, the winter rains saved the vintage for us, as there was little to no rain between May and August. Healthy vines create a resilient vineyard for many vintages to come.

January: winter pruning

The new year brings one of the most important jobs in the vineyard calendar: winter pruning. Done while the vines are dormant, pruning sets the shape of each vine and decides how many buds it will carry into spring. It is skilled, hands-on work, and every cut has consequences for the months ahead. The pruner has to weigh the grape variety, the strength of the individual vine and how the canopy and crop will be managed later in the year. We experiment with different types of pruning as different methods have proved more effective, depending on the grape variety and the vineyard aspect. The goal is to combine practical know-how with careful testing, and to adapt each approach to the site and the vines.

For Laurent Miquel, eight generations in the Languedoc bring both continuity and perspective. The vineyard isn't treated as a run of separate harvests, but as a long-term commitment to understanding the land and nourising it. By the time the first green shoots appear in spring, much of the next vintage's story has already begun.

Finally, here is Laurent explaining why our estates in the Languedoc have the perfect conditions for producing excellent quality fruit. Laurent's father Henri put it succintly when he said "Even a donkey can produce good wine with great quality fruit"

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/4b2c5f_da15126455344a33a332e963638089c2/720p/mp4/file.mp4