la gramiere

Pleasant Surprises

On Monday morning when I opened my inbox, I had two great emails from two different people, and these great pictures attached:

These fancy people are a group of friends from Conway, South Carolina, that I took on a wine tour last spring.  Since then, they have been following the blog and periodically sending me emails.  You may remember I posted Marianne's email describing what she, and their friend's daughter went through to get a case of La Gramière to South Carolina. Notice they are all holding empty bottles of La Gramière!  Here's what she had to say about the wine:

Dear Amy,

 

Attached is a picture of our group enjoying your Cotes du Rhone!  We were all dressed up for our local hospital's Winter Gala fundraiser.  Everyone loved the wine!   Terry and I opened a bottle shortly after it arrived and I think that it has settled down even more since then.

 

Cheers to you from the Conway, SC gang!

Then, the very next message to come into my inbox was from John in Ohio, along with this picture:

Here's what John had to say:

Hi Amy,

I picked it up (the wine) in Ann Arbor, about an hour away, and had my camera in the car with me when I thought of the idea on the way back. I just wanted to return to you a tiny bit of the huge enjoyment that I receive from reading your blog. As you’ve no doubt heard before, “you’re living the dream of many.”

Your personal touch really does go a long way. I’m confident your Cotes du Rhone will be stimulating a good deal of interest in this neck of the woods now that I have my hands on some and can share it with my friends both here and abroad.

Best to you and your husband. Looking forward to all of your blogging and looking forward to the next vintage!

Sincerely,

John Mays
Perrysburg, Ohio

Wow, two fan letters in one day, I really don't know what to say, but I sure do appreciate it! Thank you so much!

It's been a busy but exciting three days, tomorrow I'll tell you all about it!

 

 

The perks

Lately, I've been posting photos and a few details about my recent forays into wine critic-dom, telling you about the amazing experiences I've been having.  Well, I have to say it's not all great.  While I've been tasting the wines of Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Tavel, Lirac and so on, I've also been tasting lots and lots of "generic" Côtes du Rhône.  You can imagine that they'd send someone like me to wade through the masses of wines, weeding out the not-so-great ones, so that the big guys don't have to taste through 111 different bottles of 2005 Côtes du Rhône Rouge.  I can definitely understand why they wouldn't want to do it themselves.  It is interesting though, and encouraging to find that the overall quality of generic Côtes du Rhône is really quite good.  Keep in mind here, that I, myself, produce a Côtes du Rhône, so I am definitely not trying to knock the appellation, but 111 is quite a lot, even for me!

So, it's always nice when there are a few perks thrown in.  This one was in the form of a visit to the very well-known négociant Tardieu-Laurent, located in the picturesque Provençal village of Lourmarin in the heart of the Luberon Valley.  Lourmarin is not exactly where you'd expect to find cellars full of Hermitage, Côte Rôtie, Cornas, Châteauneuf du Pape, etc., but there hidden away at the entrance to a housing development are the cellars of Tardieu-Laurent.   Thierry Desseauve, Guillaume Puzo and I had an appointment there last week, and let me tell you, this was definitely a perk.  These are the kinds of winery visits that don't happen every day. These are special visits, reserved for the press and for old friends and otherwise important people.  I have been very lucky in my life to accompany Michel Bettane on several of these visits, albeit many years ago, we visited Domaine de la Romanée Conti,  Zind Humbrecht,  Marcel Diess and the Faller sisters all of them unforgettable, all of them normally inaccessible to someone like me.  Well that is say,  that the kind of tastings that occur when Michel Bettane or Thierry Desseauve come for the day, aren't the same tastings that occur when you and I call up and make an appointment.  You know what I mean?

Let me start out by saying that I was very skeptical about the visit to Tardieu-Laurent.  Having lived in Burgundy I was well aware of the excellent reputation of Dominique Laurent, but my impression of him was that he bought already excellent Burgundies, threw them into 100% new oak and made them into 100 point wines.  Far from being my preferred style of wine.  I know that Tardieu-Laurent had set out to do much the same thing, but this time in the south.  Desseauve told me not to be hasty with my judgement, but to wait and see, knowing that I would find much, much more.  Apparently Michel Tardieu has come a long way in his winemaking evolution, calling himself a purist when it comes to terroir, well, in the end it's true his wines do express their terroirs, and now he uses much less new oak than in did in the early years. (Pictured from left to right are: Philippe Cambie, Thierry Desseauve and Michel Tardieu)

We met Michel Tardieu and his enologist Philippe Cambie, over 2 hours late at the cellars of Tardieu-Laurent.  They had spent the morning tasting barrels of the 2005s , and were more than ready for us to arrive.  We went straight to the cellars and started tasting the 2004s.  We started with their Côtes du Rhône, worked our way  north through Rasteau, Vacqueyras, Gigondas, Châteauneuf-du-Pape and then further north to Crozes-Hermitage, Saint Joseph, Cornas, Côte-Rôtie and finally ending with the mighty Hermitage.  It was an amazing lesson in terroir, each wine as we tasted through the series, was true to it's geographic origins.  The Chateauneuf was sunny,  concentrated grenache, the Saint Joseph was full of northern Rhône characteristics including pencil lead and licorice, the Cornas smoky and mineral, and the Côte Rôtie truly had a floral aspect reminiscent of violets.  It was simply an eye-opening tasting.

Almost more interesting than the wines though, were the people, Michel Tardieu and his wife Michèle. (yes, they have the same first name!) They are as passtionate about good food as they are about good wine and their enthusiasm bubbles over.  Michel is even the French importer for one of the best iberico hams from Spain.  They spend their holidays eating and drinking in some of the worlds best restaurants, but they also revel in the simple, perfect quality of traditional French country food.

Immediately following the tasting of the 2004s we headed to their house where Michèle, was putting the finishing touches on our lunch.  We had a Daube Provençal that had been cooking on their La Cornue stove for 3 days.  The flavors were so concentrated and complex, it made your mouth dance with pleasure. Whole spices like juniper, black peppercorns, cloves and others mingled with the orange and cinnamon flavors that permeated the beef. I haven't had a dish that good at a restaurant in eons.  The plates were cleared and we were then served a plate of Purée de pommes de terre (mashed potatoes really, but in France they use the cooking water to thin the purée instead of milk or cream so it comes out lighter and more potato-y).  The purée was flecked with lots of little bits of black truffle.  Then came more truffles!  This one was easily the size of a child's hand, it  was passed around the table with a grater and we greedily shaved truffles all over the potatoes.  We all ooed and awwed and Michel came out of the kitchen with a container full of truffles! All of them, that they had gathered themselves in the woods around their house. Amazing.  Using our bread to swipe up every last bit of truffly potatoes we all looked around at each other with satisfied grins.  But wait, there's more truffles to come!  Next Michele brought out a simple frisée salad dressed with olive oil that they get from their wine importer in Spain and fleur de sel de camargue (a very special sea salt from the Camargue) Then came the next truffle that Michel shaved onto the salad, the whole thing.  I've never had truffles in a salad, and never would have thought that it would be a good way to eat them, but it was simply perfection.  The olive oil had a very rich quality with low acidity so it blended with the truffles seamlessly.  We all fought over who got to use their bread to clean out the salad bowl! In the end the bowl was passed around the table and we all took a swipe. We then proceeded on to a platter of perfectly aged local cheeses, including a Saint Marcellin that was completely liquid, and a Banon that melted in your mouth.  Dessert, then coffee, then quickly to the train station so that Thierry and Guillaume wouldn't miss their train back to Paris.  What an amazing experience.  Now that's what I call the perks of the job!

Quaffabilty reviews La Gramière!

Hey everyone, take a look!  John G over at Quaffability has gone out of his way to procure some La Gramière and he even reviewed it on his site!  It's a little over his normal price point, but thankfully he broke the bank and thankfully, he liked it!  Thanks so much John for your kind words and for helping to spread the word about our wine!

Peddling our wares

A weekend full of winetastings and promoting Domaine de la Gramière!  Bruce Neyers, the national sales manager for Kermit Lynch wines, was in the area with a group of distributors from Illinois, Virginia, New York, Washington DC, Florida, California, Texas, Arizona and Oregon!  So Matt and I put on our best faces, brought along samples of the 2005 and tank samples of the 2006 and had dinner with them in Avignon.  These dinners are very important because, you see, even though Kermit imports the wine and distributes it in all 50 states and Canada, you still have to convince the distributors in each state to buy our wine.  Just because Kermit agreed to import the wine doesn't mean that he doesn't need help selling it, after all, except for you loyal blog readers, no one has ever heard of Domaine de la Gramière, and there are lots of other Côtes du Rhônes out there.  So you can see how important it is, not only for us to taste them on our wine, but to make a lasting impression on them, so that when they see our wine offered in the Kermit Lynch catalog, they'll remember us and want to order it!  Luckily for us, both the 2005 and 2006 were tasting really good on Friday night. I think we made a good impression. We'll see!

Then on Sunday afternoon, we got a call from a fellow American, fellow vigneron and winemaker,  Denis Gayte. Denis had Peter Dow from Cavatappi Distribuzione with him, and wanted to know if they could come by and taste.  Denis grew up in Seattle but his father is French growing up just a few kilometers from where we live.  He discovered our rosé this summer by accident at a restaurant in Uzès. While having lunch he overheard the restaurateur talking about an "American couple" making wine locally.  Denis contacted us, and now we get together every so often to taste each others wine and to "talk farming".  Denis took over his family's vineyards and also bought several more hectares in a neighboring Côtes du Rhône commune where he makes his wine. Since Denis is from Seattle, a lot of the wine he makes finds it's way there, and Peter Dow is his importer.  Peter Dow also happens to be the distributor for Kermit Lynch wines in Washington state, and since he wasn't on the trip with Bruce and the others he wanted to come meet us.  It was a great way to spend some time with him and get to talk to him one on one about the wines, and get his opinion.  Peter loved the 2006 and thinks it's going to be great!  Which for us was great to hear. The first non-biased opinion on our 2nd vintage!  I tend to agree, but of course, I am a little biased!!

A Little Cellar Work

Grape sludge.  That's the name of the game when you rack wines.  Racking is basically transferring wine from one vat to another in order to remove the lees (or small particles of grape solids that have settled out) from the bottom of the vat.  This is usually done a couple of times a year depending on the state of the wine.  I racked all of our wines last week.  We have one vat that had finished it's malolactic fermentation and another which is still plugging along, but it was time to remove the lees from both. So, I went to it.  Once the vat is nearly empty you open the door to this wonderful grapey sludge! It's so beautiful. A neighbor stopped by while I was covered in grape gunk and cleaning out the vat. She was amazed by the beautiful color of the lees. She even told me that she'd like to have a sweater that color! Now the wines are all back in their original vats with a little bit of S02 to protect them as they rest throughout the winter... well, if you can call it winter. We've had a very warm winter. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 70s. The ski areas have next to no snow. Last week it was raining in Chamonix! Talk about a disaster for the ski areas. 

Anyway, back to the lees... When I lived in Burgundy I remember my friends at the restaurant "Les Millésimes" in Gevrey-Chambertin going to one of the local producers to get some lees to make a special sauce.  I just did a search on "recettes au lies de vin" and it came up with many including: foie gras, quail, and rabbit. I'm sure there are many more.  Unfortunately with all of these tastings, and pruning going on, I didn't have time to make any special dinners. Now the lees are just sitting in a big plastic barrel waiting to be picked up by the distillery where they will be made into some delicious industrial alcohol.  It's a shame, they would probably make a hell of a grappa! Maybe next year we'll try to find someone with a still....

Tasting, tasting and more tasting!

The Bettane & Desseauve tastings have started up again. The past two days I've had the pleasure of tasting with Thierry Desseauve.  Along with Guillaume Puzot, another colleague, we tasted yesterday at the new appellation of Vinsobres.  It's the northern most appellation of the Côtes du Rhône and the wines definitely reflect this.  The appellation is just outside of the town of Nyons, famous for it's olive oil, at an average altitude of 325m  (about 1000 ft). The wines have a freshness about them that isn't present in some of the more southern appellations. 

After the Vinsobres tasting we moved on to the wines that Guillaume had selected from the appellations of Beaumes de Venise and Gigondas.  The wines from Gigondas were particularly impressive. We ended up with more wines and producers than we thought we would have.  The 2004s are really quite good. They have great structure and lots of fruit, while maintaining good acidity.  They are definitely worth checking out.  2005 is going to be a great vintage too. It's a little harder to taste right now because most of the wines were still tank samples, not yet in bottle.  Lots to look forward to in the southern Rhône!

After finishing up there we headed back to my house for a great dinner prepared by Matt! Then, we kept on tasting.  We had to taste all of the wines I selected from my previous tastings... well, we didn't finish them all as it got too late, so we had to finish up this morning! At 9 am we were at it again. Just after breakfast is often the best time to taste wine. Your palate is fresh, no funky tastes yet, well, that is if you brush your teeth before you eat breakfast! That way you get rid of the toothpaste taste in your mouth too!

American Wine Blog Awards

Hey everyone, Tom Wark at Fermentation is sponsoring the first annual American Wine Blog Awards. The nominations opened today, there are 6 categories:
Best Wine Blog
Best Winery Blog
Best Wine Podcast or Video Blog
Best Graphics on a Wine Blog
Best Review Wine Blog
Best Single Subject Wine Blog
Best Wine Blog Writing

Did you see the second one? Best Winery Blog??? I am hoping to be nominated thanks to all of you who follow along! Nominations close January 18th so think about which wine blogs you like the best and go vote!

How far will you go to get La Gramière?

I received this email the other day from some wonderful people who I met last year.  We spent a great day winetasting together and have kept in touch through the blog.  Here's what Marianne Levenson went through to get a case of La Gramière in South Carolina!  I can't thank her enough! How very flattering... Cheers to all of the wonderful people in their group!

Happy New Year Amy!

Well, after a lot of phone calls and effort, a case of Domaine de la Gramiere arrived today.

I started trying to get a case after you posted on your blog to contact "your Kermit Lynch distributor". Well, there is one in Charleston, SC.   After several phone calls to them, a salesman finally called me back to inform me that they would not be adding any new wines until after the first of the year.  I told him I didn't need him to add any new wines, only to get me just one case of your wine.  Well, that fell on deaf ears!

So then I contacted Nick at Boulder Wine and Spirits.  He was very nice, but told me that he could not ship to SC.  So I asked him about Tennessee (where my parents live) or NC since we are only about 15 miles from the state line.  Well all of these states seem to be problems.  So he asked me if I knew anyone in Boulder.  He said that he could pack it for shipping and then they could pick it up and take it to UPS as a private shipper and ship it to me.  Well, I was in luck, a friend's daughter lives in Ft.  Collins and her fiance works in Boulder.  I contacted them and they were willing.

They picked it up and took it to UPS.  When UPS asked about the contents of the package, they innocently told them wine, at which time they were told that you can't ship wine to SC.  I am patiently waiting here for my case of wine so that I can give it as Christmas presents to our France travelling companions and other friends.  When the 22nd rolls around and I still have no wine, I call my friend's daughter who casually says, "Oh, I guess I should have called you to tell you what was going on and now it is in my car which is buried under 3 feet of snow."  At that point I could have cried.  But on Dec 26 I received an email from her that she had taken the package back to UPS ( I don't know what she told them was in the package) and it was on its way!!  And it arrived today.  I had hoped that it might miraculously arrive prior to New Year's Eve as we were getting together with the other couples and a few more and then we could take a picture with all of us enjoying our Cotes du Rhone, but that will have to wait a few weeks as the Ellises left today for Egypt!

We had to take our new dog to obedience classes tonight, so we weren't able to open a bottle and enjoy it.  But we will open a bottle one night this week for sure.

Oh, by the way, I downloaded a picture of your rose from your blog and copied it to give as IOU's for Christmas presents!!

I hope that you have a Happy and Prosperous 2007!! Keep on blogging I enjoy following your progress!

Best wishes,

Marianne Levenson

Conway, SC

Bonne Année! Meilleures Voeux!

Happy New Year and Best Wishes!  That's what it translates to.  In France people send New Years cards, not Christmas cards, they also pick up the telephone and call their long lost friends to wish them a Happy and Prosperous New Year.  I truly think some people sit down with their address books and go down the list leaving messages of good cheer for their friends and family.  Isn't that a wonderful tradition?  Yesterday we had lunch over at our friend Christiane's and the phone didn't stop ringing. We've gotten several emails and phone calls from friends over the last few days. Today we got a call from my friend Franck's parents.  When I was 17 years old I came to France on a one-month exchange program and stayed with Franck and his family in Pontarlier which is in north-eastern France not far from Switzerland.  Franck's dad Serge just called to say hello and wish us the best for the new year, we only chatted about 5 minutes, but that's all it takes.  What a wonderful way to start out the new year!  Happy New Year everyone!

Holiday travels and tastings...

Well, I'm back everyone, after almost 2 weeks of being on the road and not at my computer.  Sorry for the gap in my posts! While in Colorado I did a couple of fun wine events.  The first was for the Colorado Springs Excecutive Club. Jim Little and Peggy McKinlay of Coaltrain are members and every year they do some sort of tasting at the last meeting before Christmas.  I gave my very first speech in front of 150+ people! It was pretty easy though since my dad prepared a slide show of all the great photos you see on the site from harvest, vinification, pruning etc, and I just talked my way through them.  Since I'm so chatty, I ran over, but oh well, we had a great tasting even though it was 7:30 am! Also on hand at this event was Jason Huntley of Waters Winery in Walla Walla, Washington.  He is the founder of the winery and poured their 2004 Syrah which was mighty tasty!

The next evening after everyone dug out from the big blizzard Matt and I spent a few hours at Coaltrain greeting people who were interested in meeting us.  In all truth, it was mostly family friends that turned up, but there were a few very nice people who braved the weather and were truly excited to meet us and buy the wine.  While we were there, they even ran out! They saying that it was back in stock though, so don't worry there's still some available. hadn't received their deliver thanks to the snow. I got an email just the other day from someone

While visiting Matt's family in Minnesota, we also were invited to Matt's mom's neighbor's house to taste the wine with some of our biggest local fans; ie: the neighbors! We've gotten them hooked on the blog and now on the wine, maybe we'll even get them to come pick grapes with us next fall! So many thanks to the Doherty's and the Lawton's for supporting La Gramière!

There's lots of fun things coming up, so be sure to check back, I'll get back in the swing of things now...