la gramiere

Fixing our mistakes....

We've been spending some time in the vineyards walking down the rows, looking for things that we forgot to prune, for ones low down on the vine that we forgot to cut and also for those super annoying sprouts that come out of root stock.  The weather here has been quite unst able, beautiful and sunny one day then pouring down rain the next.  There has been hail in several areas, in the Ventoux and Gigondas the ground was apparently covered with tiny bits of ice, it looked as if it had snowed one vigneron said.  Sunday it rained hard all day, and I mean all day, it was incredible.  Then luckily Monday came with sun and wind to dry things out.  Hopefully it stays that way for awhile now.  We're going to do our first copper/sulfur application this weekend, it's on the early side, better safe than sorry.  Meanwhile I'll be keeping an eye out  for those vines  that need a second look!    Next week I'll start suckering which is by far my least favorite thing to do in the vineyards, but this year I think it will be better as I have finally learned how ot download pod casts onto my ipod!  Now I have Terry Gross and this American Life to help me pass the time!

Inspiring Thirst - The Blog!

Just wanted to let you all know that there's a new blog out there that is a must-read for me, and certainly it will become that for you too.  The team at Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, our US importer, has just started a blog, called Inspiring Thirst, named after Kermit's most recent book.  This is a blog that you won't want to miss!  For me it's a wonderful reminder of my 3 years working in the store and of our many, many tastings at the store after hours.  Each time a new container of wine arrived from France Kermit would have the warehouse bring up a bottle of each wine that had just arrived, from an everyday Vin de Table all the way up the ladder to Grand Cru Raveneau.  It was a such an amazing education and a time in my life that I will always remember fondly.  Now you too can have a glimpse of this very unique place in the world of wine, there's no other store in the world like it. 

If my assumptions are correct the man behind the creation of the blog and most of its posts is Clark Terry, a dedicated wine blog reader, but as you can imagine, nothing happens in Berkeley without the approval of Kermit himself!  I'm hoping that even he will write a post from time to time!  Hope you enjoy it as much as I am, those guys definitely know how to Inspire Thirst!

Annual Tavel Tasting - with Michel Bettane!

It's that time of year again, crunch time!  I have 10 days to finish the tastings and write-ups for the Bettane & Desseauve Grand Guide des Vins de France.  So I've been spending my days going over my notes from all of the tastings I've already done, tasting more wines from producers that have sent more samples and doing some last minute vineyard visits.  For some reason every year I write about my visit to Tavel, and this year will be no different.  Namely because this year Michel Bettane came down from Paris to participate in the tasting with me. 

Having Michel Bettane come to visit an appellation is no small event, he is one of the top ten, if not five, if not 3 wine tasters in the world.  Every time I taste with him I come away in awe of his amazing ability to evaluate wines in a very fair, honest and straightforward manner.  Tasting with Bettane in an appellation that is far from the uppity, high-pressure tastings of Grand Crus in other regions is a real treat because you get to see the his real personality come through.  Over lunch at the lovely restaurant "La Genestière"  in Tavel joined by several vignerons from the appellation and by Sandra Gay their public relations agent, Bettane told the story of his first visit to Tavel 25 years ago.  He visited the monks at Château de Manissy and fell in love with their rosé which, at the time, was aged in large old oak casks.  This type of élevage, Bettane insisted, made for a rosé with more depth and amplitude than today's rosés that are virtually all made in stainless steel or concrete vats.  He encouraged the winemakers present, not to change their styles, but to try making a small amount in the old style to sell as a limited production "reserve"  cuvée.  Doesn't hurt to experiment, right?

For the tasting of the 2008 vintage we were joined by Richard Maby from Domaine Maby who is president of the appellation of Tavel and Guillaume Demoulin of Château de Trinquevedel, who is in charge of tastings for the local growers union.  Being that it is a fairly small appellation and that wineries generally one produce one Tavel rosé we only had 30 wines to taste.  That meant that there was no hurry and we could all take our time and taste the wines together.  It was a very pleasant atmosphere with Bettane tasting next to me, discussing the wines while I took notes and gave scores to the wines since it is my responsibility to write the section on Tavel for the guide.

At the end of the tasting we got to chatting about how well Tavel rosés can age (amazingly they age quite well)  and before we knew it both Richard and Guillaume produced older bottles.  We tasted a 91 Maby that was still quite alive, notes of grass and what they call in French "feuilles mortes"  or dead leaves, not really a bad thing though it doesn't sound all that great, what was really surprising though, is that the wine still had a nice freshness, it wasn't oxidized in the least.  Then Guillaume brought out an 89 and 1970 Trinquevedel, one that his grandfather had made!  The 1970 was really quite a lesson in aging rosé, it's not something that you'd want to drink every day, but it was not dead, far from it in fact.  The wine was a deep coppery color, and there were notes of orange peel, minerals, caramel and walnuts.  It  was very similar to a Tawny Port, save the fact that it was dry.  We all decided that it would be great accompaniment to a walnut tart that was not super sweet, with just a hint of sugar.  What a special treat to have the opportunity to taste these rare wines!

There you have it, yet another amazing day in Tavel.  There's something magical every time I go there, I can't wait to see what next year has in store for me!

A very good feeling!

As you can see from these pictures we finally finished pruning everything this weekend.  We had just the  mourvèdre left, which we always leave until the end.  My brother-in-law  Billy was here again, and lucky him, he got to finish it up for us, all by himself while Matt and I were plowing and spraying our magic concoction of goat milk whey, fresh cow manure, clay and basalt on the vines.  That was this year's recipe for the bio-dynamic pruning past.  Hopefully it will do the trick, and keep the mildew spores from propagating on the vines since it was a very wet winter and there were plenty of spores left out there from last year.  The weather here has been beautiful, but also wet, we're expecting more rain throughout the next week, the bud are just starting to burst, and we're seeing the first leaves opening up.

 Matt has been spending a lot of time getting things in order, making sure the sprayer works, fiddling around with various things that have been forgotten over the winter, and playing with his new tractor. We actually had both the tractors out last weekend, which was great!  I'm trying to get used to driving the new one, I have to admit, I'd rather be on the 63 Massey, it's so familiar, but the new one is certainly more powerful, and definitely more adapted to the work we'll be using it for.  At least we can use the Massey to plough, and during harvest for sure! 

 This is always a very busy time, often leaving Matt frustrated that he doesn't have more time to dedicate to the vineyards, but unfortunately, La Gramière doesn't yet pay the bills, so he has to continue to balance his day job at Cisco Systems with all of the pressures of the vines.  Everyone is saying that we'll need to treat early this year due to the high concentration of mildew last year, so we're trying to get everything ready so that when it's time we can get out there and protect our future grapes!  It's funny, I can't say why, but in my gut, I have the feeling that 2009 is going to be a great year.  Let's hope I'm right!