Here's a little film I took the other morning in our Roussanne vineyard. Lot's of work to do at this time of year, luckily we only have a few vineyards with wires to drop. The rest are "en gobelet" or head pruned or bush vines, whatever you like to call it, but it means that they don't have wires, which I much prefer! That way you can walk across the vineyards in any direction you like, criss-crossing at will! It's much better than having to walk all the way down the row in order to get to the other side, especially if the rows are long, like they are in this vineyard.
May 04, 2011
March 30, 2011
La Gramière chez Garagiste!
We are oh so very proud that today our 2008 is being offered by Jon Rimmerman of www.garagiste.com!! It must have been about a year ago when Eric Asimov of the New York Times wrote an article about inter-state wine shipping featuring Garagiste. Before that I had been missing out on all of Rimmerman's great emails offering wines from far flung corners of the world (the US included), all artisanally produced in small quantities, and all, thanks to Jon's wonderful descriptions, seemingly irresistible! I immediately signed up to receive their mailings, and was just as immediately smitten. Jon has a way of making you want to taste a wine, making you feel as though need to taste a wine. I especially remember an email about a small Swiss winery, that in order to get to it, you had to take a ski-lift to access the property. These are things that make us dream and these are the reasons we love wine, it enables us to discover an in-discoverable place, to taste what we cannot taste at home.
If I lived in the states and could actually order these wines, this is the moment I would thank Jon for making these amazingly obscure wines available to me, but instead, I live in the middle of nowhere in France. Try, just go ahead and try, to get a Swiss wine here in the south of France, not to mention one that was made high up on a mountain top where only the most determined wine lover would persevere to the point of arriving at the winery! Well, thanks to Jon I now have a list of wines that I need, someday, to find, to taste, to drink, to discover. It might be a bit frustrating, but at least I have a goal! Below I have copied the text from the email that Jon sends out to the over 100,000 people on his mailing list. Just one small problem you will notice.... Nowhere does he mention that I (we) have done all of this with the help of my most amazing husband Matt Kling. Matt is well over 50% of this operation, especially on the days when I really would rather let the vines grow wild and run away to Paris. So please, please, please remember that my dear, dear Matt has given his heart and soul to this project as much as I have!!
Many many thanks to David Honig of Palate Press, who first tasted our 2008 told me that this was just the kind of wine that Garagiste would love... To Alice Feiring who sent the email that put me in the hot seat and in touch with Jon in the first place! And to Jon Rimmerman for liking the wine, and for his willingness to take a chance on us!!
Yippee!
So if you're one of the many people who have emailed me over the past year asking where you can get our wine, here's your chance! You're especially lucky if you live in Seattle, then you can just go pick it up when it arrives!!
Below is the Gargiste email sent out today:
La Gramière
Dear Friends,
If you’ve ever considered throwing caution to the wind, abandoning your correct/acceptable life and picking up and moving to France, let today’s inspirational siren be your guide...Amy Lillard, a “modern meets traditional” woman who also happens to be one of the top up and coming voices of organic viticulture in the emerging district of Saint Quentin la Poterie.
Long-time Garagiste Email List members will recall my excitement over this region to the west and across the Rhone from Chateauneuf-du-Pape. A loosely knit group of hamlets that stretch from Uzes to Bagnols (that can reach as far north as Vinezac in the Ardeche, where Garagiste favorite Mas de Bagnols hails from). Here, the base elevation is higher, the vineyards are more rugged and the Mercedes and Porsche bandwagon stays on the other side of the Rhone. This area remains untouched in many ways with old-vine Rhone varietals that have flourished untamed by the designs of man but the terroir and profuse minerality in the soil are begging to be bottled.
With far easier routes to call home, one wonders how Any Lillard decided to plant her future in this untapped zone. Call it a beacon or a feeling, but the first time she stepped foot on the land, the warmth of home fell over her and the decision was already made. Have you ever been somewhere for the first time but it feels as though you’ve always been there or were meant to stay? That’s what I'm talking about, but most of us only relish it for a few hours or few days while on vacation (and dream of making it real) - Amy actually picked up her boot-straps and set out to call La Gramière home...
That was nearly ten years ago and the toil, tears and flat-out grueling work (picture Under the Tuscan Sun meets La Remise) have resulted in a wine that is nothing short of exhilarating. It is the Southern essence of its place and of its vintage (in this case, a surprisingly full and delineated 2008). From Grenache and Syrah, raised only in traditional cement vats, nothing was added to this wine and nothing was taken away. It smells and tastes of the sage-brush hillsides that dot the Mediterranean coast of France and I’ve even nick-named it “Airwick Amy” for it’s ability to permeate the room with its kirsch and lavender whiff. It is such an unforced expression with very fine, feminine tannins but it also knows when to allow the rock fruit and masculine palate coverage this region provides come to the fore. The alcohol is moderate (13.8%) and the vibrant framework is pure and alive. The best word I can use to sum up the experience one receives from this wine is: honest.
La Gramière is one of the most exciting new properties in the South of France. The 2008 La Gramière “La Gramière” is a natural wine for all of us – a wine that proves organic and BIO are not symbols of a college town cooperative but a symbol of “right here right now”. A symbol that means something.
Thanks Amy.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for integrity of expression bred of bright flavors and colors that are like a well-earned respite of fresh-from-the-garden cooking after too many nights of fast food...
This parcel is directly from the winery cellar with perfect provenance:
2008 La Gramière “La Gramière” - $17.98
(this wine is VERY RARE – one small shipment only)
Please give us your maximum number up to 12/person and we will allocate accordingly
To order: [email protected]
This parcel is set to depart the cave – it will arrive in the late spring (please check OARS for local pick-up after May 15th). It will ship during the Fall shipping season (unless moderate weather allows us to ship in late May). While delicious today, be sure to uncork the wine and allow it to breath for several hours, it is no hurry of consumption - drink 2012-2016+.
Out of state orders will be held for free under ideal storage conditions (56 degrees/70%humidity) until shipping is possible. Locals may pick up at their leisure.
For current local pick up and arrival/ship information, please see your OARS link below (at the bottom of this offer) - don’t know how to access your OARS? Simply click the link and see your account. You can also paste the link into your browser. If you are having trouble with your link or your account, please contact: [email protected]
NO SALES TO RETAILERS OR WHOLESALERS
Thank you,
Jon Rimmerman
Garagiste
Seattle, WA
Loire5770
To view the status of your orders in O.A.R.S click here <http://garagistewine.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=56d65bf1a116c6344d5846def&id=6a6780530a&e=7ecea964a7>
***
Please note our new return policy-
If you are dissatisfied with your purchase for any reason, please call our toll free number 888-264-0053 or email us within 7 days of original invoice receipt and we will credit or exchange: [email protected]
We adhere to these strict policies
Up to 7 days of email invoice receipt: we accept all returns.
7-21 days after email invoice receipt: any invoiced order cancelled will incur a 25% restocking/cancellation fee and this includes pre-arrival orders. After 21 days of receipt of email invoice (not the actual wine): we will accept no returns.
If the wine is flawed/corked then please let us know as soon as possible - we will resolve the issue with your best interest in mind. Flawed wine does not mean "I don't like it".
While we do everything in our power to insure your wine is of the finest stock available in the world, WINE PURCHASED THAT IS OLDER THAN 10 YEARS IS NOT GUARANTEED IN ANY WAY.
***
For extra tasting notes, news and updates follow us on Twitter <http://garagistewine.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=56d65bf1a116c6344d5846def&id=739b15a8da&e=7ecea964a7>
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Garagiste is located at 707 S. Lander St., Seattle WA 98134
------ End of Forwarded Message
January 01, 2011
December 09, 2010
November 26, 2010
November 23, 2010
Chiots Hovawart non LOF à réserver! Hovawart puppies!!
Daisy et Elmo, deux magnifiques Hovawarts en pleine forme, sont les heureux parents de 8 bébés nés le 20 novembre, 2010. 5 noir et feu dont 3 males et 2 femelles, et 3 blonds dont 1 male et 2 femelles.
Le papa Elmo et la maman Daisy sont deux chiens superbes, plein d’énergie et de caractère, qui vivent avec nous en famille. Jamais confirmé, mais les deux proviennent de parents LOF avec des origines différentes, donc sans croisement sanguin. Les chiots seront vendus vacciné et avec une puce électronique et seront disponible autour du 20 janvier. Prix €600 (si LOF vendu €950) Ne tardez pas à nous contacter, 2 sont déjas réservés!
04.66.57.22.13
Daisy and Elmo, two beautiful, healthy Hovawarts, are the happy parents of 8 puppies born November 20, 2010. There are five black and tan (3 male, 2 female) and 3 blonds (one male and 2 females).
The parents are two beautiful dogs, full of energy and personnality, who are like our own children. The two were never confirmed so they don't have pure bred status, but they are both from pure bred parents of different origins so there's not chance of inbreeding. The puppies will be sold chipped and vaccinated and will be available around the 20th of January. Price €600 (pure bred price €950). Don't wait to contact us we've got lots of interest in them! We are more than happy to answer any questions you may have!
Elmo (papa) 3 mois Daisy (maman) 2 mois
November 17, 2010
September 03, 2010
August 17, 2010
August 16, 2010
August 14, 2010
August 13, 2010
July 05, 2010
June 02, 2010
May 17, 2010
April 27, 2010
La Gramière goes Naked!
Last November while attending the European Wine Bloggers Conference in Lisbon, I met a crazy guy named Rowan Gormley who runs a company called Naked Wines that imports and sells wine via the internet in the UK. When I mentioned that we didn't have distribution yet in the UK he looked at me and said, "Well, let's do it then." Right there on the spot without even tasting the wines. I thought he was nuts!
We all went back to home and to work and I sort of forgot about Naked Wines, but then say Rowan on Twitter and "followed" him. Next thing I know he sent me a message saying simply; "hi Amy, let's taste your wines." So when Matt and I were over in the UK last week, we took the train up to Norwich for the day to taste with Rowan and his staff. By the end of our 2-hour meeting, we had worked out the details, and by the time Matt and I were back at my sister's in the London area, our wines were already being offered on the Naked Wines website!
The concept is a great one. They have, like any traditional wine retailer a warehouse with stock that they ship out to their regular customers at regular retail prices, but the also have a pre-order program where customers pre-order the wines at a significant discount and then when the wines arrive they are immediately shipped out. That way there's no excessive mark-ups, sales costs, storage costs etc. The wine goes directly to the consumer with a small percentage going to Naked Wines. And guess what, it works! Their business is growing by leaps and bounds, the website is interactive, customers leave their opinions and scores for the wines right on the site. It's a social-media driven virtual wine shop! Click here to read our profile on their site!
Naked wines is offering a 6-bottle sampler pack of every wine we've made to date it will include the following:
1 - 2005 Côtes du Rhône Rouge
1- 2006 La Gramière Rouge (Vin de Table)
2- 2007 La Gramière Rouge (Vin de Table) 2 because it was Rowan's favorite!
1- 2007 La Gramière "Peter's Vineyard Syrah"
1- 2007 Lauzettes - Special Limited Edition bottling 100% Grenache (only 400 bottles made!)
So if there are any of you in the UK that have been following this blog, you can now get our wines at a really great price!
April 21, 2010
Hello, it's been awhile...
No excuses, that's boring, and you've heard them all before. So, if there's anyone still out there....
Here's a bit of a recap of the past two months:
Vinisud: we participated in this big southern French wine trade show for the first time, sharing a stand
with our friends from Clos de Trias. It was quite an experience, we met lots of great people and made some good contacts, and saw lots of good friends who were also showing their wines at the show. Our stand was in a great spot, but when you see the size of Chapoutier's huge...I don't even know what to call it, it's almost a building inside the fair, we certainly felt kind of small! But that didn't stop lots of interesting people from coming by to taste our wines!
Then there's pruning, of course! We just finished
last week with the help over the past few months from lots of family and friends. Our friend Gaspard Aïchelé aged 15 spent several Saturdays with us, the Swiss contingent came down from Neuchâtel, Matt's mom Joan came from Minnesota, and then on the last big weekend my whole family was lucky enough to join us!
We've rented 2 new parcels of grenache from the people who originally sold us our vineyards, and we are very excited about that. They are both in beautiful condition, the vines are 40-50 years old and we expect to get some great grapes out of them. The Ecocert organic certification organization was here yesterday to register their official conversion to organics. We will also be ripping out about 1.5 hectares of vineyards under a grant from the EU, they are offering €11,000 per hectare to help people tear out vineyards that are in need of replanting. Our mourvèdre vineyard has a fungus called Esca which attacks the vines and eventually kills them and is producing less and less each year. The Syrah vineyard that we rent is also in need of some TLC so we decided to tear out half of it this year and half of it next year. Finally we decided to replant part of our largest Grenache vineyard due to a root-rot problem!! Seems like a lot but, we thought we should take advantage of the EU funds while we can. It will also give us an opportunity to plant some other varietals like Cinsault, Rolle (Vermentino) and maybe even some Clairette Gris, along with new Syrah and Grenache plantings. Since we are going to be tearing the vines out, we didn't prune them, which just doesn't look right when you arrive at the vineyard!
Now we're headed full force into spring and all of the work that there is to do in the vineyards!! I'll try to be good and keep you up to date! (once again, for those interested I often post short snippets and photos on Facebook and sometimes I even tweet so you can follow me there too! La Gramière on FB and lagramiere on Twitter!
February 02, 2010
A trip to the Printer, an Eco-Printer!
In five years we've now had 3 different printers, but I think I've now found one we'll stick with! Last year we switched because I received an email from a group that was certified "Imprim'Vert" which is an eco certification that guarantees that the print shop recycles everything, from inks to papers to cleaning solutions, etc. My contact was a sales rep that I never actually met, and the actual print shop was near Carcassonne!! Not exactly nearby. They did a fine job, and I really didn't have any complaints, but I also didn't have any reason to go back to them.
This year, during my visit to Sitevi, which I told you about in an earlier post, I FINALLY found a printer that has recycled label paper!!! Last year, when I was ordering my labels the rep said that I would have to place an enormous order in order for him to be able to justify recycled paper. At Sitevi, just by chance my friend Serge and I stopped at a small printer's booth who was also certified "Imprim'Vert", and lo and behold, they said, that they had recycled paper, in two different colors!!! Yahoo!!!! So this year, the rep from "Imprimerie Estrabols" actually came to our house, showed us the paper samples, talked through our design issues, and amazingly, we had a new eco-printer!
Last week we were finally ready to print after numerous changes and final tweaks to the designs. They suggested that I come to the shop to OK the colors as they were printing the labels to be sure that I was happy with the outcome. The recycled paper we are using is a mat finish as opposed to the shiny paper we used for the previous 2 vintages, so the color would surely come out differently. We were also printing a new label that is burgundy-colored, so they wanted to make sure that I was happy with it too.
When I showed up they had the Burgundy colored label on the machine, and the color wasn't bad, but you could barely see the leaf-motif in the back ground, this would not do. So they asked the art department to make a new plate with a higher definition for the artwork. On the second try it was way too pronounced, and ended up looking pink! So we split the difference and it was perfect. Now to print the 3000 labels. (The photo shows the variations in image definition.)
Then on to the green label. After the press was cleaned, I got to watch as Jean-Claude the man in charge of both printing my labels, and being my official host, got out the formula for our "La Gramière" green and started mixing. He filled the printer and started it up. On the new paper, it came out looking too blue. So he started adding more yellow, 100 grams at a time. After two attempts, he just decided to slap a big blob of yellow ink in the printer, and it came out perfectly! He said they used to do it all by trial and error, now they used scales and percentages. Just goes to show, sometimes you should just follow your instincts!
In the end I was there for over 2 hours watching, waiting and learning about the printing process. It's shocking to see how many labels are wasted, as many, if not more than I had ordered!! It's the same at every printer, that's why it's so important to me to have found one that takes recycling and the environment seriously. I still wish I could have found someone who does recycled paper and vegetable-based inks, but apparently for wine labels, the vegetable-based inks aren't stable enough, they tend to fade. I'm sure they'll continue to improve and in a few years I'll be telling you all about our recycled paper, vegetable-based ink labels, but for now you'll have to settle for this.
January 15, 2010
Snow and Pruning 2010!
Well the pruning hasn't gotten off to a stellar start here in southern France. The first weekend of January we were supposed to be out pruning according to the bio-dynamic calendar, but I had a nasty cold, and Matt wasn't feeling very well either. The fact that we had two very late wine-filled evenings on the 31st and the 1st didn't help either! Then Monday the 4th it rained all day, Tuesday the vineyards were too muddy, or so I told myself!
So finally on Wednesday the 6th my parents and I finally got out there to start the 2010 pruning. We started in the Clairette vineyard and then moved on to the Roussanne on Thursday after we finished there. It was cold and cloudy and they were predicting snow!
Friday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland, the likes I have yet to see in southern France! Being from Colorado I was thrilled! It was cold and windy and it snowed all day. We ventured out twice with the dogs, they of course loved it! We also walked up to the usually booming Friday market only to find 3 courageous people who had braved the elements to set up their stalls. By Saturday morning the snow had stopped but the temps had dropped overnight to -5 degrees C, so the snow wasn't melting. Typically it snows once a year down here, but the next day everything is gone. Not the case this year. Even the Saturday market in Uzès was deserted! Now that is ultra rare. It was great though because everyone was out, smiling at the snow, making snowmen, sledding and having snowball fights.
Sunday, after having spent 2 days cooped up inside we decided to head out and prune for awhile even if it was still freezing and there was still over 6 inches of snow on the ground. Thanks to the hunters we made it back up the dirt road to the Roussanne and had the most magical afternoon pruning in the snow.
Here's a slide show of all the fun we had! Enjoy!
December 17, 2009
Happy Happy Merry Merry!
We're off to London for the Holidays! All the best to you and yours!
December 10, 2009
A visit to Sitevi - Playground for winemakers and wine growers!
Last week was the bi-annual trade show called SITEVI (not sure what that stands for to be honest!). It's a huge event, farmers and winemakers come from all over southern Europe to check out the latest in farming equipment and winemaking equipment. I went for the first time this year with my friend Serge Scherrer who also has a small winery in our village. I swear it's like Disneyland for farmers! Anything you can dream of is there, and many things you never would have even imagined.
As always these things are a bit of a catch 22, because you see so many things that you want or "need" and that you truly can't afford. Serge and I looked at a brand new GAI bottling line that bottles 1000 bottles per hour, which isn't a lot, perfect for our size, I can't remember the exact price but it was somewhere around €30,000. We'd have to sell a whole lot of wine to justify that kind of investment! But it's lots of fun to look around to see what is out there.
We saw a very cool demonstration of a mechanical weed eater, similar to the , but it does both sides at once. It's certainly not as powerful as the Weedbadger, but it seemed to get the job done. There were lots and lots of tractors, you could feel the testosterone as you entered the pavilion! Burly guys drooling over the latest and greatest. We even saw a brand new John Deere, but it didn't really appeal to me, I'm old fashioned, I only dream of the vintage models!
Then we moved on to the packaging pavilion. Screw caps, labels, boxes, corks, glass. Everything you can imagine. It was fun to look at the designs that wineries are using, colors, logos, creative solutions for everything wine related.
Amazingly we walked around to what we thought were all of the different pavilions, but forgot to visit the winemaking area!! We missed all of the pumps, presses, tanks, filters, barrel makers and who knows what else. It's probably for the best though, who knows what expensive ideas that might have put in our heads...
There's always next time!
November 26, 2009
Barrels, barrels, barrels
People often ask me why we don't age more of our wine in barrels, well the answer is two, maybe three
fold. First and foremost, I am not a fan of oak. There's nothing worse that tasting a young wine that has lots of personality and depth, only to be ruined by a winemaker that decided it needed a good dash of oak on the finish. Ugh. I much prefer to taste a pure expression of the fruit and terroir of a wine than the toast and tannins of a certain cooperage.
Secondly though and most importantly, I really don't like dealing with barrels. In the tiny space we have to keep our 4 barrels, it's nearly impossible to move around. We aren't equipped with the latest in barrel management programs, stacking systems or cleaning implements. So usually it means that when the barrels need to be racked, emptied or cleaned, I spend a couple of days struggling to get the job done. The barrels are located on the top of some ancient concrete vats that we don't use, about 15 feet above the level of the main part of the winery. Think of it as a mezzanine. We have a big ladder to climb up to access this level, but no way of getting the pump up there. This means that two hoses have to be linked together because the longest one is about 6 inches too short to reach!! When we purchased our pump there was a remote control option but since we have such a small area to worked in, it didn't seem necessary. Now I wish we had gotten it! Picture this: the hoses and barrel filling apparatus all attached and ready to go, tank valve open, I am 15 feet below the barrels with no way to check the level of the wine from down there. So I start the pump let it go for a few minutes, then have to climb up to see where the level is, climb back down, turn the pump back on, and so on and so forth. Until the moment when the barrel fills up, at this point I've either stopped before it was entirely full and will finish filling it with a funnel and buckets of wine, or I didn't stop in time and the wine rushes out in a veritable geyser, hitting the ceiling and running down the walls. Not delightful.
Then there's emptying and cleaning them, ugh, trying (usually alone) to empty all of the wine and lees out of them is nearly impossible and a complete exercise in frustration. See those planks in the background of the above picture? I was trying to roll the barrel up onto some planks and then roll in onto a tub that would catch the remainder of the wine left in the barrel, only to realize that there wasn't enough left in there to make it worth my while. Then, there's cleaning them, I'm not even going to get into that one!!
Barrel maintenance is not my favorite activity in the winery. So, you ask, why have any at all? Well
that's a good question. Now in our 5th year we've been making just one wine each year, which I think is the right thing for a winery of our size, but we want to experiment a bit, to see what the effects of longer aging can be on our wine, to see if the slow oxygen exchange that happens in barrels can benefit a small percentage of our wine which will then either be blended back into the main wine, or maybe bottled seperately, we'll see. So, I just ordered and received two more barrels this week. One year old Burgundy barrels from Damy that were reconditioned at the tonnellerie (cooperage), and look like new. The barrel we used for our white was also from Damy, and I love the quality of the oak. Our 2009 syrah is just beautiful, so I will be curious to see how a small amount of it will evolve in oak.
I'm not looking forward to dealing with those barrels though!!!
November 12, 2009
Amazing bloggers, new faces and old...
Last weekend I was in Lisbon, Portugal for the 2nd Annual European Wine Bloggers Conference, better known as the EWBC. Many of you will remember I went to the first EWBC last year in Logroño, Spain, well, I decided I'd better check out round two! Especially since it was in Lisbon, a place I've always wanted to visit. Well, I got to see some of Lisbon, but there's much, much more to see, mostly I met loads of interesting people, and got the chance to reconnect with the friends I made last year.
The event more than doubled in size this year thanks to the heroic efforts of our hosts Gabriella and Ryan Opaz and Robert McIntosh. 120 plus bloggers from all over the US and Europe gathered in Lisbon at the hotel VIP Grand Lisboa for 3 days of fun, oh and some serious learning, of course! A huge thank you goes out to our many sponsors who included: Vini Portugal, The Douro Boys, Catalunya DO, Vinhos do Alentejo, Amorim, L'and Vineyards and many others!! They helped make the conference a wonderful success.
But the best part of the conference is meeting the people behind the blogs! For those of us who participated last year it was like a high school reunion, meeting up with what seemed like old friends. We formed a bond over those three days last year, and it was such fun to catch up with everyone a year later! Then of course, there were loads of new faces. A fair number of Brits showed up from both the food and the wine blogging world. It was interesting to have some wine neo-phytes join in and give their perspectives on the whole thing.
I figured the best thing I could do for my readers is introduce you to some of my favorite people from the conference and their blogs and/or websites. These are people I enjoyed meeting, discovering their blogs and their passions. I'm sure I forgot someone, so if you're curious you can see the entire list of participants here.
Oscar Quevedo: www.quevedoportwine.com - Oscar was referred to as Port wine's pin-up boy, and you can see why. His personnality is as engaging as his smile, there's nothing not to like here. He is a dedicated blogger, and if you enjoy my blog, I think you'll like his as well.
The Adegga Boys www.adegga.com - André Ribeirinho, Emidio Santos and André Cid are the guys behind Adegga.com and the ones responsible for keeping us all online throughout the conference. When the hotel's wifi connection couldn't cut it, they found a solution. Adegga is an online "social wine discovery" site where can track wines that you like, see wines that friends like and do oh so many more things. My description doesn't do it justice. But every time I see them present it, I think that they are geniuses, so I've asked them to make a short video to describe how to use it so that when you sign up you can see just how smart these guys are, and just how useful this site can be!
Ryan and Gabriella Opaz www.catavino.net They hardly need an introduction anymore, as organizers of the conference and the most ardent proponents of wine blogs and social media out there. They are doing by far the most innovative stuff out there as far as social media is concerned. As we speak they are live blogging from the Wine Future conference in Logroño, Spain, and creating even more of a buzz than the conference itself!!
Wine on the Rocks, Finkus Bripp, www.wineontherocks.com This is a newcomer to the blogging world having just launched his video blog in September. I am in love with this blog and can't wait for more episodes to be posted!! These guys have some serious talent for video editing, music selection and Finkus has a great on camera presence, this blog will go far if they can find the time to keep it going! Don't miss this one guys!!
Rocio Osborne www.rocioosborne.wordpress.com Yes, she is a real Osborne, as in Osborne sherry, Rocio writes a very engaging blog recounting her travels and adventures as she becomes more involved with her family's company.
Melanie Tarlant www.champagne-blog.com The brother-sister duo of Melanie and Benoit Tarlant have been on the blogging scene ever since I can remember and they maintain their blog in both French and English. From harvest to pressing, to blending and bottling they are avid bloggers and lots of fun to follow on their blog and on Facebook. It should also be noted that Mélanie can really get down on the dance floor, she put us all to shame on the last evening of the conference!
Voilà just a few of the super interesting wine people that I befriended and discovered at the conference. Sorry to those I didn't have the time and space to include!! I hope you take the time to check out their blogs and discover some of the amazing things that are going on out there in the blogging world!!
October 26, 2009
Hand Made Wine
Every little bit counts right? Well it seems we took that to the extreme this year. Since the weather was beautiful and our Mourvedre seemed to be hanging on, I wanted to leave it as long as possible this year. So we checked it about once a week and it was doing just fine. Then 2 weeks ago when we thought that it was now or never, we realized we had waited a little too long! Ugh. The boars had come through and sampled a fair amount, and then even worse, we had a late out break of grape worms, that ate through quite a few of the bunches!! So Matt and I went back down the next day to salvage what we could, leaving or throwing away quite a bit, which wasn't very much fun. We put the grapes in a plastic bin, crushed them with our feet and hoped that they would start to ferment. In just a couple of days the tell-tale signs of fermentation were there, but the bin was cold, only about 16 degrees C, and I was worried that it would never really take off before turning to vinegar.
I had the brilliant idea of putting an electric blanket underneath the bin, which helped a bit, the temperature started to rise slowly. Then, Matt made my idea even better by surrounding the bin with some old lawn chair cushions so that the whole thing was insultated. Now we were cooking with gas, as they say! The temperature shot up to 27 C and it formed a nice cap that we punched down daily.
Last night we decided to press it off into a barrel since due to the small quantity of wine, there wasn't enough CO2 to kill off the fruit flies and I was having trouble getting rid of them. So, how does one press such a small amount of wine? By hand, of course. Me with my strainer squeezing out each bunch of grapes, Matt with the press mats from our real press, standing on the skins in the bin!! We ended up with a whopping 35 liters!!! It tastes pretty darn good, so I'm glad we did it, but I'm not sure it will make a lot of difference in the final blend!
October 07, 2009
All three colors this year!
I forgot to share the very exciting detail that we have made wine in all three colors this year! Small quantities of white and rosé (500 bottles of white and 700 rosé) but we did it!! The white which is a blend of Roussanne and Clairette (90% Roussanne though) was half fermented in barrel, half in tank. Unfortunately we did end up having to add yeast to it, which I really didn't want to do, but after three days there was no movement at all, and I wasn't willing to take a risk. This year, come hell or high water, we will bottle some white. For those of you who have been reading this blog for a long time, you will remember that we made a barrel of white last year. A barrel. Barrels are tricky, they require more attention than a big concrete vat full of wine. Over the course of a year wine slowly evaporates out of the barrel, so you have to "top it up" every few weeks. Last year when we filled our barrel we had about 30 liters left over that we put into a carboy and several empty wine bottles, so that we could use this wine to top up the barrel. The problem was keeping that leftover wine from oxidizing, and I wasn't very successful. Details are not my strong point, and I would often forget to top up the barrel or I would open the carboy or the bottles to find the wine inside oxidized and not know what to do. In the end we just weren't very satisfied with the wine, the whole barrel was pretty much oxidized in the end. I know many wineries would have bottled it anyway, saying that they were aiming for a richer, nuttier (oxidized) style, but I'm just too honest and I have a hard time pulling that sort of salesmanship off. Most of all, I don't want to have to sell a wine that I, myself wouldn't want to drink! So I'm going to try my best to keep this years as fresh and lively as possible. We even bought a new 500 liter stainless steel vat to keep the half of the white that isn't in barrel in, that way it will be easier to top off the barrel!! (I hope I'm not confusing you!)
As for the rosé, we had a bit more luck, after three days, it took off like lightning, so we didn't have to add any yeast!! Hooray!! I was thrilled. We added a bucket of fermenting red juice and it just took off. It is almost 100% grenache with a few buckets of syrah that I added in to give it a bit more body and color. We picked the grapes early in order to keep the alcohol down and the acidity up. In fact the acidity might be a bit high, so we're thinking we might see if it does it's malo-lactic fermentation to round it out a bit. Usually in the south the malo-lactic is blocked by adding SO2 to keep the wine from becoming flabby, since we often have low acidity. So, we'll see!!! Another experiment, but we have made rosé, it's all gone very well and we will be bottling it this spring!!
September 30, 2009
2009 is in the tanks!
Harvest lasted longer than any other harvest to date. Well, with 5 years now under our belts, that's not a long
.
Once again, we were amazed by the willingness of our friends and family to come out and help. This year the medal goes to my parents' neighbors (John and Jean Buss, Axel and Gerlinda Markert, and Michel Berberian)! They were our core group of pickers this year along with our good friends Lucy Till and Sophie and Gaspard Aichele, who are always our heros and pick as many days as they can! It was once again a very international crowd. We had Germans, English, American, French, Dutch, and a whole gaggle of dogs!
Matt and I are off to Paris for a weekend of fun with my sister and brother-in-law. After that we will hopefully return to our normal programming! Lots of fun events coming up this fall: the European Wine Bloggers Conference in Lisbon, the annual trip to Nurenberg, Germany for K&Us yearly open-house, wine tasting and overall excellent food and wine event, and lots of other fun things I suppose!
September 01, 2009
And the harvest begins!
We've picked the Roussanne and some grenache to make rosé! Not a lot of time to chat right now, but here's some photos and a short video of pressing the Roussanne grapes. Making white is a lot more work for us than making red, our press just isn't that well adapted to pressing fresh grapes. We spent the whole day on Saturday only to get 400 litres of juice. That's not very much!!! We are starting in earnest on Thursday, the weather has cooled off and we only have sunny days ahead of us, so hopefully we'll be able to get it all in by this time next week! I'll try to keep the pictures coming! A big thank you to those who left comments on the last post! It made me realize that there are still people out there reading this blog!!
August 24, 2009
July 31, 2009
This is not Napa - Redux
Lately I have been once again reminded how different winery visits can be in France as opposed other parts of the world. A couple of weeks ago we decided to have an open house and invited two other small producers to join us. I felt like it would be more fun if we had more wines to pour, and that it might attract more people. So we invited our good friend Serge Scherrer who for his first two harvests had less than a hectare of vines. (a hectare is roughly 2.5 acres so he makes miniscule amounts of wine under the label Agarrus) We also invited our friend Carole Leblanc who is from Quebec, she has 4 hectares not far from us, her winery is called "Les Cabotines".
So, we opened up the big iron gates in front of our house, rolled a barrel out onto the little island across the street, put a sign up, and waited for our faithful friends to show up. The previous day we had all distributed flyers, at the market in Uzès, in the mailboxes of our village (Serge's full-time job is a mailman here in Saint Quentin) and we sent out all kinds of emails to anyone and everyone we knew! I prepared some snacks and Matt (as always) saved the day by turning my failed pizza dough into some wonderful foccaccia that we all devoured at the end of the day.
There was a non-stop flow of people all day except for a small down-time during the hottest hours (when everyone takes a nap!) Friends, colleagues, neighbors and many people just passing by. There were 9 different wines to taste so it was worth it for them to stop by. I think it's a great way to do it because almost everyone found a wine they liked, and no one felt funny about leaving without making a purchase. We all sold lots of wine, and we all had a great time. It wasn't polished, or catered or posh, just a fun afternoon spent meeting new people and spreading the good word about 3 new-ish small producers that are all juggling other carreers while trying to pursue their passion and their dream!
Unfortunately things were so busy that I didn't take any pictures when we had a big crowd, but just try to imagine the courtyard full of people dying to taste our wines!!
July 20, 2009
Meet Elmo, our newest La Gramière team member!
Here he is! It's been a couple of weeks since we picked him up now and he's fitting in very well. On a bit of a whim we decided that Daisy needed a playmate and Elmo just happened to be available and ready for his new family. We drove up to Alsace to pick him up and then went to spend the weekend in Switzerland with Matt's brother Brian and his family. It's been lots of fun having a new member of the family, Daisy has finally decided that he'll be a pretty good pal. He's the same breed as Daisy, a Hovawart. They exist in three colors, Black and Tan, like Daisy, Blond like Elmo and all black. Daisy's mother was blond, and ever since I've wanted a blond one too. He's growing like a weed! If all goes well, we may even have Daisy and Elmo puppies in a year
or so!
Meanwhile in the vineyards... The first grapes are starting to turn from green to red, we were down there last night and saw maybe one or two bunches that had some color. What you notice the most though is the hail damage from a storm we had about a month ago, the bunches are scarred with ugly brown wounds on the top dozen or so grapes and the leaves are tattered and torn. It doesn't look very pretty, but the damage isn't too drastic. The bunches are currently quite small, it hasn't rained in several weeks and the vines are starting to show the first signs of stress. Hopefully we'll get a shower or two before harvest, but for now all we see in the forecast is sunshine. Better than tons of rain I suppose.
July 01, 2009
It's already July??
This month just flew by. The past 3 weeks I've been home for a total of 4 days! Busy, busy busy here! The vines are growing, growing, growing, and suddenly it's HOT!!! 35 degrees for the past few days. Ugh.
Let's see, what has been going on? Well we'll start with our trip to Italia! We were invited to be a part of a trade tasting in Italy called Terroir Vino sponsored by the Italian wine website www.tigulliovino.it, and organised by Filippo Ronco who I met at the European Wine Bloggers Conference last year. It's a great event that takes place in the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, the setting is breath taking. Over 120 Italian wineries were present and us, La Gramière, Matt and Amy. At first things were kind of slow, there were lots of people tasting and visiting the other winemakers and we were sort of a curiosity. Then things picked up and we met some really great people and got some great response to our wine. One wine-blogger even wrote a post about it here in Italian. We met and tasted with these three crazy guys who love natural, organic and bio-dynamic wines, they write a blog about the wines they taste and the music they love. Marco even found a song to publish along with the post called "Colorado Girl"! I love it!
The following week was our big winery-blogger tasting in Bordeaux. The location was great, just a few short minutes from downtown Bordeaux, a bit more from Vinexpo. Chateau Luchey-Halde is in Merignac, on the outskirts of the town, but within the Bordeaux metro area, and there are vineyards all around the château. It was a wonderful setting, we had a great conference room that was all windows on one side opening up onto a terrace that looks out onto the vineyards. It was light any airy and the weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot. The turn out was less than we had hoped but good for the our first effort. There's talk of repeating it next year at ViniSud, we'll see if it happens! In anycase, it was a great opportunity to meet the people behind the blogs and above all to get to taste their wines! The overall quality of the wineries present at the event was exceptionally high, which I suppose is to be expected since only the most passionate "vignerons" are willing to take the time to write a blog and share their experiences to the point that we all seem to!
Finally, this weekend we took a few days off to visit Matt's brother Brian and his family who live in Neuchatel, Switzerland. It's always fun to go visit, but it's especially nice at this time of year when it starts to get really hot here, and up there it's sunny and warm but not hot. We also had the chance to meet with a potential importer based in Neuchâtel, which was very exciting! André Crelier has been importing and selling wine in Neuchâtel for 27 years. He has the tiniest shop you have ever seen, but he sells lots of wine from it, lots of great wine. It was one of the most interesting meetings with a wine seller/importer I've ever had. André is definitely old-school, he buys wine from his procducers and then he actually ages it. He's currently selling Santa Duc Gigondas from the 2001 vintage. He explained that he feels it's his duty to offer his customers wines that are at their peak and that even though he has to hold the wines for several years, his prices are only slightly higher (we're talking a franc or two) than they would have been when he originally purchased them. He liked our wines very much so hopefully we'll soon have an importer in Switzerland!
Now it's back to work. We have to bottle the 2008, some 2007 syrah that we didn't blend into the main cuvée and then start getting everything ready for harvest 2009! This will be our 5th harvest, I can't believe we've been doing this for 5 years already. It seems like we're still learning so much, when will we feel like we actually know what we're doing??
June 11, 2009
June 02, 2009
We have flowering!
Yep, as of last week, the roussanne vineyards were in full flower, now this week pretty much everything is except for the mourvèdre. I've been spending my mornings out there working on the wires in the 3 vineyards that are trellised, well, I finished one and am on to the second, as always I'm behind in the spring! Here are some pictures of the roussanne in bloom, last week it was quite hot so I was out there at about 6:30 every day to work until noon, then came home to escape the heat. The temps have dropped so far this week which is nice, but after an unannounced and unexpected rain on Sunday I had to treat the vineyards yesterday and today. This morning it started out pretty calm but by 8 am the wind kicked up, the sprayer was full though so I had to keep going... I came back home with a nice blue tinge on my face and arms from the copper. I scrubbed and scrubbed, but I still smell like sulfur, ugh!
The rest of the week I'll be out there grappling with those unruly vines...
Click on the photos to see them larger, they don't really show that well here. below are the before and after shots of the rows when I am putting the wires up and thinning the shoots. The last shot is the aftermath of thinning the shoots.
May 25, 2009
Off? What's an off?
Stemming certainly from the term "off Broadway" the French have coined the term for any event that takes place outside of the normal scope of an event. Every year at the theater festival in Avignon there is another festival that runs concurrently called the "Off". What in the world does this have to do with this blog, you ask? Well, the term is also widely used in the wine industry over here for tastings that are held alongside big wine trade shows like Vinexpo or Vinisud. Pretty much any big tasting event has several "offs" in satellite locations near the official event. These tastings allow for small wineries who don't have the clients or the budget to pariticipate in the big shows as they often cost several thousand euros for a winery to participate in, therefor rendering these events inaccessible to us small guys.
Two years ago when I went to Bordeaux for Vinexpo with my friends Denis & Kirstin Gayte, we didn't even enter the big fair we just went to several "offs" that we were invited to. These are my kind of tastings with real "vignerons" who make real wine. There are several this year too, Haut les Vins, Les Femmes Vignes Rhône and another one at Chateau Moulin Pey-Labrie with lots of interesting winemakers from all over France. BUT, the best "off" of the year, the one not to be missed, is one I'll be participating in along with 20 other vignerons from all over France, with specail appearances by Gianpaolo Paglia of Italy, Oscar Quevedo of Portugal and Laureano Serres of Spain! We've gone international! Our common thread? We all write wine blogs! Imagine, you read these blogs, follow along with our daily lives, the ups and downs, the ins and outs, now we will all be pouring our wines in one place, for one day only! I personnally can't wait because I read the blogs of many of these people, yet have never tasted their wines. A very cool way that social media has linked us all together!
Thanks to the efforts of Emmanuelle Dupéré-Barrera, Mélanie Tarlant and Iris-Rutz-Rudel who have spent countless hours organizing the event and 20 vignerons (which is a bit like herding cats) the event promises to be a great one for everyone involved! They have even created a special blog for the event, so you can see who will be participating and discover their blogs.
Monday June 22, 2009
Vigneron/Blogger's Winetasting
11am -7pm
Château Luchey-Halde (Mérignac)
Vigneron/Blogger's Winetasting
11am -7pm
Château Luchey-Halde (Mérignac)
All of the information (in French) can be found on our website, so if you plan on attending Vinexpo this year, you definitely don't want to miss our event, it will be the place to be on Monday!
May 12, 2009
On a mission in Moline!
I think that I've mentioned before that my mother grew up in Moline, Illinois, world headquarters of John Deere. In fact when we bought our first tractor, I looked and looked for a used John Deere in our price range, but there were none to be found. When I told my mom that we had bought at '63 Massey Ferguson she called me a traitor. Ever since I've been trying to rectify the situation.
Last week we returned to Moline for my dear grandmother's funeral, she lived a very long and happy life, so while we were all very sad to finally lose her, we also gathered to celebrate a life well lived. She was 98! While we were there seeing extended family members, some of whom are retired farmers, and all of whom know someone who spent their lives working at the John Deere headquarters, I decided I should ask for their help. It's not easy apparently to find an old John Deere vineyard tractor, you see in the midwest they didn't really have a need for narrow tractors. They call them orchard tractors here and everyone said that I would have a hard time finding one, these models have become popular for hobbyists who like to restore them and then drive them once a year in the harvest parade. But that's not what I want at all, I don't want one that has been restored to perfection, I want one that I can use!
As with most things, I may have set out on this quest a bit naively, of course it won't be easy to find an old tractor, let alone ship it to France, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try! The idea was that I would plant the seed in the heads of my family members that live in the area, and that one day while they're driving around in the country, or talking to a neighbor, they might come across my dream tractor. I didn't intend to find one on this trip, nor do I really have the money to buy one right now, I just thought it would be fun to explore the idea.
So first we went to the John Deere Pavilion in downtown Moline where they have some old tractors and some huge brand new ones too. We chatted with the folks there, and they even gave us a John Deere pin to put on our jackets! Then I started chatting with the couple that owns the coffee shop where we drank our delicious cappucinos every morning. Turns out they both worked at Deere and once they retired they decided to open an espresso shop, they make some of the best coffee I've had in a long time. Bonnie and Jim Vonderheide spent 6 months traveling to various places to learn how to make the very best coffee drinks around, and boy did they succeed. Before that though, Jim ran the Deere plant in Madrid in the 70s, the one that made vineyard and orchard tractors! Small world in Moline. They were very interested in my quest and kept my card so that they could contact me if they ever came across one!
My best bet though I believe will be my Uncle Jay Grafton. (Jay is on the right) Well, he's not really my uncle, he's my Mom's cousin, but we always called him Uncle Jay. Jay was a farmer, I figured he must be able to help. Well, he wasn't so sure, thought that I would never find one, but I kept pressing, asking him to just keep thinking about it. Then one of his neighbor's stopped by, Jim Bane, Jim restores old buggies and then takes his horses out and rides them in parades. Jim liked the idea and thought he might know the right people to ask.
In the end I'm not sure I'll ever end up with my vintage John Deere, but it sure was a fun topic of conversation during our visit. I bet you some day I'll have one! If you're ever in Moline, make sure you drop by Bonnie and Jim's for the best coffee you've had in a long, long time.
Dead Poet's Espresso, Ltd.
Bonnie & Jim Vonderheide
1525 - 3rd Ave A
Moline, IL 61265
309-736-7606
May 11, 2009
April 29, 2009
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!
April 24, 2009
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!
April 20, 2009
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!
April 08, 2009
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!
March 24, 2009
Decouvertes en Vallée du Rhône - 6 days of amazing Rhône wine tastings!
Last week was a very busy one, but lots of fun. It was the 5 edition of Découvertes en Vallée du Rhône, an amazing event sponsored by InterRhône, which is sort of the governing body that oversees all of the Rhône Valley appellations, from north to south. This year it started off on Monday with Tavel and Lirac which holds their tasting on a hillside over-looking the vineyards of Tavel. It is an idyllic spot and the event was very well attended. Just up the road from Tavel at the Château de Clary, was Costières de Nimes and Clairette de Bellegarde tasting. It was a beautiful day and I stopped in just as it was winding down after having spent the afternoon pruning.
In conjunction with the official tastings there are also several "off" events scheduled around this time
to take advantage of the numerous importers, distributors and retailers that are in the area for the event. The first of which was Monday night at the beautiful Château Beauregard in Jonquières, the tasting was organized by the Toqués des Dentelles a group comprised of some of the top winemakers in the southern Rhône. Marcel Richaud, Oratoire Saint Martin, Rouge Garance, Bosquet des Papes, La Réméjeanne, Jean David, Chaume-Arnaud, and so on... make up this group of bon-vivant winemakers that all enjoy a good fête. The evening was, as always a who's who of southern Rhône winemakers, not only pouring their wines but also those who come as guests. Serge Férigoule of Le Sang des Cailloux, Hélène Thibon and Alain Macagno of Mas de Libian, importers and distributors from all over Europe. Their special guests this year were several vignerons from the Loire Valley. Most of the appellations also organised parties during the week, another one I attended was the 20th anniversary of the Luberon appellation which was held at the magnificent La Mirande hotel in Avignon. Most of the winemakers from the appellation were there along with their best bottles, they even brought old vintages for us to taste, all of this accompanied by the wonderful food of the hotels Michelin starred restaurant.
Tuesday was the beginning of the festivities in Avignon with Châteauneuf-du-Pape as the headliner, but it also included many great Cotes du Rhône et Côtes du Rhône Villages producers including the Côtes du Vivarais, Cairanne, Rasteau, etc. What makes this event, which is only open to professionals, so wonderful is that virtually everyone participates, even the big guns, the stars. Of course there are a few prima donnas who don't deem the event necessary, but for the most part you can taste through the entire production of many of the great wineries of the region. The other big draw is the location, the tastings take place inside the Palais des Papes in Avignon, entering the great hall, you have to stop and take in the scene. The centuries old vaulted hall filled with the buzz and excitement of several hundred w
ine professionals all gathered to taste and celebrate the wines of the region is something to experience.
As the week progessed so did the appellations, Vacqueyras, Gigondas, Beaumes de Venise, Ventoux, Luberon, all took place in Avignon, then at the end of the week, the event moved north to Tain l'Hermitage and then finishing up Saturday in Côte Rôtie. It's an event that doesn't seem to be on the radar of the American press, and it definitely should be, it's an occasion not to be missed if you are in the wine business and if you love the wines of the Rhône! Now, unfortunately, you'll have to wait until 2011, since the event takes place every other year.
March 15, 2009
Signs of Spring and a pruning marathon
For the past 10 days now Matt and I have been pruning every single day, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, every day. We get up have breakfast, read the paper online, pack a lunch and then head out the prune, prune, prune! Matt took 2 weeks off to help me finish and to do a bit of work on his "new" tractor and our back yard. As usual this year we've had friends and family volunteer to help with the task of pruning over 15,000 vines.
In January when my parents were here, they were out faithfully every day along with my brother-
in-law Billy O'Riordan. Billy stayed on through February, so he really helped me out. Especially since there were several "unfavorable days" according to the bio-dynamic calendar that fell on weekends this year. Unfavorable or black days as we like to call them happen when the moon and stars align to create a conflict and it is recommended that no vineyard (or
agricultural) work be done on that day. There are usually one or two black days during a normal two-week
pruning period, which is nice because then we get to take the day off. This year several fell on the weekend so thus far Matt had done virtually no pruning!
He made up for it over the past two weeks, there haven't been any bad days in the last 10 days, so we've been out there a lot! Luckily the weather has been sunny and even wonderfully warm recently. In the beginning we had quite a bit of Mistral (the famous Provençal wind) which kept the temps chilly, but the past few days have been divine! Yesterday I was out there in a tank top! Unfortunately I came home to some lovely v-shaped tan lines on my back where the straps for my electric pruners lay... Oh well, they don't call it a farmer's tan for nothing! Every year at this time people tell me that I have a "bonne mine" which basically means I have good color, and ask if I've been skiing... If only.
WIth all of this sun, the almond trees and the apricot trees are in full bloom, the
asparagus rows have been covered with plastic to encourage them to grow, and the lady bugs are back! All inspiring signs that Spring isn't far away. I'm sure we've not seen the last of old man winter, but there's hope that soon we'll see green leaves on the trees, and be enjoying those delicious spring veggies from the market! Let's hope that we don't have a late freeze again this year, and that we'll have a bumper crop of apricots and cherries come June.
February 27, 2009
Changing of the Guard
The finalists for the American Wine Blog Awards have been announced over at Fermentation, and sadly I wasn't among them this year! BUT, what is exciting is that there are lots of new names out there. Except for Tablas Creek all of the finalists are new to the blogging scene in the past year or so, that's very exciting! Jason Haas writes a great blog, that's why he won last year, but now he is joined by newcomers from Dry Creek Vineyards, Michel Schlumberger, and Bedrock Wine Co. It's exciting to me that no matter how many wine blogs there are, there's always room for a few more, for those who have something to say and who say it well. As you can imagine, I'm casting my vote for the little guy, the one that is working his butt off to make his dream come true, getting his hands dirty and tying to make a name for himself. Go take a look at these great blogs and vote for the blog you enjoy the most! Oh, and there are other categories too! So vote for your favorites!
February 22, 2009
February 19, 2009
A visit to Castillon du Gard
I have a long history with the village of Castillon du Gard, I'm not sure that I've ever shared here on the blog. You see, one of my first trips to France, back in 1992, I spent the summer as a luxury bike tour guide for a small company that does trips similar to those of Backroads and Butterfield & Robinson. We were based in a magical location in southern Burgundy, actually the converted stables of an old château, the kind of stuff 20 year old Americans dream of. It was right at the time when Peter Mayle's first books about life in Provence came out, and I was lucky enough to be assigned to the Provence tours. One of our stops in Provence was Castillon du Gard! We spent two nights there at the Relais Châteaux hotel called Le Vieux Castillon.
I was recently reminded of all this when, thanks to FaceBook, I found one of my old tour guide
partners, Matt Desmond. So for him and for all of you I thought it would be fun to show you around this beautiful village, among the most beautiful in France in my opinion.
The village of Castillon dates back the the 12th century when it depended upon the church of Uzès for protection, its strategic hilltop location led the people of two nearby hamlets to desert them and move to the safety of the village. It was at the center of a struggle between Protestants and Catholics during the religious wars in the 16th century, and was even occupied by the Germans during the second world war. Today the houses of Castillon have been restored by locals and many foreigners who live there both full-time and some who use their properties as vacation homes. The results are breath-taking and every year more renovations take place and the village becomes even more beautiful.
Back in 1992 when Matt and I came here on our tours, there were only two businesses as far as I can remember, the local café and the hotel. The rest of the village was a sleepy, yet undiscovered Provençal village, today there are several restaurants, a butcher, a Tabac-Presse, even a beauty salon. It's bustling in the summer, loaded with tourists who come to visit the nearby Pont du Gard, and can't resist stopping by this beautiful hilltop village.
In all honesty we don't go up into the village that often, we just don' t need to. I run up sometimes to the town hall, or to visit with the previous owners of our vineyards. During pruning season though, we tend to head up quite often for a coffee at the café. It's a typical southern French café, where the locals stop in for a
quick coffee, or a petit blanc (a glass of white wine) or even a pastis, this at 9 am! The place hasn't changed a bit since we were there 17 years ago. As an American I look at it and think, what a shame, this place could be so awesome, buy it, remodel it and make it into a café-winebar, what an opportunity! But no, this is how it should be, and the owner refuses to change it or sell it, even though it's worth a fortune. His family has always run the village café and always will, while he's around anyway. We go there though, not for the charming atmosphere (I say this tongue-in-cheek) but because they have the best coffee in the region. I'm not kidding. Coffee in France is almost always disappointing, just ask David Lebovitz, so when we tasted the coffee here we were overjoyed! Now we tend to take too many brakes while pruning, but for us it's typical, if there's some little gastronomical treat to be had, we'll go out of our way to get it.
So there you have it a little visit to this beautiful village and a little more insight to our lives here! People laugh about FaceBook, but I think it's such an amazing tool to get in touch with old friends again. I would have never been able to find my old tour guide buddy Matt, and so many other people. So if you're on FaceBook and would like to be my friend, invite away!
February 16, 2009
February 11, 2009
A Very Wet Winter
Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a winter with so much rain. Last week it rained almost every day here, and I mean pouring rain. It seems like it has rained regularly since the month of November. The road from Uzès to Nimes via the Pont Saint Nicolas has been closed for a month now due to falling rocks and landslides. Driving from here to Avignon past Estézargues and Domazan, there is actually water stading in the vineyards, a very rare sight for us here. We are back in a pruning cycle this week, and luckily there is no rain forecast for the next week. Yesterday it was a beautiful day, I didn't even have to wear a coat. This morning though we woke up to more rain showers. Just passing though. The sun is now out and I'm off to the Wednesday market in Uzès, the to the vineyards to prune, and to
look at this beautiful view all day.
At this point, the amount of rain we are getting is good news for the vines, of course it hinders farmers from working in the fields, but it is also filling up the aquafers which badly need it. We've had such little rain since 2005, our reserves are dangerously low. So even though we might feel like we're living in England, this summer we'll be a lot better off for it. Who knows what the weather has in store for us this spring, but for some reason I have a feeling that 2009 is going to be a great year. We'll see if I'm right!
February 05, 2009
Matt's got a "new" tractor!
I say Matt, because, I still lay claim to our 63 Massey-Ferguson. Last week Matt pulled the trigger and
bought a slightly newer tractor so that we don't run the Massey into the ground. The "new" one is an 83 Case/International Harvester, it has a whopping 50 horse power as opposed to our current 35. It's still only a 2 wheel drive, but we really didn't want 4 wheel drive. Even with all of the rain we had last spring we still didn't have any trouble getting into the vineyards to spray, so Matt felt that it wasn't necessary and that we didn't need to have the extra weight of a 4-wheel drive. Still no power steering either, but I drove it in circles around our back yard, and it's much easier to turn than the Massey. With the Massey I have to put all my weight on the brakes and pull the steering wheel with both hands to be able to make a tight turn, this one should be much easier. Matt found it at a garage just outside of Nimes, it's in really good shape and only has 4000 hours. It also has a roll bar, which the Massey doesn't, safety is good, I really
don't want to become fertilizer for our vineyards, though if it were to happen at least there would be some good to come of it!
So it should be a good tractor for us, with just enough more power to comfortable run our sprayer, and of course, the WEED BADGER!!! Which we fully intend to use to its full potential this spring. Maybe with this new tractor, I'll even be able to operate it, though I'm not sure I want to, it may become a "Vine Badger" with me behind the wheel... Our poor vineyards may suffer a bit too much, and that's definitely not what we need !!
February 03, 2009
Back to back Biodynamic seminars- Part 2
As I said, the second seminar I attended was just one week later at La Ferme Saint Martin
, a winery in Suzette, which is in the heart of the Beaumes de Venise appellation. Guy Jullien, who has now been joined by his son Thomas, has been farming his vineyards organically for several years now, he is a very talented winemaker, and uses very low doses of sulfur, if any. The wines are very good, pure expressions of their terroir, but every so often, you get a bottle, that in my opinion, might have been better if they had used a bit more SO2. Like many farmers that choose to farm organically, after a few years, they wanted more, wanted to go that one step further in agriculture, and that lead them to bio-dynamics and to Jacques Melle. Based in Champagne, Mr. Melle is one of the top bio-dynamic consultants, he consults with many of the top wineries in the southern Rhône, as well as all over France. I will admit that I don't know that much more about his background. This session was more of an exchange of ideas, not really a presentation on bio-dynamics.
There were a few outsiders present like myself, my friends Even and Marie-Caroline Bakke, and some others that wanted to learn more about bio-dynamics, but most of the participants were winemakers/grape farmers that have been working with Mr. Melle for at least the past year. Many familiar faces filled the room, from the top wineries in the southern Rhône, Marcel Richaud, Frederic and François Alary from Oratoire Saint Martin, Jerome Bressy, Jean Marot from Vindemio, and certainly there were other well-known people there, but I didn't recognize them all! Everyone talked about their experiences employing the various techniques and preparations that are the basis of bio-dynamics, what they found really worked, what they had trouble with and how they came out in 2008. If you don't already know, 2008 was one of the most difficult years in recent history in the south of France. Some say they haven't seen the constant, heavy rain we had in May and early June for at least 40 years. Organic and conventional farmers alike saw substantial crop loss due to mildew, so it was quite interesting to hear their experiences. Overall, no one claimed that, thanks to bio-dynamics, they made out any better than their neighbors, they mostly focused on how it improved the quality of the soils and the health of certain vineyards that in the past had been problematic. This is the first time I have attended an exchange of ideas and experiences between farmers, and it was a very enlightening experience, and something I think should happen more often around here.
Of course, keeping with French customs, there was a meal planned at the end. We all crowded into another, smaller room to start tasting each other's wines while tables were set up and the caterer began to serve. Corks were pulled, jokes were told and we all got the chance to get to know one another a little bit better. As we moved through the evening, the bottles kept arriving, everyone having brought at least one, if not two or three of their wines. From the small producer of Vin de Pays, to a bio-dynamic olive and olive oil producer, even a couple of delicious Châteauneuf-du-Papes, we tasted and discussed each wine that was put in front of us. All of this in the name of bio-dynamic agriculture. If nothing else, it brought us all together to exchange ideas and taste each others wine, it doesn't seem to happen very often, but it is signaling a change in the attitudes of some vignerons in the region, and that is definitely a good thing!
January 26, 2009
Back to back Biodynamic seminars- Part 1
Completely by chance, I was invited to participate in 2 different bio-dynamic seminars, held about a
week apart. The first one was held at Mas de Libian in St Marcel d'Ardeche, about 40 minutes north of here, and animated by Pierre Masson, a well-known biodynamic consultant. Originally Matt was supposed to attend with me, but Cisco Systems couldn't do without him on this particular day. I headed up with two other winemakers, Bertrand Cortellini of Rouge Garance, and Remy Klein of La Réméjeanne. There were over 30 winemakers present from all over the south of France, from Calce near the Spanish border, over to Nice, and up to Crozes Hermitage. It was very exciting to see so many people interested in bio-dynamics, some with lots of experience, some just starting out.
Let me back up here and give you a bit of information about Mas de Libian. The Thibon-Macagno family makes some of my favorite wines. The vineyards have always been farmed organically and they started with bio-dynamics in the fall of 2005. They even bought a beautiful work horse named Nestor, who helps them plow their impe
ccably kept vineyards. The wines that they produce are dense and rich, with a beautiful expression of southern Rhône fruit. They make some of the most expressive wines of the region at
incredibly reasonable prices. The family has a wonderful presence and seemingly a great sense of humor. Their wines have fanciful names like "Vin de Pétanque" and "Bout de Zan". Pétanque, for those of you unfamiliar with the word is another name for the game of "boules" or as some in the US like to call it, "bocce ball". This is a wine to be enjoyed over long afternoons playing pétanque beneath the shade of the plane trees in the village square, fresh, lots of fruit, uncomplicated, natural and delicious. "Bout de Zan" refers to a centuries old licorice-flavored candy that originated oddly enough here in Uzès, so the name of the cuvée roughly translates to "piece of ZAN". The wine offers hints of réglisse, a plant that grew wild in the south of France, children would often chew on the wood to get the sweet licorice flavor the plant possessed. The réglisse plant was the principal flavoring used in the candy called ZAN.
Back to Pierre Masson and our introduction to
bio-dynamics. Mr. Masson started out as a farmer in southern Burgundy, who turned bio-dynamics in the 60s when he encountered problems on his own farm. He has since become one of the leading consultants in bio-dynamics working with top wineries all over France, all over the world for that matter. We spent the morning listening to him explain the fundamental priniciples of bio-dynamics; the diversification of plant-life, the use of the bio-dynamic preparations, working with lunar and planetary rhythms, and finally being able to regulate/control weeds. It was a great starting point and introduction for those who have never worked with bio-dynamics, and also for me, since I have learned mostly through what Matt has told me!
We had lunch a the village restaurant, and everyone brought their wines to taste, it was hard to taste them all, but I tried my best!
The afternoon divided into two parts. First there was a demonstration of the materials needed in order to practice bio-dynamics, then Masson continued his lecture, but this time he concentrated more on the origins of bio-dynamics and the cosmic aspects of the ideas behind it. The practical demonstration of the dynamiser and the sprayer were very useful and informative, the lecture on the origins of bio-dynamics was definitely more challenging.
All in all it was a great experience that enabled me to put into context much of what Matt has been studying and practicing in the vineyards, as I've said before, bio-dynamics is definitely his pet-project. It takes a lot of time and energy and lots and lots of research. We are considering taking on one of these two consultants so that we can have some outside advice, from people that have much more practical experience than we do! In part 2 I'll tell you about the second seminar at La Ferme Saint Martin with Jacques Melle, and the who's who of winemakers in the southern Rhône.
Recognition
Oops! I didn't win!
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