When the Iron Curtain came down, never mind anything else, the wine possibilities were very exciting. We'd been going to Bulgaria for many years (rather nervously). Though, pathetically, I never did get honey-trapped. But when the barbed wire and gun towers were removed, buying in the east became much more relaxed.
We arranged the first big tasting in Budapest and invited all Hungarian producers who fancied a crack at the British market. We flew half Laithwaites and STWC staff over plus and some customers/members. The event's importance was highlighted by Hugh when he spoke to the assembled winemakers about how Hungary could now work to reclaim her old place in the pre-war ‘Top Three Seriously Fine Wine Countries’: France, Germany, Hungary.
We all gawped at that but HJ knows his history – as his BBC TV series proved. He was talking about before the southern European countries had got into doing 'Fine' … ie posh estates, posh bottles, posh labels – vintages, laying-down, all that mularky. Commonplace, but all relatively recent concepts in Italy, Spain and Portugal … just don't tell them I said that … they don't like it mentioned.
After that first tasting we went off to visit various places and I remember HJ gawping and suggesting we pick up the odd castle or mansion + vines for derisory sums.
I thought he was joking. But no, he only went and bought some prime Tokay vineyards with his mate Peter Vinding-Diers. I thought they were mad. But "Ho! Ho!" said H, "Truly Mad; Mad is the name of the place we've bought into."
I left them to their Mad struggles. And struggles they had a-plenty. I just got the odd nice bottle for my Christmas pud. I'm not a great dessert wine man. I know it’s a very great wine, and H's lot are making it better all the time. I know it should be drunk kneeling but … I only do grand pudding occasions once or twice a year.
What I really did love was the dry wine they can now make with their just-slightly Botrytis-affected Furmint grapes. Now, that for me, is a wine to drink a lot of. And I do.
All this reflection has come about because I saw this great article about HJ's Hungarian Adventures in the Wall Street Journal. (We run their Wine Club). Anyway great article by Will Lyons.
Friday, 28 October 2011
Thursday, 27 October 2011
An introduction to Diam
At Le Chai I was introduced to Diam. Diam is a new cork we are using which – it is claimed – removes the risk of corked bottles.
This would be a wonderful thing. Only one thing upsets me – the Wine Merchant – more than an obviously corked bottle, and that is a not-so-obviously-corked bottle. And there are quite a few of those.
It seems to take a lifetime of sniffing at wines to be able to spot very faint cork taint. Most people don't identify it as cork taint. BUT THEY DON'T LIKE THE WINE. The cork has damaged it. Hence we merchants get accused of selling not very good wine when its the fault of the cork.
I am a vocal supporter of the cork industry. I have planted cork trees. And Laithwaites is the biggest cork-recycler in Britain. The cork industry has mounted an impressive PR campaign to 'save the cork oaks'. But not quite told the full story.
Cork oaks take forty years to mature and provide a crop. So … in 1971 were they planting vast acreages of new oak forest to cope with the exponential growth to come over the next 40 years in cork-bottled wine?
No. Well I never saw it. Sure they planted some. But what they were doing mostly was finding ways of using previously large percentage of discarded cork. This involved chemical treatment which has caused us all these problems.
Finally, it seems, a better way has been found. At a price.
Anyone finding a cork marked 'Diam' (small print) in one of our bottles might be forgiven thinking we were using cheaper corks. No; more expensive. They are real, quite good cork, but it has been minced up and put back together. However it flexes well, has no bad chemicals , provides a tight fit and easy pulling.
Our winemakers like them and so far … no problemo's.
This would be a wonderful thing. Only one thing upsets me – the Wine Merchant – more than an obviously corked bottle, and that is a not-so-obviously-corked bottle. And there are quite a few of those.
It seems to take a lifetime of sniffing at wines to be able to spot very faint cork taint. Most people don't identify it as cork taint. BUT THEY DON'T LIKE THE WINE. The cork has damaged it. Hence we merchants get accused of selling not very good wine when its the fault of the cork.
I am a vocal supporter of the cork industry. I have planted cork trees. And Laithwaites is the biggest cork-recycler in Britain. The cork industry has mounted an impressive PR campaign to 'save the cork oaks'. But not quite told the full story.
Cork oaks take forty years to mature and provide a crop. So … in 1971 were they planting vast acreages of new oak forest to cope with the exponential growth to come over the next 40 years in cork-bottled wine?
No. Well I never saw it. Sure they planted some. But what they were doing mostly was finding ways of using previously large percentage of discarded cork. This involved chemical treatment which has caused us all these problems.
Finally, it seems, a better way has been found. At a price.
Anyone finding a cork marked 'Diam' (small print) in one of our bottles might be forgiven thinking we were using cheaper corks. No; more expensive. They are real, quite good cork, but it has been minced up and put back together. However it flexes well, has no bad chemicals , provides a tight fit and easy pulling.
Our winemakers like them and so far … no problemo's.
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Laithwaites London Show - part two: My Wine of the Show
If you were to ask what was my Wine of the Show, you would be asking the same question everyone at the show asked me.
They got various answers. It took me all three sessions to get round every stand and wine … so depending where I was at, the answer varied. On Sunday, recovering at home, I reflected on this question in between working as garden slave in the herbaceous.
There are various approaches I could take like 'Most Magnificent' or 'Best Deal'. And I could just give my usual response: "my own wine, of course; Chateau La Clarière". But the interpretation I have used is: if, at the Show, I could only have one wine …
It would be …
The Domaine Pardon Vielles Vignes 2010, Fleurie AOC.
Now it may surprise many that I should pick a Beaujolais for that region is still suffering from being 'un-cool' due to having conned too many for too long with that old teeth-stripper, Beaujolais Nouveau.
It surprises me too, because in my early days I refused to stock the stuff at all. Every newcomer to my first Arch would come in with a cheery "got a nice Beaujolais, then" and be told "NO! I've got something much better". Amazing I survived in business at all, really.
But then, things change. The region fell flat on its face and is still living through hard times. Go see. Needs a lick of paint does Beauj. Only Japan does the Nouveau thing now. But true craftsmen like the Pardon Brothers kept at it with their steep little vineyards. They just got better. And they've been very lucky with weather.
It is of course, also a mood thing. Like the Prof used to tell us: "it’s not the wine that changes, it’s you!" Right now, I'm a bit exhausted by the bright colours and flavours of harvest time. I want a quiet time until the Christmas Thrash gets here. I really just feel like a bit of plain food and a lovely, classy, gentle Fleurie. Lovely.
In few weeks my mood will change and things will be different but for now it’s Wine 13 on the Show Programme; Pardon's Fleurie. Failing that I'll take the Morgon 'Côte de Py' or the Côte de Brouilly.
The customers yesterday voted for both the Prince Courthezon Châteauneuf du Pape and Côtes du Rhône, the Field of Stones Marlborough Sauvignon, Bill Calabria's 'Boxer' (worth the journey for him) and - bit of a wild card and you have to wonder … Abingdon Bridge Ale from Will!
Crazy show!
They got various answers. It took me all three sessions to get round every stand and wine … so depending where I was at, the answer varied. On Sunday, recovering at home, I reflected on this question in between working as garden slave in the herbaceous.
There are various approaches I could take like 'Most Magnificent' or 'Best Deal'. And I could just give my usual response: "my own wine, of course; Chateau La Clarière". But the interpretation I have used is: if, at the Show, I could only have one wine …
It would be …
The Domaine Pardon Vielles Vignes 2010, Fleurie AOC.
Now it may surprise many that I should pick a Beaujolais for that region is still suffering from being 'un-cool' due to having conned too many for too long with that old teeth-stripper, Beaujolais Nouveau.
It surprises me too, because in my early days I refused to stock the stuff at all. Every newcomer to my first Arch would come in with a cheery "got a nice Beaujolais, then" and be told "NO! I've got something much better". Amazing I survived in business at all, really.
But then, things change. The region fell flat on its face and is still living through hard times. Go see. Needs a lick of paint does Beauj. Only Japan does the Nouveau thing now. But true craftsmen like the Pardon Brothers kept at it with their steep little vineyards. They just got better. And they've been very lucky with weather.
It is of course, also a mood thing. Like the Prof used to tell us: "it’s not the wine that changes, it’s you!" Right now, I'm a bit exhausted by the bright colours and flavours of harvest time. I want a quiet time until the Christmas Thrash gets here. I really just feel like a bit of plain food and a lovely, classy, gentle Fleurie. Lovely.
In few weeks my mood will change and things will be different but for now it’s Wine 13 on the Show Programme; Pardon's Fleurie. Failing that I'll take the Morgon 'Côte de Py' or the Côte de Brouilly.
The customers yesterday voted for both the Prince Courthezon Châteauneuf du Pape and Côtes du Rhône, the Field of Stones Marlborough Sauvignon, Bill Calabria's 'Boxer' (worth the journey for him) and - bit of a wild card and you have to wonder … Abingdon Bridge Ale from Will!
Crazy show!
Monday, 24 October 2011
Laithwaites London Show - part one
Woke up still dressed on Saturday. Not what you're thinking; wasn't the wine, not a lot … just the partying. Partied out. And doing it all again today. Twice!
How wonderful to be able to throw massive parties under the Arches of London Bridge. All your friends there, wine producing mates from Australia, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and and … familiar, smiling faces in animated conversations with excited customers and so many bottles to see and try. Everyone seems to know everyone. We do know everyone! By the end of the evening we certainly know everyone.
Three great, high vaults – cathedrals of wine – including our own ever-more-spectacular Arch Emporium … which just gets more and more stunning. I asked Susan - who runs our shops - to give us the finest wine place in all London. And she has. Though not finished yet apparently!
Got roundly booed when I announced the end of the show; no-one wanted to stop.
So actually we didn't. Just went down the lane and carried on in the Wine Bar. We took it over entirely. All Laithwaites was there and all the growers. Trays of food. Keeps coming. It’s an even noisier party. No speeches, just tales of the just-finished harvest and the Christmas season taking off. I took off into the cobbled streets but found hotel unaided and just thought I'd lie down before getting ready for bed … hence Saturday morning.
Then off to go do it all again.
PS the customers picked as their favourite wines of the night Henry's Chateau Verniotte, (proud fathers, him and me) Trapiche's Single Vineyard Malbec (two pricey items) and what they were now calling 'Pink Stump'; the new 'Black Stump' Rosé. Well, it was a party!
The tasting table from the show, demonstrating just a few of the flavours and aromas to be found in wine
How wonderful to be able to throw massive parties under the Arches of London Bridge. All your friends there, wine producing mates from Australia, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and and … familiar, smiling faces in animated conversations with excited customers and so many bottles to see and try. Everyone seems to know everyone. We do know everyone! By the end of the evening we certainly know everyone.
Three great, high vaults – cathedrals of wine – including our own ever-more-spectacular Arch Emporium … which just gets more and more stunning. I asked Susan - who runs our shops - to give us the finest wine place in all London. And she has. Though not finished yet apparently!
Got roundly booed when I announced the end of the show; no-one wanted to stop.
So actually we didn't. Just went down the lane and carried on in the Wine Bar. We took it over entirely. All Laithwaites was there and all the growers. Trays of food. Keeps coming. It’s an even noisier party. No speeches, just tales of the just-finished harvest and the Christmas season taking off. I took off into the cobbled streets but found hotel unaided and just thought I'd lie down before getting ready for bed … hence Saturday morning.
Then off to go do it all again.
PS the customers picked as their favourite wines of the night Henry's Chateau Verniotte, (proud fathers, him and me) Trapiche's Single Vineyard Malbec (two pricey items) and what they were now calling 'Pink Stump'; the new 'Black Stump' Rosé. Well, it was a party!
The tasting table from the show, demonstrating just a few of the flavours and aromas to be found in wine
Mark and JMS working hard
When I can't be in France I love reading Mark's messages from le chai about how hard a life he and JMS have. Try this...
Into the Gers
Another early start and a very misty morning drive into the Entre-Deux-Mers to be at the bottling of the second half of little Bordeaux Château Geneau. The mist is now here every morning as the cold nights set in and the warm Dordogne releases the mist like a smoke machine! This Geneau is really lovely drinking claret; just what affordable Bordeaux used to be like. It’s a wine we have nurtured from the beginning and I can truly recommend it.
Once all was good I left to meet JMS at Le Chai and we did a tasting run through the 2011’s in the Chai. Viognier coming real good now and standing out today, think we’ll make a pure one this year. Not much of it so keep an eye on my blog for further info!
Today we were going 3hours south of Bordeaux to the department of the Gers to meet up with our friend Lionel Osmin. We’re tasting the red vats and checking the grapes for the famous moelleux wines of Gascony that are still hanging on the vine!
We made our way down through the vineyards of Côtes du Marmadais, the pine forests of the Val de Garonne-Gascogne, through the rolling hills of Armagnac and finally our destination: Viella in the tiny Appellation of Madiran. We were in real deep country now where cows for beef, geese and ducks for foie gras and black pigs share the land with the vineyards. The Gers is renowned for its amazing cuisine and the produce here is just as spectacular as the landscape.
We met up with our friend Lionel Osmin who’s born and bred in Gascogny. After studying winemaking in Toulouse he decided to return to his home region to concentrate on making, promoting and selling these rare wines. If anyone knows anyone here then its Lionel!
The people here are hardened farmers and our first stop was at Monsieur Bortolussi’s magnificent Château Viella. We started with a grand tour of the vineyards of both the red Madiran appellation and the whites of Pacherenc du Bilh.
The king of the red grapes here is Tannat; a hardy grape with thick skins to protect it from the regular rainfall. Thick skins give an abundance of tannin requiring careful vinification techniques to avoid tannins leaching into the wine. Very different methods are used here in Madiran compared to Bordeaux, but when it’s done well the result is the darkest silkiest wine ever!
The Tannat has already been harvested but the tiny Petit Manseng white grapes still hang on the vine. This rare grape makes the semi sweet wines of appellation Pacherenc du Bilh.
The name of the game here is to keep the botrytis at bay and the thick skinned tiny berries are perfectly adapted to do so as they hang in loose bunches allowing aeration around every berry. Biting into one of the berries is quite an experience as you chew through the skin the front of the tongue is hit first by an incredible sweetness followed by the most searing acidity! These wines can age for a very long time and if you can get a bottle try it, a marvellous wine!
We finally made it to the château high on the hill and entered into the barrel store at the bottom of the huge house. The barrels sit in the great kitchen that once served the entire household. As you stand there you can imagine a once-bustling kitchen of cooks, fires and servants rushing about. However, it’s very calm in here now!
The barrels tasted and satisfied with the grapes, we headed back north to see the Truau family in the heart of Armagnac. This family farm everything there is to farm here and grapes are no exception. They don’t bottle a single drop but with winemaking help they make some very fine dry and sweet wines, very aromatic Colombard being their strength. Or so we thought …
After talking, we learnt that they also distil traditional grapes of Bacho and Ugni Blanc to make their own Armagnac! We couldn’t resist asking to have a taste and a big old door was drawn aside revealing an old underground cellar full of barrels of Armagnac going back 20 years. As we entered the cellar we were nearly knocked off our feet by bats flying around in there!
The son drew some 1993 55% vol pure Bacho from a barrel and its golden colour and almond aroma was absolutely superb. Tasting Armagnac amongst flying bats was certainly a first for me!
A long day was rewarded by Lionel (and his knowledge of the people and the region) with a meal at the reputed Bernard Daubin restaurant in the tiny village of Montreal de Gers. It opened exclusively for us by the highly rated and well known French chef Bernard Daubin himself … and what an experience it was to be!
Bernard is big jolly man and his exquisite food is known throughout France. And here we were: JMS, Lionel, Damien and I sitting at Bernard’s comptoir (bar) with just Bernard and his wife Veronique about to cook for us. Although there’s an extensive cellar, there is actually no wine list or menu; you will eat and drink what you’re given. Therefore it is no place for the unadventurous, vegetarians or the diet obsessed! And so for the next 4 hours we sat in front of a mad genius chef trying to kill us with foie gras! The menu and wine matching went like this:
Oysters from Brittany / Mas Julien 2009
Fois Gras maison /
Tartare de Canard / Rive droite, rive gauche 2007 Cotes du Rhone
Red Mullet, caviar, aioli and jus / Gallinette 2010 Cotes du Rhone (cold)
Tete de veau avec homard / Le Compte a Rebours Cahors 2008
Fois gras frais avec feves / Domaine la Colombelle Lledonar Pelut 2006
Carcasse de Canard / Le Ruminant des Vigne Gros Manseng 2007
Fromage Brebis / les Pissenlit Dominique Andiran
Croustille Aux Pommes / Larressingle 21 ans Armagnac
Deutz et Drappier Champagne
I am extremely fortunate to have been there and a grand merci to Lionel, Bernard and Veronique, quell experience!!
Please visit this restaurant if you are in the area it is truly an incredible experience!
Then off to London for the Laithwaites show at the Arch in Borough Market
Into the Gers
Another early start and a very misty morning drive into the Entre-Deux-Mers to be at the bottling of the second half of little Bordeaux Château Geneau. The mist is now here every morning as the cold nights set in and the warm Dordogne releases the mist like a smoke machine! This Geneau is really lovely drinking claret; just what affordable Bordeaux used to be like. It’s a wine we have nurtured from the beginning and I can truly recommend it.
Once all was good I left to meet JMS at Le Chai and we did a tasting run through the 2011’s in the Chai. Viognier coming real good now and standing out today, think we’ll make a pure one this year. Not much of it so keep an eye on my blog for further info!
Today we were going 3hours south of Bordeaux to the department of the Gers to meet up with our friend Lionel Osmin. We’re tasting the red vats and checking the grapes for the famous moelleux wines of Gascony that are still hanging on the vine!
We made our way down through the vineyards of Côtes du Marmadais, the pine forests of the Val de Garonne-Gascogne, through the rolling hills of Armagnac and finally our destination: Viella in the tiny Appellation of Madiran. We were in real deep country now where cows for beef, geese and ducks for foie gras and black pigs share the land with the vineyards. The Gers is renowned for its amazing cuisine and the produce here is just as spectacular as the landscape.
We met up with our friend Lionel Osmin who’s born and bred in Gascogny. After studying winemaking in Toulouse he decided to return to his home region to concentrate on making, promoting and selling these rare wines. If anyone knows anyone here then its Lionel!
The people here are hardened farmers and our first stop was at Monsieur Bortolussi’s magnificent Château Viella. We started with a grand tour of the vineyards of both the red Madiran appellation and the whites of Pacherenc du Bilh. The king of the red grapes here is Tannat; a hardy grape with thick skins to protect it from the regular rainfall. Thick skins give an abundance of tannin requiring careful vinification techniques to avoid tannins leaching into the wine. Very different methods are used here in Madiran compared to Bordeaux, but when it’s done well the result is the darkest silkiest wine ever!
The Tannat has already been harvested but the tiny Petit Manseng white grapes still hang on the vine. This rare grape makes the semi sweet wines of appellation Pacherenc du Bilh.The name of the game here is to keep the botrytis at bay and the thick skinned tiny berries are perfectly adapted to do so as they hang in loose bunches allowing aeration around every berry. Biting into one of the berries is quite an experience as you chew through the skin the front of the tongue is hit first by an incredible sweetness followed by the most searing acidity! These wines can age for a very long time and if you can get a bottle try it, a marvellous wine!
We finally made it to the château high on the hill and entered into the barrel store at the bottom of the huge house. The barrels sit in the great kitchen that once served the entire household. As you stand there you can imagine a once-bustling kitchen of cooks, fires and servants rushing about. However, it’s very calm in here now!
The barrels tasted and satisfied with the grapes, we headed back north to see the Truau family in the heart of Armagnac. This family farm everything there is to farm here and grapes are no exception. They don’t bottle a single drop but with winemaking help they make some very fine dry and sweet wines, very aromatic Colombard being their strength. Or so we thought …
After talking, we learnt that they also distil traditional grapes of Bacho and Ugni Blanc to make their own Armagnac! We couldn’t resist asking to have a taste and a big old door was drawn aside revealing an old underground cellar full of barrels of Armagnac going back 20 years. As we entered the cellar we were nearly knocked off our feet by bats flying around in there!The son drew some 1993 55% vol pure Bacho from a barrel and its golden colour and almond aroma was absolutely superb. Tasting Armagnac amongst flying bats was certainly a first for me!
A long day was rewarded by Lionel (and his knowledge of the people and the region) with a meal at the reputed Bernard Daubin restaurant in the tiny village of Montreal de Gers. It opened exclusively for us by the highly rated and well known French chef Bernard Daubin himself … and what an experience it was to be!
Bernard is big jolly man and his exquisite food is known throughout France. And here we were: JMS, Lionel, Damien and I sitting at Bernard’s comptoir (bar) with just Bernard and his wife Veronique about to cook for us. Although there’s an extensive cellar, there is actually no wine list or menu; you will eat and drink what you’re given. Therefore it is no place for the unadventurous, vegetarians or the diet obsessed! And so for the next 4 hours we sat in front of a mad genius chef trying to kill us with foie gras! The menu and wine matching went like this:Oysters from Brittany / Mas Julien 2009
Fois Gras maison /
Tartare de Canard / Rive droite, rive gauche 2007 Cotes du Rhone
Red Mullet, caviar, aioli and jus / Gallinette 2010 Cotes du Rhone (cold)
Tete de veau avec homard / Le Compte a Rebours Cahors 2008
Fois gras frais avec feves / Domaine la Colombelle Lledonar Pelut 2006
Carcasse de Canard / Le Ruminant des Vigne Gros Manseng 2007
Fromage Brebis / les Pissenlit Dominique Andiran
Croustille Aux Pommes / Larressingle 21 ans Armagnac
Deutz et Drappier Champagne
I am extremely fortunate to have been there and a grand merci to Lionel, Bernard and Veronique, quell experience!!
Please visit this restaurant if you are in the area it is truly an incredible experience!
Then off to London for the Laithwaites show at the Arch in Borough Market
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Which of our lists will run like Emma?
Yesterday morning, 8.30, a bunch of us welcomed Emma to work. This wispy young mum was just finishing her 100 mile run. Spread over 5 days, she did 20 miles each morning before work to raise money for The Prince’s Trust. After the cheering I noticed she went straight to her desk and started tapping at her computer. I can’t keep up with this … and she is, effectively, my Boss. I do most of my writing for her. Groan. Can’t really slack, can I?
Then several of us, Emma included, went down to Gloucester to present the latest list/catalogue to all those who will be handling all the calls. Uniquely this month there are two versions; the usual and a different one done just by me. You'll know if you get my version; there are four blokes on the cover looking a bit dour. And inside there is a list in the style we used to do back in the Eighties … lots more words and info … be interesting to see which the customers prefer.
The evening was spent as guests of Hugh and Judy at an event to raise money to plant more trees in Britain. I always thought we had plenty but seemingly not. Entertained by Clive Anderson, Sandi Toksvig, some writers keen on trees and the bloke who plays Trigger.
I lost my Blackberry. Had heart failure but it was found eventually this morning
Need to lie down and recover now. Tony
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Wyfold Harvest Two ... Chardonnay
On a cold Sunday morn,
We start before dawn,
Us volunteer pickers,
Go at a lick, 'cos,
Barbara’s vines must be shorn.
So that FINALLY is that. The last grape of 2011 is in. Barbara and Cherry worried themselves half to death but all went tickety-boo. Nice mostly sunny, above all, dry day.
More volunteers than ever before. Sixty! Even with NZ-Aus on telly.
Semi-organised (you can't whip volunteers, we find) but enthusiasm overcomes all. Lots more grapes than ever, but the weight about the same as last year (two 3-ton truckfuls). Would've been an amazing crop if we had had a good, hot Summer – but … there y'go. It’s still very acceptable.
Immaculately clean fruit. Even if it could've been riper. But, luckily, sparkling wine doesn't need ripe grapes. Doesn't want them, in truth. The flavours that make Champagne what it is, come from the cellar process rather than vineyard work. Same here.
So the girls have high hopes for this vintage.
By noon, all done. Pile in for soup-hot sausages-chicken-ham-cheese-apple pie-and-lots-a-wine. Bit of a party. Lee and Helen take the trucks off to Uncle Mike at Southridge. Some of us then go for the Sunday afternoon nap we've been missing these last hectic weeks.
We start before dawn,
Us volunteer pickers,
Go at a lick, 'cos,
Barbara’s vines must be shorn.
So that FINALLY is that. The last grape of 2011 is in. Barbara and Cherry worried themselves half to death but all went tickety-boo. Nice mostly sunny, above all, dry day.
More volunteers than ever before. Sixty! Even with NZ-Aus on telly.
So the girls have high hopes for this vintage.
By noon, all done. Pile in for soup-hot sausages-chicken-ham-cheese-apple pie-and-lots-a-wine. Bit of a party. Lee and Helen take the trucks off to Uncle Mike at Southridge. Some of us then go for the Sunday afternoon nap we've been missing these last hectic weeks.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Au revoir, Castillon
Last French morning for me. (Leaving Ste Colombe for UK. Harvest here is over.) Clear sky again. Full moon that was in east over church last night lit the bedroom all night, now in west over St Emilion. Still pursued by little Jupiter.
First hint of grey, first chirrup, first cough and I must struggle out for the bread. Near collision by church. Wake up PROPERLY call. Drive down to the big valley still blanketed in white. To the bakery. So warm and … bread-y. Tired baker. Big black old stove cooling noisily.
Vast truck cuts me up. Says 'CHINA LINE' … that's today's wine world for you. Who's wine is he going to fetch?
Back at house pick up a faggot of vine cuttings from shed to revive the big fire in kitchen. Set table. Coffee on. Brew Tea. Across yard Tom pumping over the Presbytere vats. In the dark. Not happy. I have promised next year they can have electric light in the old place. The candle idea was romance gone too far. The young come down, grab croissants coffee and all hurtle off; Henry is already inside his big tank at Verniotte, down the road, shovelling marc and yelling for help.
Kaye comes up with baby Eleanor who now beams when she sees her Grandad … basically I'm now entrapped, aren't I? Besotted. Smile like that … never be able to deny this child anything.
Alfiedog comes also. Bouncing off the walls … adores the freedom here. When he gets back to England he'll be confined to the garden. Here … no walls or fences and loads of other dogs to wind up!
Hugh, Judy and I breakfast more sedately … discuss trying to get Decanter to do an article on Castillon region. Maybe starring our little dynamo Anne Marie Galinaud and her Comptoir 'Resto-Caveau' which has lit up this district so! What was a derelict barn is now the heaving social centre of a large chunk of the Right Bank. People come from all over the world. Yesterday there was a big table of bankers in for lunch with Alain Vauthier of Ausone. Wine world needs more Anne-Maries.
H and J drive away narrowly missing Henry on tractor towing wine press cage of marc. That boy never happier than on a tractor. Has decided he's too old to operate his little manual press anymore so he carts his lees up to LaClariere to press there. Hydraulically.
Pack, tidy a bit, say goodbyes, Majid takes me to Bergerac. Sun still hot. Not expecting same in UK. Goodbye, Douce Aquitaine. Another vintage is over.
First hint of grey, first chirrup, first cough and I must struggle out for the bread. Near collision by church. Wake up PROPERLY call. Drive down to the big valley still blanketed in white. To the bakery. So warm and … bread-y. Tired baker. Big black old stove cooling noisily.
Vast truck cuts me up. Says 'CHINA LINE' … that's today's wine world for you. Who's wine is he going to fetch?
Back at house pick up a faggot of vine cuttings from shed to revive the big fire in kitchen. Set table. Coffee on. Brew Tea. Across yard Tom pumping over the Presbytere vats. In the dark. Not happy. I have promised next year they can have electric light in the old place. The candle idea was romance gone too far. The young come down, grab croissants coffee and all hurtle off; Henry is already inside his big tank at Verniotte, down the road, shovelling marc and yelling for help.
Kaye comes up with baby Eleanor who now beams when she sees her Grandad … basically I'm now entrapped, aren't I? Besotted. Smile like that … never be able to deny this child anything.
Alfiedog comes also. Bouncing off the walls … adores the freedom here. When he gets back to England he'll be confined to the garden. Here … no walls or fences and loads of other dogs to wind up!
Hugh, Judy and I breakfast more sedately … discuss trying to get Decanter to do an article on Castillon region. Maybe starring our little dynamo Anne Marie Galinaud and her Comptoir 'Resto-Caveau' which has lit up this district so! What was a derelict barn is now the heaving social centre of a large chunk of the Right Bank. People come from all over the world. Yesterday there was a big table of bankers in for lunch with Alain Vauthier of Ausone. Wine world needs more Anne-Maries.
H and J drive away narrowly missing Henry on tractor towing wine press cage of marc. That boy never happier than on a tractor. Has decided he's too old to operate his little manual press anymore so he carts his lees up to LaClariere to press there. Hydraulically.
Pack, tidy a bit, say goodbyes, Majid takes me to Bergerac. Sun still hot. Not expecting same in UK. Goodbye, Douce Aquitaine. Another vintage is over.
Monday, 17 October 2011
Vintage 2011 reports from Mark Hoddy in Bordeaux and the Midi
The Week That Was ... Rather Busy!
There have been busy weeks and there has been last week! Not only were the last of the reds being harvested in Bordeaux, but the first reds in the Midi were being pressed off. That meant a couple of dashes down and back to the Midi to start the week off, setting the pace that would continue for the next seven days.
The desired malo-lactic fermentation (MLF) was kicking off in the Chai, too and all but one wine had finished the alcoholic fermentation; a crucial time for the wines where careful monitoring is required. The last ferment, the dry botrytis project is now fully underway and Tony Laithwaite was in the Chai regularly to taste his idea and check how it was progressing.
The dry botrytis wine, now dubbed the ‘DB’ by the Chai winemakers, is something very experimental. It’s a blend of two very different styles of the Sémillon grape. The first is an early harvested Bordeaux Sémillon to make a crisp dry wine and the second is a Botrytis Sémillon from Loupiac to make a sweet desert style. The objective is to have a dry wine but with the marmalade aromas and taste of the botrytis, simple eh?
No.
The first problem is that the two styles must be blended and fermented together as the sweet juice of the Loupiac alone will never ferment dry and therefore be too sweet to blend later on. The second is that these styles are harvested four weeks apart from each other!
So how do we do it? Luckily at the Chai we have wonderful modern equipment and our cooling system is one of the best. It allowed us to pick the first Sémillon at the very beginning of September and hold it at 4°C to avoid a wild fermentation for three weeks until the harvest in Loupiac was ready to start. The juices were then blended at Le Chai and we raised the temperature kicking off the fermentation! It’s very exciting and so far so very good!
Everyone was in town too, the Laithwaite clan and friends for the harvest along with a stream of various important visitors. First to visit the Chai and taste our wines was winemaking legend Dr Tony Jordon (responsible for wines at Moet-Chandon, Cloudy Bay and many more) followed by wine legend Hugh Johnson … no pressure there then!! The tastings went well and the wines were given the thumbs by Tony and Hugh!
We had a lovely end-of-harvest meal cooked once again by Bernadette at Chateau La Clarière-Laithwaite … special guests included Hugh Johnson and Edouard Mouiex. The chicken stuffed with cepes was excellent along with the 2005 and 2009 Chateau La Clariere.
The outbounders were also busy at Le Chai and it was the group’s turn to do a wine blending with the winemaker in our lab and tasting room. It’s hard work and a great deal of concentration is required but great fun … and they get to see just how difficult it is to blend wine.
On the Saturday I gave a mixed staff group from the UK and USA a full Chai tour and they were lucky to be the first to taste some of the now-dry wines. We had a lovely meal up at Le Comptoir and tasted Henry’s 2008 La Verniotte.
Next up for a visit was our team of global directors including Simon, Andrew, Glenn, Adrian, Rachel, Mike, Justin, Gary, Jay, Alex, Tanya, Lyn and Steve who were here at the Chai for a winemaking weekend organised by JMS, James and I. Everyone got stuck into some hard cellar work and learnt some important wine making techniques. In the evening Libby and Clare organised a wonderful meal in the Grand Chai cellar and JMS cooked some of the biggest steaks ever seen on the BBQ. Thank you and well done everyone.
We have also been very busy bottling some of our little treasures of Bordeaux 2010 Chateaux, including Chateau Grand Billard from Monsegur, Chateau Geneau from Blaye and Chateau Le Coin from Rauzan!
So apart from a hell of a lot of winemaking it feels like there has also been a hell lot of eating!
JMS and I are off to the South West regions tomorrow to visit Cahors, Madiran, Gascogne and Fronton to re-check the wines we make with Lionel Osman. Will it slow down?
A bientot!
There have been busy weeks and there has been last week! Not only were the last of the reds being harvested in Bordeaux, but the first reds in the Midi were being pressed off. That meant a couple of dashes down and back to the Midi to start the week off, setting the pace that would continue for the next seven days.
The dry botrytis wine, now dubbed the ‘DB’ by the Chai winemakers, is something very experimental. It’s a blend of two very different styles of the Sémillon grape. The first is an early harvested Bordeaux Sémillon to make a crisp dry wine and the second is a Botrytis Sémillon from Loupiac to make a sweet desert style. The objective is to have a dry wine but with the marmalade aromas and taste of the botrytis, simple eh?
No.
The first problem is that the two styles must be blended and fermented together as the sweet juice of the Loupiac alone will never ferment dry and therefore be too sweet to blend later on. The second is that these styles are harvested four weeks apart from each other!
So how do we do it? Luckily at the Chai we have wonderful modern equipment and our cooling system is one of the best. It allowed us to pick the first Sémillon at the very beginning of September and hold it at 4°C to avoid a wild fermentation for three weeks until the harvest in Loupiac was ready to start. The juices were then blended at Le Chai and we raised the temperature kicking off the fermentation! It’s very exciting and so far so very good!
The outbounders were also busy at Le Chai and it was the group’s turn to do a wine blending with the winemaker in our lab and tasting room. It’s hard work and a great deal of concentration is required but great fun … and they get to see just how difficult it is to blend wine.
We have also been very busy bottling some of our little treasures of Bordeaux 2010 Chateaux, including Chateau Grand Billard from Monsegur, Chateau Geneau from Blaye and Chateau Le Coin from Rauzan!
So apart from a hell of a lot of winemaking it feels like there has also been a hell lot of eating!
JMS and I are off to the South West regions tomorrow to visit Cahors, Madiran, Gascogne and Fronton to re-check the wines we make with Lionel Osman. Will it slow down?
A bientot!
Hugh Johnson at La Clarière ... with his collection
Breakfasted, we walked down in the sun to Verniotte where they were emptying the first small vat. Containing wine of Henry's 'vigne' that sits right on top of the ridge, and did the best of all his plots this year. This tank - first to finish - is at 14.5%! Smells almost brandy-ish at this stage. Young Scott was swaying about a bit when he came out.
Then put Hugh and Judy in the car and take them into town - the pretty way, of course, along the river. Dazzling reflected low sun.
Get Hugh to do a Presidential visit. Meeting everyone upstairs and down. Long chat with the 'Bounders' on the phones to their customers.
Mark had opened the big doors wide for a tasting bathed in light. We tried all our Castillons from separate properties - about half the price of those we tried yesterday. Is what Le Chai is for. Then we went though almost everything else. Which is a lot, just now.
Up to Le Comptoir for a lunch, outside. Then more wandering about with map in hand for Hugh. It’s what he does. Likes to get a feel for landscape.
Barbara had to catch a plane home to prepare for our final bit of harvesting; her Oxfordshire Chardonnay at the weekend. She has 52 volunteers despite the rugby. Just praying weather holds. The remaining nine sat down to supper with three Verniotte vintages. Of course I think my boy makes the best Castillon of all.
Then we opened the box of 'Hugh Johnson Collection' that had been delivered specially. Looks nice, tastes better. Comes in a carton like a large briefcase with the six bottles cushioned carefully against shock.
Hugh selects these wines (3x2) with Justin MW and Abi. He looks for really special bottles. In this case a big Sancerre from Alphonse Mellot, the Chateauneuf that won this year's Wine Challenge Trophy … NB AFTER Hugh picked it, and a so-gentle 2001 St Emilion; Tertre Daugay. Wonderful stuff. HJ will be picking a case like this every 3 months. Limited Edition (very).
You want the benefit of a long lifetime travelling, tasting, writing? Hugh doesn't like to reduce wines to a numeric score. Too simplistic. He likes to write words. And what words! No-one ever did it better. But that is a hell of a lotta words.
Never mind the Wine Atlas and other big books, his Pocket Book is now in its 35th year, has up to the minute information on 6000 wines - completely revised every year. It’s written in his own-invented shorthand that pre-dated Tweets and Twitter by three decades, and is just dense, dense data. Notwithstanding, it has now sold over 11 million copies. Boggles your mind!
Far simpler, now, to sign up for his little selections; £150 for six bottles - not for everyone - but it is amazing what good deals wine-growers will offer just to get in Hugh's box … so it’s certainly good value. He really does choose them himself; they reflect the man himself.
Get the case and try for yourself.
Then put Hugh and Judy in the car and take them into town - the pretty way, of course, along the river. Dazzling reflected low sun.
Get Hugh to do a Presidential visit. Meeting everyone upstairs and down. Long chat with the 'Bounders' on the phones to their customers.
Mark had opened the big doors wide for a tasting bathed in light. We tried all our Castillons from separate properties - about half the price of those we tried yesterday. Is what Le Chai is for. Then we went though almost everything else. Which is a lot, just now.
Up to Le Comptoir for a lunch, outside. Then more wandering about with map in hand for Hugh. It’s what he does. Likes to get a feel for landscape.
Barbara had to catch a plane home to prepare for our final bit of harvesting; her Oxfordshire Chardonnay at the weekend. She has 52 volunteers despite the rugby. Just praying weather holds. The remaining nine sat down to supper with three Verniotte vintages. Of course I think my boy makes the best Castillon of all.
Then we opened the box of 'Hugh Johnson Collection' that had been delivered specially. Looks nice, tastes better. Comes in a carton like a large briefcase with the six bottles cushioned carefully against shock.
Hugh selects these wines (3x2) with Justin MW and Abi. He looks for really special bottles. In this case a big Sancerre from Alphonse Mellot, the Chateauneuf that won this year's Wine Challenge Trophy … NB AFTER Hugh picked it, and a so-gentle 2001 St Emilion; Tertre Daugay. Wonderful stuff. HJ will be picking a case like this every 3 months. Limited Edition (very).
You want the benefit of a long lifetime travelling, tasting, writing? Hugh doesn't like to reduce wines to a numeric score. Too simplistic. He likes to write words. And what words! No-one ever did it better. But that is a hell of a lotta words.
Never mind the Wine Atlas and other big books, his Pocket Book is now in its 35th year, has up to the minute information on 6000 wines - completely revised every year. It’s written in his own-invented shorthand that pre-dated Tweets and Twitter by three decades, and is just dense, dense data. Notwithstanding, it has now sold over 11 million copies. Boggles your mind!
Far simpler, now, to sign up for his little selections; £150 for six bottles - not for everyone - but it is amazing what good deals wine-growers will offer just to get in Hugh's box … so it’s certainly good value. He really does choose them himself; they reflect the man himself.
Get the case and try for yourself.
Friday, 14 October 2011
Operation Castillon
Today we are going to show Hugh the real Castillon. So maybe he'll add a new page to the next Wine Atlas! An initiative by Justin Howard-Sneyd MW our Wine Director and Clare Tooley who runs our Chai here.
I have spent the best part of my life fighting the battle of Castillon. Not the old 1453 one against the English but the modern one started in 1922 when Castillon was unfairly chopped out of the new St Emilion AOC by the sort of committee that now decides where World Cups get played.
That dodgy lot swapped our noble limestone hills (same as the hills of St Emilion) for a swathe of cattle pasture on the wet floodplain of the Dordogne. Unjust! We was robbed!
So, next day, with the J's and Clare, first do a circumnavigation of the district. Show the site of the ancient Battle of Castillon – a sad English defeat, plus the site where they re-play the battle every summer – and as many medieval châteaux and fortresses as I can fit in an hour. (More castles per square mile here than anywhere on earth).
To Silvio's Chateau Faugeres (our next door neighbour). He just had to build a new winery because the boundary between Castillon and St Emilion runs slap through the middle of his château. So he has a Castillon winery on one side and a St Emilion winery on the other. Both by famous architects. Clean, efficient, new … like Silvio.
I love his Castillons more than his St Emilions but might be biased.
Super lunch by new local Flying Chef. Jean-Baptiste Depons (nb. we should use him). Fine service meal; attractive menu with print of Chateau from original painting done with the Chateau wine.
Their white wine is DELICIOUS, Sémillon with a Sauvignon Gris component which they prize highly. Grown on the top of their hill. St Emilion white! Of course, it can only be labelled 'Bordeaux'.
Then to Château d'Aiguille to meet Count Stefan de Niepperg and Patrick, the winemaker. Do so admire what has been done here. Probably the most successful château in Castillon. Now 60 hectares – BIG! – but delicious and selling well all around the world. Used to be the château of the Counts of Castillon but burnt down, now a picturesque ruin.
As we drive out of the woods, in the water meadows below the castle, a shepherd is driving his flock of sheep and goats across the lane. What century are we in?
The vast place has plenty serviceable outbuildings plus the modern, circular winery. German-Swiss efficiency does a great job here. Gentle, gentle, gentle. Pigeage, no crushing, full berry fermentation. Even after punching process berries are unbroken and seeds remain within. Inspired by Burgundian delicate Pinot Noir handling. Very gentle.
Production: 60% first wine, 35% of second wine (Seigneurs d’Aiguilhe) – 150,000 to 180,000 bottles – 60ha, but not all in production
Clare’s tasting notes:
‘10 – deep dark colour, full violet scented, big bodied but v strongly structured - for the long term (Nb very late malolactic, not completely finished, same as at La Clarière - don't worry, Henry !!)
‘09 – just bottled, lovely sweetness to this, really crystal clear fruit, v great wine, lovely freshness
‘08 – less profound but playful fruit, stoney palate, tighter
‘05 – dark honey and treacle, spice on this gingerbread and jam, structured, a baby still
‘01 – lovely fresh smooth drinking now, really more-ish drink
Patrick, Stefan and Hugh at Aguille
Then on to Stéphane Derenoncourt at Domaine de l'A. This is right next door to us at La Clarière. A tired Stéphane had just got back from California and was due to fly out again the next day. Tough game, winemaking on different continents.
Has a neat little Burgundian-style cellar he built himself. It was in full swing, pressing. He took us off for another very impressive tasting. During which he did tell Hugh that the reason he – maybe the most celebrated wine consultant today – decided to set up here (rather than somewhere like Fronsac which he knew better) was partly due to tasting our La Clarière wines and seeing what we were doing here. He's an old friend of our Jean-Marc.
Count Stefan had said something similar.
So it was all worth it!
Back in the Eighties, no one in our district could contemplate making the investments in vineyards and chai that would lift their winemaking to St Emilion standards. Castillon wine sold for peanuts. Pay peanuts; get plonk, as we could say.
Then in 1980, monsieur Cassin and I started thinking we could maybe get our trusting customers to pay a more realistic price if we made a better wine. So we replanted with good vines, built a new cellar of stainless steel and fine oak barrels. We started to sort our harvest, throwing away poor quality grapes. (Neighbours convinced we were mad).
But the customers; our lovely Confrères loved it. So we kept modernising/improving. And people like Stéphane and Stefan noticed!!! Now there's a group of us. We WILL get Castillon the Recognition it deserves.
Stefan believes you always need a few characters to push an appellation. ‘Make the music’ and others will follow … we are making our music.
Hugh Johnson has heard it and likes it. We need to get more writers over here.
That's the next move.
I have spent the best part of my life fighting the battle of Castillon. Not the old 1453 one against the English but the modern one started in 1922 when Castillon was unfairly chopped out of the new St Emilion AOC by the sort of committee that now decides where World Cups get played.
That dodgy lot swapped our noble limestone hills (same as the hills of St Emilion) for a swathe of cattle pasture on the wet floodplain of the Dordogne. Unjust! We was robbed!
So, next day, with the J's and Clare, first do a circumnavigation of the district. Show the site of the ancient Battle of Castillon – a sad English defeat, plus the site where they re-play the battle every summer – and as many medieval châteaux and fortresses as I can fit in an hour. (More castles per square mile here than anywhere on earth).
To Silvio's Chateau Faugeres (our next door neighbour). He just had to build a new winery because the boundary between Castillon and St Emilion runs slap through the middle of his château. So he has a Castillon winery on one side and a St Emilion winery on the other. Both by famous architects. Clean, efficient, new … like Silvio.
I love his Castillons more than his St Emilions but might be biased.
Super lunch by new local Flying Chef. Jean-Baptiste Depons (nb. we should use him). Fine service meal; attractive menu with print of Chateau from original painting done with the Chateau wine.
Their white wine is DELICIOUS, Sémillon with a Sauvignon Gris component which they prize highly. Grown on the top of their hill. St Emilion white! Of course, it can only be labelled 'Bordeaux'.
Then to Château d'Aiguille to meet Count Stefan de Niepperg and Patrick, the winemaker. Do so admire what has been done here. Probably the most successful château in Castillon. Now 60 hectares – BIG! – but delicious and selling well all around the world. Used to be the château of the Counts of Castillon but burnt down, now a picturesque ruin.
As we drive out of the woods, in the water meadows below the castle, a shepherd is driving his flock of sheep and goats across the lane. What century are we in?
The vast place has plenty serviceable outbuildings plus the modern, circular winery. German-Swiss efficiency does a great job here. Gentle, gentle, gentle. Pigeage, no crushing, full berry fermentation. Even after punching process berries are unbroken and seeds remain within. Inspired by Burgundian delicate Pinot Noir handling. Very gentle.
Production: 60% first wine, 35% of second wine (Seigneurs d’Aiguilhe) – 150,000 to 180,000 bottles – 60ha, but not all in production
Clare’s tasting notes:
‘10 – deep dark colour, full violet scented, big bodied but v strongly structured - for the long term (Nb very late malolactic, not completely finished, same as at La Clarière - don't worry, Henry !!)
‘09 – just bottled, lovely sweetness to this, really crystal clear fruit, v great wine, lovely freshness
‘08 – less profound but playful fruit, stoney palate, tighter
‘05 – dark honey and treacle, spice on this gingerbread and jam, structured, a baby still
‘01 – lovely fresh smooth drinking now, really more-ish drink
Patrick, Stefan and Hugh at Aguille
Then on to Stéphane Derenoncourt at Domaine de l'A. This is right next door to us at La Clarière. A tired Stéphane had just got back from California and was due to fly out again the next day. Tough game, winemaking on different continents.
Has a neat little Burgundian-style cellar he built himself. It was in full swing, pressing. He took us off for another very impressive tasting. During which he did tell Hugh that the reason he – maybe the most celebrated wine consultant today – decided to set up here (rather than somewhere like Fronsac which he knew better) was partly due to tasting our La Clarière wines and seeing what we were doing here. He's an old friend of our Jean-Marc.
Count Stefan had said something similar.
So it was all worth it!
Back in the Eighties, no one in our district could contemplate making the investments in vineyards and chai that would lift their winemaking to St Emilion standards. Castillon wine sold for peanuts. Pay peanuts; get plonk, as we could say.
Then in 1980, monsieur Cassin and I started thinking we could maybe get our trusting customers to pay a more realistic price if we made a better wine. So we replanted with good vines, built a new cellar of stainless steel and fine oak barrels. We started to sort our harvest, throwing away poor quality grapes. (Neighbours convinced we were mad).
But the customers; our lovely Confrères loved it. So we kept modernising/improving. And people like Stéphane and Stefan noticed!!! Now there's a group of us. We WILL get Castillon the Recognition it deserves.
Stefan believes you always need a few characters to push an appellation. ‘Make the music’ and others will follow … we are making our music.
Hugh Johnson has heard it and likes it. We need to get more writers over here.
That's the next move.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
The Bordeaux Commute
Been a bit out of contact. Blackberry's playing up so may have lost a diary entry. And have been SO busy.
I left you last Friday night. Saturday I had the visiting Staff group over to La Clarière and, as usual, bored them with the ancient history of my arrival in the village in '65 and how it went from there. I saw eyes closing but that could have been hangovers.
Took them for a nice lunch at Le Comptoir. Then caught late plane home to UK. Quiet Oxfordshire Sunday, wife, dogs, walks. Monday: meetings, then inspiring lunch with CEO Simon in country pub (reputed to be haunt of the Middletons of Stanford Dingley ). Very good food. Just can't remember the name. Big tasting in afternoon (which tends to wipe the memory)!
Following morning B and I take the Southampton Bergerac flight back here. Hugh and Judy Johnson coming to stay.
I left you last Friday night. Saturday I had the visiting Staff group over to La Clarière and, as usual, bored them with the ancient history of my arrival in the village in '65 and how it went from there. I saw eyes closing but that could have been hangovers.
Took them for a nice lunch at Le Comptoir. Then caught late plane home to UK. Quiet Oxfordshire Sunday, wife, dogs, walks. Monday: meetings, then inspiring lunch with CEO Simon in country pub (reputed to be haunt of the Middletons of Stanford Dingley ). Very good food. Just can't remember the name. Big tasting in afternoon (which tends to wipe the memory)!
Following morning B and I take the Southampton Bergerac flight back here. Hugh and Judy Johnson coming to stay.
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
'Un staff' in Bordeaux
We had 'un staff' over Friday. People from Gloucester DC mostly, plus some from Theale and several over from Connecticut. Now THAT is dedication: flying from the US for just two days in Bordeaux, then back. Those will be tired people by now!
Nobody sleeps much on 'un staff' you see … Just 36 hours in Bordeaux, Médoc, St Emilion, Castillon, lots of wines to try... what's the point of sleeping?
Anne who leads these (they were her idea) took them first to visit Labegorce in Margaux. It’s right next door to/contiguous with Château Margaux but got left out over some wrangle when they were dishing out Classifications: a real Laithwaite-type producer. Then Rauzan-Segla with John Kolasa; a Brit who first came to Bordeaux – St Emilion – the same year I did. Our paths didn't cross till much later. He stayed fulltime. Ran Latour at one point.
Tom and I were to join the group but we got a visit from Tony Jordan instead. The Doc was staying at Cheval Blanc (for whom he is working on something exciting in China), so he and Michelle popped over. He'd had a look at our UK vineyards; Windsor, Marlow, Wyfold earlier in the week. Gave us a good mark – not something The Doc gives lightly.
Anyway, we showed them around La Clarière, Le Presbytere and Verniotte, plus a new vineyard we are buying just down the road. Then a visit to Le Chai where they ran into James; winemaker of Hunters of Marlborough who is working his second vintage with us. Tony is consultant to Hunters so they know each other well.
They joined in Bernadette's last Harvest Lunch (steak Bordeaux style with shallots and cooked over vine embers... Oh! OH!) … and then flew off. (Tony is the original Flying Winemaker and still lives the role). He wants me to go to these remote Chinese mountains with him, says I'll be amazed.
So that evening I finally caught up with Le Staff at L'Envers du Décor in St Emilion for a noisy evening. We took over the place except for one table and that was our NZ flyer at Le Chai James and his grandparents visiting from Italy where they now live. I apologised for the racket but doubt they heard.
Nobody sleeps much on 'un staff' you see … Just 36 hours in Bordeaux, Médoc, St Emilion, Castillon, lots of wines to try... what's the point of sleeping?
Anne who leads these (they were her idea) took them first to visit Labegorce in Margaux. It’s right next door to/contiguous with Château Margaux but got left out over some wrangle when they were dishing out Classifications: a real Laithwaite-type producer. Then Rauzan-Segla with John Kolasa; a Brit who first came to Bordeaux – St Emilion – the same year I did. Our paths didn't cross till much later. He stayed fulltime. Ran Latour at one point.
Tom and I were to join the group but we got a visit from Tony Jordan instead. The Doc was staying at Cheval Blanc (for whom he is working on something exciting in China), so he and Michelle popped over. He'd had a look at our UK vineyards; Windsor, Marlow, Wyfold earlier in the week. Gave us a good mark – not something The Doc gives lightly.
Anyway, we showed them around La Clarière, Le Presbytere and Verniotte, plus a new vineyard we are buying just down the road. Then a visit to Le Chai where they ran into James; winemaker of Hunters of Marlborough who is working his second vintage with us. Tony is consultant to Hunters so they know each other well.
They joined in Bernadette's last Harvest Lunch (steak Bordeaux style with shallots and cooked over vine embers... Oh! OH!) … and then flew off. (Tony is the original Flying Winemaker and still lives the role). He wants me to go to these remote Chinese mountains with him, says I'll be amazed.
So that evening I finally caught up with Le Staff at L'Envers du Décor in St Emilion for a noisy evening. We took over the place except for one table and that was our NZ flyer at Le Chai James and his grandparents visiting from Italy where they now live. I apologised for the racket but doubt they heard.
Friday, 7 October 2011
A reply from England
Hello Tony,
7:30, no bread run, but a Martin Campion run for me.
Got to Wyfold, Barbara and Cherry just in time, so by 8. Did not want to get told off by the boss. The kettle was on, coffee, home-made choc biscuits and flapjacks were a great welcome.
Instructions and training clear, so with lovely gloves on, we commenced. Good fun, mixed rows, mixed crops.
Barbara keeping an eye on the weighing scales to make sure all well.
Had to leave for NAH and back to fun at the desk.
Hope grape juice good and all goes well.
Kind regards,
Arnold Meenderink, Wine Supply
7:30, no bread run, but a Martin Campion run for me.
Got to Wyfold, Barbara and Cherry just in time, so by 8. Did not want to get told off by the boss. The kettle was on, coffee, home-made choc biscuits and flapjacks were a great welcome.
Instructions and training clear, so with lovely gloves on, we commenced. Good fun, mixed rows, mixed crops.
Barbara keeping an eye on the weighing scales to make sure all well.
Had to leave for NAH and back to fun at the desk.
Hope grape juice good and all goes well.
Kind regards,
Arnold Meenderink, Wine Supply
Thursday, 6 October 2011
La Clarière
8.00am. Dawn bread run, road up on high ridge is clear, cold, vines going golden. Huge red sun half over horizon, but valleys filled with mist. Harvesters not looking happy, coughing, flapping arms to get warm. They don't have warm clothes! Why? We are picking La Clariere Cab Franc this morning. Cab Sauv this PM.
Nearly run down little Maitena (Flying Winemaker) come up from Midi to taste what the grapes she harvested for us have turned into at Le Chai.
Breakfast to sound of Tom and Scott doing Presbytere morning pump overs. Barely awake. (It was a good evening). Me then writing stuff for my Boss Emma. Send message to wife back home; today she's picking Pinots at Wyfold. No response of course. It'll be mayhem.
Go down to Chai. River is full of boats, men fishing. Warm water + cold air = more fish, apparently. Mark and James give me my first taste through their 2011 whites. Mostly finished ferment.
Highlights
From St Radegonde:
Tank 1 Sauvignon Blanc (Laithwaite) done with J-MS’ traditional yeast
Tank 2 Sauvignon Blanc done with James' NZ yeast. Worlds apart. Blending the two will give complexity.
Barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc … richer, longer … rather more expensive, though!
Sauvignon Gris … big tank. Glad of that. Is a cracker.
Dry Bordeaux White with Botrytis Sémillon. My little mad idea for this year. Not dry yet but the 'Marmalade' flavour is there and Mark is happy.
Viognier from Limoux. The one in cask is nice. Tank stuff WILL be fine … but not at the moment it isn’t. Not worried because Mark is very happy with.
Carignan Blanc. Every year now, I ask Mark to do a rare new grape. This one looks very promising. Using a trial yeast no-one else has. Characterful.
Hyper-oxidated Chardonnay. It’s a little trick they use to make a very different wine that blends in for complexity. But it doesn't taste oxidised or "à la Espiet" as they say. Sarcastically. (We've had wine makers in that cellar since '86 … doing cracking stuff. But the cellar's own wines have not changed a jot. Very Traditional. Very yellow.)
All meet up at La Clarière for a lunch of Morue (cod). Cod and potato soup, salad, then cod 'Brandade'. So for first time ever we just serve whites at table. Ste. Colombe natives are incensed. Maitena's own Xacoli from the hanging vineyards of San Sebastian coastline is a first. Blasts the mouth clean. Not so much a taste as a sensation. Love it. By contrast the last-week-bottled La Voute is a cream dream. And last year's Baron's Roussanne!!! Makes you weep. If we've any left, grab it. Because none was made this year. Grapes rained into pulp. Sweet little Maitena was supposed to harvest it but said "Grapes were "sh**". Her English is improving. Baron probably still apoplectic.
Just writing this after lunch. Nothing to do. Emails have stopped. Has world ended now Steve (the hero) has gone?
Hello England. Knock-knock. I know you are busy. But send me some work. Eh?
Nearly run down little Maitena (Flying Winemaker) come up from Midi to taste what the grapes she harvested for us have turned into at Le Chai.
Breakfast to sound of Tom and Scott doing Presbytere morning pump overs. Barely awake. (It was a good evening). Me then writing stuff for my Boss Emma. Send message to wife back home; today she's picking Pinots at Wyfold. No response of course. It'll be mayhem.
Go down to Chai. River is full of boats, men fishing. Warm water + cold air = more fish, apparently. Mark and James give me my first taste through their 2011 whites. Mostly finished ferment.
Highlights
From St Radegonde:
Tank 1 Sauvignon Blanc (Laithwaite) done with J-MS’ traditional yeast
Tank 2 Sauvignon Blanc done with James' NZ yeast. Worlds apart. Blending the two will give complexity.
Barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc … richer, longer … rather more expensive, though!
Sauvignon Gris … big tank. Glad of that. Is a cracker.
Dry Bordeaux White with Botrytis Sémillon. My little mad idea for this year. Not dry yet but the 'Marmalade' flavour is there and Mark is happy.
Viognier from Limoux. The one in cask is nice. Tank stuff WILL be fine … but not at the moment it isn’t. Not worried because Mark is very happy with.
Carignan Blanc. Every year now, I ask Mark to do a rare new grape. This one looks very promising. Using a trial yeast no-one else has. Characterful.
Hyper-oxidated Chardonnay. It’s a little trick they use to make a very different wine that blends in for complexity. But it doesn't taste oxidised or "à la Espiet" as they say. Sarcastically. (We've had wine makers in that cellar since '86 … doing cracking stuff. But the cellar's own wines have not changed a jot. Very Traditional. Very yellow.)
All meet up at La Clarière for a lunch of Morue (cod). Cod and potato soup, salad, then cod 'Brandade'. So for first time ever we just serve whites at table. Ste. Colombe natives are incensed. Maitena's own Xacoli from the hanging vineyards of San Sebastian coastline is a first. Blasts the mouth clean. Not so much a taste as a sensation. Love it. By contrast the last-week-bottled La Voute is a cream dream. And last year's Baron's Roussanne!!! Makes you weep. If we've any left, grab it. Because none was made this year. Grapes rained into pulp. Sweet little Maitena was supposed to harvest it but said "Grapes were "sh**". Her English is improving. Baron probably still apoplectic.
Just writing this after lunch. Nothing to do. Emails have stopped. Has world ended now Steve (the hero) has gone?
Hello England. Knock-knock. I know you are busy. But send me some work. Eh?
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Vintage 2011 reports from Mark Hoddy in Bordeaux and the Midi
Un Vent de Folie!
It's been the most superb weather here in Bordeaux for the last 10 days … a huge turn around from what was almost a disastrous vintage. 30-degree heat and cool, dry nights have enabled the reds to reach optimum ripeness and concentration. Those growers who played the risk game by waiting can now look forward to making some superb wines!
With another week of sun and heat forecast we will be taking in the Cabernets at the end of the week. That means I can make another dash down to the Midi to do the rounds with Maitena checking all the ferments
I have just spent the day helping Jean-Charles making our ‘Un Vent de Folie’ in his very small garage winery. We are both tall guys and in his tiny garage cellar it was like playing twister but we know each other well-enough over the last ten years to be comfortable working together!
It’s a dream team of top grower and a good winemaker; both with the passion for Grenache and the Maury terroir.
It’s hard, very hard, but with sheer graft and determination it gets better and better and better. We are so proud to have made this wine and I only wish his Great-Grandparents could have tasted it
JC’s wife Celine who was full time in the vineyard unfortunately couldn't be there to enjoy quality time with her family and me as she was back at work. However she had prepared our lunch last night when she got home from working at the supermarket in Perpignan.
Granddad (Papy) and Grandma (Mamy) were there though and arrived to enjoy a well-deserved break after they had been in the vineyard clearing up after harvest. Once again over lunch I learned even more about wine, the family and the region, and of course Grandma insisted on washing up! Papy was telling the stories and asking when Tony would return so he could redo the snail BBQ in his tool shed that he so fondly remembers!
Such a great family and you can’t get any closer to true wine growers. And we (Laithwaites) help, so important.
It all started 10 years ago when I was randomly placed as a ‘flying winemaker’ working at the cooperative in Maury. Amongst the mayhem of harvest, I spotted a trailer full of the best Grenache I had ever tasted and at the wheel was a young grower Jean-Charles ‘JC’ Duran. We hit it off straight away with our passion for the local terroir and the determination to make the best red wine from the local varietals.
After meeting a couple of times in the cooperative tractor car park he decided to take me out to his family’s remote vineyards planted in a 'soil' of scrunched up slate. But the yields were tiny and he was worried that, like many small farmers, he'd have to abandon growing.
We became mates and over beers one night in the La Placette village café we made a plan. He would go independent and convert the garage below his house into a basic two-tank winery. I would make his wine there, give it some barrel ageing elsewhere … and now ‘elsewhere’ is proudly in Le Chai Au Quai.
Now every year I haul his young wine up to Le Chai au Quai where I look after it like it was my own child. Here I give it careful ageing in new French oak barrels and the best bottling conditions which this wine would have never seen!
Ten years on our collaboration and careful work in the vineyard and in his garage winery has resulted in the ultimate grower/winemaker partnership wine ‘Un Vent de Folie’. I think together we now make a wine well worthy of his magnificent ancient vines. Try one; you won’t be disappointed.
It's been the most superb weather here in Bordeaux for the last 10 days … a huge turn around from what was almost a disastrous vintage. 30-degree heat and cool, dry nights have enabled the reds to reach optimum ripeness and concentration. Those growers who played the risk game by waiting can now look forward to making some superb wines!
With another week of sun and heat forecast we will be taking in the Cabernets at the end of the week. That means I can make another dash down to the Midi to do the rounds with Maitena checking all the ferments
I have just spent the day helping Jean-Charles making our ‘Un Vent de Folie’ in his very small garage winery. We are both tall guys and in his tiny garage cellar it was like playing twister but we know each other well-enough over the last ten years to be comfortable working together!
It’s a dream team of top grower and a good winemaker; both with the passion for Grenache and the Maury terroir.
JC’s wife Celine who was full time in the vineyard unfortunately couldn't be there to enjoy quality time with her family and me as she was back at work. However she had prepared our lunch last night when she got home from working at the supermarket in Perpignan.
Granddad (Papy) and Grandma (Mamy) were there though and arrived to enjoy a well-deserved break after they had been in the vineyard clearing up after harvest. Once again over lunch I learned even more about wine, the family and the region, and of course Grandma insisted on washing up! Papy was telling the stories and asking when Tony would return so he could redo the snail BBQ in his tool shed that he so fondly remembers!
Such a great family and you can’t get any closer to true wine growers. And we (Laithwaites) help, so important.
After meeting a couple of times in the cooperative tractor car park he decided to take me out to his family’s remote vineyards planted in a 'soil' of scrunched up slate. But the yields were tiny and he was worried that, like many small farmers, he'd have to abandon growing.
We became mates and over beers one night in the La Placette village café we made a plan. He would go independent and convert the garage below his house into a basic two-tank winery. I would make his wine there, give it some barrel ageing elsewhere … and now ‘elsewhere’ is proudly in Le Chai Au Quai.
Now every year I haul his young wine up to Le Chai au Quai where I look after it like it was my own child. Here I give it careful ageing in new French oak barrels and the best bottling conditions which this wine would have never seen!
Ten years on our collaboration and careful work in the vineyard and in his garage winery has resulted in the ultimate grower/winemaker partnership wine ‘Un Vent de Folie’. I think together we now make a wine well worthy of his magnificent ancient vines. Try one; you won’t be disappointed.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Verniotte is done
Last '11 grapes picked this morning for Verniotte, in a dense mist which did not lift until we had finished. That's more normal vintage weather than the baking sun we've had lately.
Henry getting a lot of fraternal abuse; that 'Golden Son' piece in the new Catalogue. Wasn't me who wrote that. Bound to cause trouble.
Did a trailer load of his Cab Franc from the Hill of Doom (which is actually a pretty place with commanding views – except this morning). We were able to sort this fruit before lunch despite a few mechanical failures. Sometimes I wish we were back to the old wooden sorting table and arm muscle. Less to go wrong and you worked off more of the excessive food …
Which today was veg soup, superb tomato salad, and a 'Boeuf La Clariere' that had the whole table passionately embracing Bernadette and asking if she'd come to England and cook the same. No chance, she's never left the village since she came from St Emilion to get married to old Guy. Likes it here.
No tanks have actually finished fermenting so it’s hard to judge the wine. Looks all right though. Very dark.
Still have some Cab Sauv to pick for LaClariere. Not sure when that will be. Hopefully when it’s ripe. Which means the weather has to stay good.
So … a few days enforced idleness. I say that ironically. No end of stuff to write, to mend and prams to push around.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Nearly done with the harvest
First sight of the 2011 Presbytere as Henry and Scott do the 'early morning' pumpovers - a bit late today on account of the rugby and last night's party.
Last night we enjoyed 'Smartley's Bar' with truly amazing cocktails, then a Celebrity Wine Tasting competition which of course I won as I had Sam Neal's NZ Pinot Noir. It trounced Sir Cliff and AC/DC, plus all the usual golfers and Formula One drivers. Ken Hom came last. Luckily the requirement we all dress up as our Celebs was cancelled. By and large, Celebs should not bother with wine making, was the general view.
Dancing went on very late. Only one in the fountain. The usual one.
Vintage 2011 is virtually over. So this morning as I collected our regular massive bread and croissants order I had to say it was the last. Most of our harvesters are off on the early plane.
Just a small field of Cabernet Franc remains but there is no rush as the weather is just lovely. So we and our grapes will grab a few last rays of sun while we still can.
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