So Henry spends the morning going round all the family's vineyards here with the 'Grape Whisperer' (Bernard Soutre), comes into lunch late and says " Want the good news or the bad"? We say "the bad". He says "we're not picking tomorrow ... in fact we're not picking this week"!
Great! We've cancelled meetings and changed flights (Tom, from Australia) and for what? To sit around.
The good news is that the grapes are lovely. No rot, very sweet.. Just still to acid. Which is probably due to the droughts we've had which cause the vines to shut down activity, rather than properly ripen their fruit. So you have this odd situation; grapes sweet enough to make a very strong wine - but one which would taste a touch green.
So ...we must wait. And also pray the weather holds. A little rain would be welcome. But no great storms please.
Unable just to sit we wash down and tidy up our cellars. Henry finally finds a way to clean up his barrels which after the last filling looked like they'd been involved in a massacre (he blames me). No massacre, just more proof that the 2009 is a very rich wine indeed!
Visit laithwaites.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment