Pure
Carignan red and Grenache white were the surprise
successes of coaxing wines out of the gravillas.
Those wines, Lo Vièlh and L'Inattendu, have
been good enough that we sometimes ask ourselves
if the plantations were necessary. But a sip of
the new muscats or a thought of our young Vous en
Voulez, en VOILA 5 variety red by the pool-side
puts that question quickly to bed. We now work 6
hectares organically (that's bio), with severe pruning
to reduce yields and increase maturity and concentration,
lots of spring/summer work on each plant, maximum
waiting for maximum ripeness in September and October,
severe field sorting at harvest to keep only the
delicious grapes and non-interventionist winemaking
to hang on to the flavors that came in the cellar
door. We even foot crush all the grapes, if anyone
out there needs something to do in October...
2007
is over.
This
was the perfect storm harvest. Perfect grapes. Faster
pickers. More grapes (too many for our tanks, now
the tanks are double parked and 2 more barrels are
full of white--we're at our space limit). Fermentations
are finishing slowly (penance?) but tastings are
good. The whites are great. The reds very good.
The Muscat is, well, Muscat. All this wine means
we're going to need a couple more countries drinking
Gravillas. Who's it going to be in 2008?

What
changed in 2007? John rolled his caterpillar tractor
and survived; the tractor needed open heart surgery
but is back in service, if still bleeding slowly.
The weeds took advantage--we pulled more than normal
by hand. We're still working organic (now 4th year)
but we actually completed the certification paperwork.
Heavy mildew and oidium pressure early in the season
meant that our sulfur dusting had to be rigorous
and regular. We borrowed some "biodynamic"
tricks--using clay and algae powders to combat fungus
and reduce copper and sulfur. April was very hot
(we swam), May and June were like normal April except
for it didn't rain but once. It didn't rain in July
either and almost didn't in August. Very dry summer.
Fortunately, August was very cool (we didn't swim
!) and September gave just enough rain to bring
the grapes to ripe. Great acidity, not too much
alcohol. Super taste. Harvest start 27 August, finish
3 October.
2006: We had a very wet, wet, mushy, slow, lunatic
harvest, with all the new whites coming in perfectly
before the humidity got too intense but with serious
work required to bring in perfect and very ripe
red grapes after a couple hundred millimeters of
rain. The 2006 reds made it into their barrel in
May. The Muscats are all bottled and now making
it onto shelves everywhere (!). L'Inattendu is just
grenache again in 2006. There's a bit of pure terret
in bottle but still no label in sight !
We
were looking forward to this (our 8th) harvest especially
because we've now got THIRTEEN grape
varieties (just bought 3 more white
parcels) and hoped that the new grenache blanc,
terret gris and macabeu would blend perfectly with
our grenache gris. But they weren't as racy as they
should have been so they got excluded from L'Inattendu.
2007 is looking much more promising for the new
white cepages.
And we are delighted that Sous les
cailloux des Grillons (under the stones, crickets),
the 7 grape blend red, is in bottle and it's smooth.
Who can guess the 7 varietals???

2006...
In
2005, we had a bountiful harvest. After 3 bone dry
months, we finally got some rain mid August and
the grapes came around. Harvest was WET, with 150mm
on one September weekend and 400mm more by the end
of October--usually a half-year total here. (and
over a meter by spring
time--though zero since May!) We finished picking
10 October, with a half day's harvest still out
waiting for "just a touch more ripeness",
but then came 10 days of rain and those grapes had
to be left in the field. Our "wait however
long it takes for ripeness" wager didn't pay
off in 2005, at least not on two days of harvest
that got left behind--but that's the risk we have
to take.. What's now finished fermenting is really
good though and half went into barrels in June.
For
more 2005 info, see our first sort-of-blog.
Pictures
? Click here!