Harvest News

Evening all.

I spent today visiting our wine makers in the region to get a “hands on” of the harvest to date. First up was Pierre Lavau from St Emilion, a quick visit to Francis Meynard and Regis Moro in Cote de Castillon, then onto Michel Coudroy Pomerol and Lalande de Pomerol and finally Jean Claude Paret in Montagne St Emillion.

Work is still continuing in most vineyards and a combination of factors is tipping the 2010 vintage towards being splendid wines.

The general feedback has been the great quality of the Merlot picked so far, with the grapes giving moderate yields with a lot of concentration.

Also the natural alcohol content is about 13% in all areas, with excellent acidity levels which should result in well balanced wines.

The grape skins are thick and aromatic with ripe pips and there is no evidence of vegetal characteristic which can give the wines a green pepper aroma, overall expect well balanced smooth tasting wines.

And finally all the wine makers commented on the great colour of the must which has powerful strong aromas of black and red fruit.

The vintage is now nearing its close and we shall soon be able to judge how good these wines will be.

Dinner is about ready and I'm opening a Vieux Champs de Mars 1998 which Regis kindly gave to me earlier today.

He was delighted that everyone in Ireland enjoyed the Pelan Bellvue 2001 offer.

O yes the best part of wine making, the tasting.

Cheers, Paddy

Morning Harvest

Morning All.

We had some amazing weather in the last few days; it hit 26 on Friday and 27 degrees on Saturday with glorious sunshine. Mike and Daragh were over and we had a wee Port tasting on Thursday night with the compulsory black teeth on Friday morning. The weather today is back to normal for this time of year a little overcast and much cooler, which I expect is welcomed by the pickers (vendangeurs) now streaming through the vineyards.

Jean Claude in La Fauconnerie started the grape harvest last Thursday, and early every morning there is a hive of activity on the roads as machinery and pickers are marshalled into place. Everywhere you look you see cars and vans parked up next to vineyards and the bobbing heads of pickers working through the lines of vines.

The vineyards in front of the house are still awaiting picking, last year over half were done by hand and the remainder by machine.

I was speaking to a number of growers last night and they expect the yields to be well down (almost 25%) on the last couple of years and the quality is excellent.

All the best

Paddy.

Ban Des Vendages - St Emilion

The Ban Des Vendages de la Jurade de Saint Emilion was held on Sunday 19th September. This event is held every year and signals the beginning of grape picking season in all the major chateaux in the region.

The Jurade are a secular body established by King John of England and France in 1199. The members of the Jurade continue to wear the distinctive red robes. From the top of the King's tower in St Emilion, the jury officially announces the start of the season and then a procession winds its way through the narrow cobblestone streets of St Emilion.

This year the event was watched by over 30,000 onlookers and I attended the official wine tasting with Regis Moro, the general consensus this year is the vintage will be small but good, an enjoyable afternoon was had by all.

September Morning in St Emilion

It is now 9.30am on the 16th of September and commencement of the harvest is quickly approaching; and what a harvest it promises to be. Tasted some grapes from our vineyard this morning and the potential is certainly there to produce a very special wine. This photo has just been taken from our balcony, a good indication of what September mornings are like here in St.Emilion, Bordeaux.

All this talk of grapes and wine is making me extremely thirsty; and hey, if Brian Cowen, the leader of Ireland, can, then so can I!

cheers, Paddy

http://www.thewinebuff.com/

Sligo Tom Located at Last

All is well Linda, we have located Tom; in fact he has been hiding out in Chateau "La Fauconnerie" since your visit her last week. He must have climbed into a wine vat as we were leaving.

Not quite sure how Mikey got in there though, but anyway, both Tom and Mikey are in great spirits! The photo on the right includes one of the Barrel's the guys got through before we found them, it will soon make it's appearance in your Sligo shop.

cheers, Paddy

36 Degrees

Went for a stroll in St.Emilion last evening to cool down a little. 36 degrees here yesterday afternoon and pretty humid. Watched Cork defeat Dublin in a very close game, but one we deserved to win !

Véraison

"Véraison" is the changing of the colour of the grape (ripening).

The righthand photo was taken in my neighbours vineyard, and as you can see from the different colour berries the Véraison has only recently began.

On the far left is a photo taken on the same day in "Chateau Cheval Blanc", one of the top, and most expensive, wines worldwide. The vineyards are perhaps 5 kilometers apart and you can see from the difference in the colour of the grapes how far advanced the Veraison is in "Cheval Blanc".

Daragh and I assisted a good friend move his wine cellar one evening. Following the boxing of the wines our friend Don opened a bottle of "Cheval Blanc 1986" for us to drink with a scrumptious home made Shepard's pie. At €600 a bottle it was a handsome reward for 3 hours work/pleasure.

La Fauconnerie

Photo taken with Jean-Claude Paret of Chateau " La Fauconnerie" yesterday evening. Tom & Linda from The Wine Buff Sligo, and their friends Pam & David, experienced some amazing wines with the 2009 perhaps proving to be the most exceptional. More to follow.

Back Home Again

Have just arrived back home to Montagne, St.Emilion after a spectacular wine tour of the Douro valley and a few memorable days tasting in Porto. Kicked the weighing scale under the cabinet as one should do following a week of excesses. Little or no traffic encountered on route, thirteen hours to arrive home and this included four stops. How did we ever manage before GPS technology? And not once did the GPS shout back!

Stopped for lunch in a small town, Vila pouce de Aguiar, in Portugal. seventeen euro for two meals that included copious servings of sea bream, potato, veg, a side salad, four bottles of sparkling water and a glass of wine! Picked up some fabulous cheeses to taste with Tom and Linda, the owners of the Wine Buff in Sligo, who are travelling out to soak up the atomsphere and do a weee bit of wine tasting.....well I'll keep you posted on the wine tasting.

Rui Paula's "DOC"

Took this photo from Rui Paula's restaurant "DOC" the day prior to our departing the Douro Valley. A fabulous restaurant sitting on pylons in the Douro river with spectacular views; we had the privilege of eating in both Rui's restaurants which are located in Armamar and Porto. At the end of the night we sat out on the terrace to drink a tea (couldn't possibly fit any more wine) and it really was a magical experience.

Reminds me of the time Mike McDonnell and I visited Gerard Morin on the final day of their harvest in Sancerre. After an extremely long lunch with the vendangers, and an even longer afternoon in Gerard's private cellar, Mike and I covered well over twice the ground we should have on the walk back to the hotel. After dinner Mike went missing and I later located him having a few beers with the owner of the hotel. Expressing my shock at Mike drinking beer after all the wine we had "tasted", he calmly replied "yeah, I know, but I just couldn't get any more wine into me".

Porto 10th August

Have spent the last week in the Douro Valley researching wines and Ports; now in Porto for three days of wine research with friends living here. Originally planned to update this blog daily but a combination of many tastings’ and a lack of internet access delayed the first entry. The real truth is, after the many strenuous tastings’ undertaken each day, the only person with a reasonable chance of understanding my updates would have been me; and even then only at the time of writing them!

There are many exciting developments occurring here in the Douro Valley, and once back in Bordeaux I will do a detailed update. Off to meet a French oenologist friend of mine who has been living here for the last 15 years, he has become a real specialist of Port wines. We shared a few glasses last night and today he is introducing me to some of the up and coming stars of the Douro region.

Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to work I go dee dle i d di

Evening in St Emilion

Plenty of rain here over the last week, I gather almost on par with Ireland. Even hailstones on two occasions! Hailstones are especially worrying for winemakers at this time of year as they will decimate the grapes when big enough. I have seen hailstones the size of golf balls and witnessed the damage they cause first hand, thankfully on this occasion way to small.

It is 8pm and 26 degrees. The weather is supposed to get much warmer over the weekend, 30+ degrees and plenty of sun. It‘s also really windy for this time of year, earlier to my utter dismay, whilst sitting on the balcony, having a nice cup of tea, my chocolate biscuits were blown off their plate and into the garden below. Back out to the balcony now to have dinner; fresh organic vegetable pasta with a nicely chilled bottle of Mas du Novi Rose.

I’m driving to the Douro Valley in the morning for a week of Port and wine tasting, and then onto the city of Porto for a few more days of port tasting. This job just gets tougher and tougher! Will keep you posted.

Visit to Regis Moro

Popped over to Regis from Chateau Vieux Champs de Mars last Friday and he was in great form. I had a wine maker friend from Spain staying with us in Montagne St Emilion and I wanted him to taste Regis's wines.

After a tour of the property we had the obligatory tasting, the Spanish winemaker Angel pronounced Ankhell was blown away by the quality, freshness and price of Regis's wines and left with two cases of Pelan Bellevue under his arms and a case of Vieux Champs de Mars and Johanna under mine. He said he would be happy to pay €30 a bottle for the Pelan Bellevue.

We will be bringing in Angel's wine in the next few weeks called "Ovidio" from the La Mancha region in Spain. So keep an eye out for the distinctive bottle in the shops in August.

What we drank over the weekend

Pelan Bellevue 2001

Clos de l'Epinay, Vouvray 2008

Herve Mathelin Premiere Brut Champagne

Haut Tropchaud, Pomerol 2000

Chateau Pape Clement 2001

Chateau Lagrange 2001

Ovidio 2006

Back to work.....