After the hard work ..... Before the hard work


Harvest finshed with the traditional "Repas des Vendanges" the harvest dinner.
The harvesters are invited to share a dinner in the cellar , to enjoy wine and food and share stories and jokes.
They promised to come back next year, the food must have been good.











The team is now reduced to two, Alain and Philippe.And the work continues.
Décuvage, the emptying of the fermentation tanks and the disposal of the lees toke place over the last few days, the young wine is finished now and will star its maturation process.
2009 is the year it will be bottled, three long years of patience!!

All the grapes are in the cellar by now.
It was a long harvest, interrupted by some rain, but it was a great harvest.

All the fruit arrived in the cellar in perfect condition, healthy, clean, no rot, no disease.




Again the year long work in the vineyard was rewarded.

But now the real work starts, vinification.
Transforming the fruit into great wine.

The White is bubbling away,
The Rosé is is going into oak,


while the Reds are getting the " foot massage" or pigeage as it is called in french.



We use the traditional way , no machines, no robots but real human feet massaging the grapes to give their best.

The sun is back! After two days of rain and storm the sun came back. The harvest started again and in a few days all the grapes should be in the cellar . A good team of harvesters is essential in this situation.




The work in the cellar is going along fine, the White is still fermenting, the Reds have started to bubble and move.





It looks like the 2006 will be another great vintage.

The weather has changed, dark clouds made their appearance, heavy rain came down on us.
Montpeyroux was more or less spared, 30 mm "only" , Montpellier was closer to 150 mm.
All our Syrah is in the cellar, and does it look good.

Our Merlot has started to ferment and as you can see here is just looking great.







Today no harvest as the ground is quite wet, and we want the grapes to soak up some of the water.

More news tomorrow.

Lots has happened since our last post on the blog.

The weather is still holding up, all the Whites are in the cellar.

The Reds start to come in, first the Merlot and now the Syrah, the fruit is just stunning.
The work all year in the vinyard is showing. Not a single rot, homogeneous berries, great taste and maturity.





The villages around are in full swing, harvesting machines, tractors, are all over the vinyards.

This is crunch time, the weather might change and some rain is predicted for tomorrow, the sensitive Syrah has to be picked before the showers if only possible.

We are only hand picking, no harvesting machine on our land, so we are scrambling to get a few more pickers to join the team.



In the cellar the white juice has started to ferment, a slow movement of the liquid shows the intense activity fermentation creates.







The reds are destemmed and dropped into the fermentation tanks, no pressing of course.

So today was the last "White" day.



Great fruit, sooo sweet the Vermantino, and the Chenin Blanc will add the acidity and the structure.

Here a single grape of Chenin Blanc.




Tomorrow we will start the Reds. Merlot will be the first one. Pictures to follow.

Harvest started today at 8 in the morning.
The weather is ideal, slightly overcast, not too hot.
Ideal for the harvesters. Ideal for the fruit.



We started with the white grapes, Vermantino.
Just look at that golden colour, those grapes will produce a sweet juice, so yummy , this must give a great wine.






The grapes arrive at the cellar in crates and are dumped in a destemmer before being put in the press.

Harvest in Montpeyroux

Harvest time has arrived.
The village is getting ready, the cellars are cleaned , the cuves are ready to receive the year's work.
It looks good , the grapes look good .