The last 3 days have been a little manic to say the least. The Chai winemakers have been putting in very long hours to get the fruit off the vine in the South of France, up to the Chai and into barrels and vats for selected fermentations. The Grenache Gris, Chardonnay from Carcassonne, the Viognier, the all new Carignan Blanc and the Sauvignon Gris from Le Coin are now all in and we now have 22 individual fermentations underway and WOW, is the Chai alive!
Bad news in the Midi, though; a freak amount of rain has fallen. The latest vineyard to suffer severely is the Roussanne and unfortunately there will be none this year. However, the high-altitude La Voute vineyards survived the rain well but knocked back the maturity by 5 days. I will leave it on the vine longer and if the weather stays warm and dry we should harvest end of next week.
Midi reds including the 2011 XV du President will start end next week.
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