The GG calls!

Maïtena, my eyes in the Midi, gave me a call late last night to say the GG or Grenache Gris will be harvested first thing this morning, so I was up at the crack of dawn to get to the Maury for the first vineyard. I arrived in good time and the first boxes of delicate GG grapes were arriving and being carefully unloaded on to the sorting table before making their way up the conveyor and into the press.

The elusive cellar master extraordinaire Benjamin at the Cave Maury who is always dashing around doing about 15 jobs at the same time stopped to help Maïtena and I load the tanker down below thorough the top window of the cellar by gravity!

The elusive cellar master extraordinaire Benjamin at the Cave Maury who is always dashing around doing about 15 jobs at the same time stopped to help Maïtena and I load the tanker down below thorough the top window of the cellar by gravity!

Many people do not realise that although the GG is one wine, it is made up of very differently made GG’s. Some juice is free run to be fermented crisp and cold for aroma, another batch has been mixed with skins for 6 hours and is as orange as Fanta to help tropical flavours, a third lot is lightly pressed to extract subtle tannin which will help integrate with the oak barrels. Now Petit Denis had all the fermentation, he can allocate the different batches into different vats until I get back to the Chai this evening.

We then made our way to Beziers to firstly see a new Roussanne vineyard that I managed to find. The grapes are in wonderful condition but lack a bit of acidity, but I am going to balance this with a touch of Marsanne from a neighbouring vineyard.

The Vermentino vineyard was also in great shape and the delicate lemony and herbal flavours are beginning to show. Just need to get the bunches on the inside of the leaf canopy a bit riper and I believe in 7-9 days we will harvest.

At Domaine Coussergues, the Champ d’Etoile Pinot Noir harvested earlier in the week was already safely of skins and finishing ferment without the worry over anymore tannin extraction that may leave the wine with hard to get rid of drying finish.

A quick stop off in the Minervois to check the reds which are still a couple of weeks away rounded off a good day’s tour and I sped back to Bordeaux leaving Maïtena to oversee the progress in the Midi.

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Flying Winemakers Arrive!

Today I find myself at Bordeaux airport in the rather makeshift new Bordeaux Billie terminal waiting for the two flying winemakers who will be helping me through harvest.

First to arrive from Madrid was Maïtena Barrero, daughter of winemaker Tony Barrero the man behind El Bombero and other great wines. Next through customs all the way from New Zealand was James Macdonald – also from a star winemaking family, Hunter Wines in Marlborough.

With Maïtena’s good experience making wines in a hot climate, I will be sending her to be based in the Midi to keep an eye on lazy grape growers and cellarhands when my back is turned! James on the other hand will be based here in Bordeaux at the Chai and his expertise from the North Island in NZ means he will be assigned to the Sauvignon Blanc, along with helping out Petit Denis and myself in the hub of the Chai winemaking.

Once back at the Chai we started the day with a briefing of all the wines and volumes we were to be making this year and who would be responsible for what. This was followed by a huge range tasting of all the wines JMS and I made from last year so that everyone had an idea of the style of wines which will prove vital to choosing the harvest dates.

The large range at the Chai is not a common sight for winemakers and a slightly concerned look had started to set in. However once I assured everyone that I would be on hand to oversee and that I was not going to leave in the middle of nowhere the faces turned back to normal!

Once the tasting had finished and everyone was clear in their minds we headed out into the vineyards and wineries of the Entre-Deux-Mers to show James the Sauvignon Blanc and introduced him to what will be his new working comrades over the next 2½ months. JMS led the way by pointing, talking fast and giving inside advice – well it is his 18th harvest here so he knows the place rather well!

On return to Castillon and the obligatory introduction to French cuisine at none other than Le Voyageurs, Petit Denis was over the moon and the new winemakers received the apparently Dordogne custom gift of a Opinal pen knife. But for good luck to be exchanged, the winemakers had to hand back a small copper coin – well that’s what Petit Denis says anyway!

In the evening the Chai and Libby hosted magnificently once more, yet another fantastic wedding reception for 100 people! We were entertained by accordionist Cristian Gourault whilst the guests sipped on Laithwaite Champagne and moved freely amongst the barrels inside cellar and outside to the quay.

The outbounder team on their two week stint at the Chai were also on hand to serve up a range of Chai wines including Baron du Roussanne, VO, La Voute, Font del Bosc, Grand Chai Paullac.

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Weird Grapes!

I made way back towards Bordeaux from my Midi tour and after a tip off from Tony, I took a right turn at Toulouse towards Albi to stop off in the forgotten wine region of Gaillac.

Tony knows the area well and had been here in the early days. His talk of the weird and unheard grape varieties of this extra terrestrial wine appellation made me eager to see them for myself. After about 30 minutes I turned off into Gaillac and headed for the first tip to the cave co-operative.

It looked fairly standard as I entered the shop and service was normal (i.e. non existing!). There were lots of bottles, all with different labels and styles; as far as I could make out there was ‘Perle’ a slightly sparkling dry white, ‘Doux’ a sweet wine, dry whites, vin jaune style, rosé, fruity reds, serious looking big reds, two types of sparkling a ‘methode deuxièime fermentation AOC’ and a ‘methode Gaillaçoise AOC’ ... and even a vodka – what don’t they do?!

Then on closer inspection I started to see the grape varieties listed that I have only recently heard about, such as the Loin de l’œil or Len de l’El, Mauzac, Mauzac Rosé, d’Ondenc, Duras, the big tannic Braucol (locally known as Fer Servadou) and I am sure there are more!

Finally I saw life behind the glass separation and a very jolly, passionate and friendly man called Alain Gayrel came to explain a few things about this crazy area. I soon learnt that the co-operative was no more and that he had purchased the whole lot, winery and 600ha.

Alain is a 5th generation winemaker from the region and had a family domaine up in the limestone hills of Gaillac. Before I could say ‘Fer Servadou’ I was in his 4x4 and whisked away to try some of the varieties pure straight from barrel!

Once in the air conditioned barrel room the information was coming thick from both himself and his son on the winemaking and terroir of the appellation. I was pointing left, right and centre at barrels with weird grape names so much I never even took a photo! I finally managed to get Alain to take me back to my car as I was now 4 hours late for tonight’s welcome barbeque for the two flying winemakers arriving to help for the harvest.

Driving back up to Bordeaux I couldn’t believe that for one of the oldest wine regions of France – producing wine long before Bordeaux – Gaillac brings an extraordinary breath of fresh air. Now to get some for the Chai!

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