A bitter-sweet week.
From Tuesday 27 September, 2005
Good, I can see that a week has passed without my writing anything on this blog. Several reasons for that…
Firstly and above all, the main reason, is that to stir for 6 or 7 hours 70 litre tubs and to write at the same time are two completely incompatible [...]
Stop-. or go?
From Wednesday 21 September 2005
Very decidedly very complex vintage this 2005. Firstly, odd grapes, which seem scarcely ripe with so much acidity, and which nonetheless, after three or four days of maceration, give wine like black ink, which is appetising and sensual in the mouth. As for the tannins? They are essential, the key [...]
New
A new link towards the Blog of the likable Dupèrè-Barrèra HERE. This couple of iconoclastic neo-vignerons who have no limit in their search for excellence. Their wines are very good, my oath, and, believe me it is worth spending a bit of time reading their stories of the harvest, learning the intensity of their passion [...]
People in Wine: Champagne
A two-part programme, the second will focus on New World sparkling wines. In the first programme we have an interview with Remi Krug (Rèmi Krug)) and ask him what is so special about Krug Champagne?
Los Angeles Quarterly
For whatever reason, the notes from my trips to LA these past 3-4 months have been buried in my files, so I decided to finally catch up on them as I headed out this past Columbus Day weekend to inspect a couple important cellars.
Chapter I - The Colonel’s Nuts, Uncle Matty, Mount Eden [...]
7 days to act
Have you seen recently a TV series, screend in France on M6, where a time machine permits a brave man to go back 7 days in the past in order to save the world from catastrophes?
If you haven’t, OK, at least you now understand the principle.
Good, that made us talk about science-fiction, now… [...]
Harvest images
If you have ever wanted to see just how a harvest looked then Hugel & Fils in Alsace have taken the initiative of putting up some videos on their web site. These start from January 2005 showing the vineyards under snow.
You can see all these videos at the following address: http://www.hugel.com/en/videovendange/index_webcam.php
[...]
Full moon
Woke at 4.30 am, without really knowing why. Eyes scarcely open, my brain burning with harvesting strategies.
After half an hour of turning this way and that, my mind full of tanks, grapes and possibilities, it’s clear I won’t get back to sleep…
I jump into my shorts and stick my nose into the air [...]
Sensations, impressions, conception-
OK, I don’t know if I am going to succeed in explaining my mood at the moment. Let’s try..
To begin with, I must tell you what one mustn’t believe, as I have believed for a long time, those vignerons who tell you that everything is done at the vine. Those that tell you that [...]
The New York Tasting of 2005
That’s what it was, in effect. Months of planning had culminated this past Thursday in our modern-day recreation of the 1976 Paris Tasting, the tasting heard ’round the world that forever changed the global perception of California wine. Close to sixty people, including four panelists, gathered together to see if all the gains made in [...]