Stop-. or go?

Posted on | October 28, 2005

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 to future balance in our wines, which will make all the difference. On this there is no certainty yet.

Tuesday, after hours and hours of striding the parcels, tasting grapes, the skins and the pips, I decide to wait: the skins, very thick, are not, in my view, ready to give all they can. What’s more, the Grenache are still a little bitter. Difficult to be confident, when some here, have already finished their harvest and where others, in a hurry to go hunting, have already racked off… Even the news from other regions, given by friends or gleaned from the internet puts pressure on me. Bordeaux is crying out that it is ‘the vintage of the century’, evoking 1947 and was harvested in all speed (95% of Pomerol is already harvested): the Priorat had finished when I was in Burgundy, even the best hastened to bring everything in, announcing a dream year…we will see.

Hot years are never easy but, in Roussillon, I am feeble enough to believe that we are better equipped to negotiate them with intelligence, and not because we are used to them. One only has to taste the number of ruined 2003, here and elsewhere, to be convinced that the dry years are without doubt the easiest to make, but they are also the most difficult to succeed at… So, we are going to hurry…slowly.

No harvest today, that you have understood, but not for all that very calm. Fabien is already on the tractor and works the waste parcels sown with corn, rye, barley, vetch and mustard. One part of the team thins out our old Lladonner Pellut, far from being ripe. Edouard and Mietec clear our most beautiful parcel of Carignan. Others, finally, drop the bunches on our latest parcel, 450 metres in altitude, which we never bring in before the 10 October. Everyone moves under the watchful eye of Serge, the ‘chef de culture’, including me: after a day of papers, accounts, harvest contracts, cheque signatures, I go at 2130hr. I only need to check on the air conditioning, and add a little water in the circuits. I leave it turning for about half an hour. Whilst waiting, I type these few lines. A quick shower, my bed (finally..) and tomorrow I’m up at six…

Good evening to everyone…

Hervè Bizeul

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