En route for the capital
Strange how human beings change. Although I lived 20 years in Paris with happiness, to return there doesn’t bring me any real pleasure. Oh, I know that once my feet touch the ground of the airport, I am going to find my old habits, my step will pick up, and finally, after a few hours, [...]
Drawing off
One day or another, one must decide to draw off the ‘vin de goutte’. This ‘ecoulage’ completes the cycle of transformation of the juice of the grape into wine. It is to put the full stop at the end of a phrase. It is to pass in some way from one world to another, then [...]
People in Wine
In the current programme (no. 4) we interview two sparkling wine producers (sic!) about their techniques and their objectives - Rob McNeill from Mumm Napa (USA) and Natalia Fryar from Jansz in Tasmania. Richard Juhlin gives us his thoughts on some perfect food matching for Champagne and sparkling wines. You can hear this podcast on [...]
Fermentations
If the harvests indisputably mark the end of a cycle, the fermentations mark, for me, another. Without doubt, because I am not born a wine-maker but I chose to become one, this phase of transformation always remains for me an intense moment of marvel and joy.
To sense this life, these millions of yeasts in [...]
Faites vos jeux. Les jeux sont faits. Rien ne va plus !
Faites vos jeux. Les jeux sont faits. Rien ne va plus !
"If you want ot make good wine, be the last to harvest". This adage which doesn’t date from yesterday (Virgile, that’s 50 years before Christ and I swore to read ‘Bucoliques’ this year), always seems to be current. It opens the first letter [...]
Let’s be positive
Following my rather long intervention on ‘iacchos’ [a French newsgroup on wine] a reader has sent this magnificent quotation that I don’t know and which has brightened my day. Thank you to the unknown and very cultivated Renè Vigouroux:
"All men who direct, who make something have next to them those who would like to [...]
Top 100 Weekend, Year II, 2005
About a month ago over forty people gathered in New York City for a spectacular celebration of the finest wine and food that the world has to offer. Many of this year’s attendees were satisfied customers from year one, but we also had a few new guests to spice up the festivities.
We changed a [...]
Saint-Michel and the flamboyant Carignan
For a long time, I believed that the spring equinox fell on 21 September.
Today, now that I am more in tune with the seasons and climate, I know that because of the idiosyncracies of the Gregorian calendar this date is variable (you too can improve yourself thanks to the internet and shine in society [...]
Top 100 Weekend Teaser
From October 21st through October 23rd, approximately 45 people (though only 35 pours) gathered in New York City for a celebration of the finest wine and food that the world has to offer, our second annual ‘Top 100′ weekend. The weekend was spectacular, of course, and I figure it will make excellent reading over Thanksgiving [...]
Cuts, sores and bruises
From October 3, 2005
Incredible the number of wounds, bruises, knocks and cuts one suffers during the harvest and wine-making.
In the line of fire, one feels practically nothing, except perhaps when one cuts the end of one’s finger with the secateurs, or when one steps back hitting a palette very hard, [...]
A cross between a grub and a lazybones
From Sunday 3 October, 2005
There was a time when, not making wine and not even having the idea or the hope of making it one day, I idealised a little, or even a lot, on the daily life of the vigneron.
For you see, in truth, the vigneron’s Sunday in the middle of the [...]
Ramandolo ” a unique sweet wine, from a distinct grape, grown in a special place
In June I bought a bottle of wine I had never heard of before: Ramandolo. I was intrigued by the taste and as a result travelled to the area a month later. I wrote this article as a result of my trip.
The wine of Ramandolo, a sweet wine, is quite unique for a number [...]
Clos Ste. Hune Vertical at Tse Yang, Dinner in Vegas and a 2002 Blind Aussie Recap
This past week, 20 of us gathered at Tse Yang, one of new York’s finest Chinese restaurants, for a comprehensive vertical of the Montrachet of Alsace, Clos Ste. Hune. Clos Ste. Hune actually comes from the Rosacker Grand Cru vineyard in Alsace, but Trimbach, who makes the wine, does not want to put Roascker on [...]
No comment
Impossible to keep to myself any longer one of my adventures the other weekend (with the best and most honourable intentions…)
One of my old Parisian friends contacted me on a Friday evening and announced that he was coming down to Lavinia to say ‘hi’. «That way, I will taste your latest wines. In fact, [...]
I have a dream-
From 30th September, 2005
So not much later this afternoon, when I was perched on my ladder, in the process of sorting after the de-stemming, something which doesn’t require much concentration but all the same a certain manual dexterity, a thought of great consequence came to me (it is worth saying it ). In rummaging [...]