I have a dream-

Posted on | November 3, 2005

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 amongst these small round dark berries, otherwise known as an anthology of Carignan, just ripe, melting, perfumed and delicately peppery, it came to me like an epiphany. All of a sudden I had the certitude that many vignerons have perhaps never harvested a really ripe grape, in fact, in all their lives, and certain amongst them, who knows, have never even seen one!

OK, my wife, who checks this blog to correct my mistakes and also to know what I have been doing with my day, will tell you that this story made her really laugh, because like all men I cannot do two things at once (apart from Napoleon, it is well known, and one knows where this is going…). And so, to sort and think of my blog, is not possible. OK, so whether I thought of this note whilst sorting, whilst driving the van, whilst carrying baskets or having a shower, you will agree that it is  not important (my darling, please don’t touch this sentence… ) and this brings one back to one’s sheep, in this case, the ripe grape.

Good, in fact, I must tell you that I was not later than last week (or is it the week before, I lose all notion of time during the harvest) at the Château Pontet-Canet, for the inauguration of their new and magnificent concrete winery ( I must have a photo of it somewhere, wait, let’s see… here it is…)

Recognise that this is really something. Already the wines follow on the heels of the best in Pauillac, to the point where, for my part, I prefer it by far to its prestigious neighbour Mouton, which risks changing the hierarchy in the years to come. OK, all that to tell you that after the Mèdoc, I passed like a gust of wine into the Libournais, towards St. Emilion. There, I made a tour of the vineyards, in the car and on foot, to feel the ambience, then I made several quick stops in the cellars of little known properties which had already harvested. My eyes were flabbergasted, for on the gleaming sorting tables, was circulating a Merlot which, to my sense, was green like a stick! Not even technologically maturity, then, useless to speak of any phenolic maturity… And so, believe me if you wish, everyone had a delighted air and my guide even assured me that in Saint-Emilion, the vintage was particularly mature. The harvest machines were already humming in the vines and between 30 to 40% of the vineyard had already been harvested, when the climatic conditions were perfect and there was no hurry. But it appeared that the oenologues and the laboratories had decided that the grape was ready and it was useless to wait…

Here, at Vingrau, tomorrow will without doubt be the last day of opening for the Cave Coopèrative and at Clos des Fèes, we are harvesting the last of the Syrah, a variety nonetheless considered precocious. In 2005, I have already, an astonishing thing, brought in the Carignan and even some Mouvèdre, when I have still all of my Lladonner Pellut (Grenache) under my feet.. All that because I taste them and do not harvest a parcel until I find a perfect maturity. To my taste, what. Some years, the logical order is respected and it goes as Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, and Mourvèdre. But this year, everything was topsy-turvy, because nature wanted it that way. I, you have understood, do not wish to disagree with nature, so I do everything she tells me.

And so, on my ladder (I return to my ladder, you know, on which I cogitate…) I told myself that I would really have liked some vignerons to be there with me, to see some really ripe grapes, perhaps in fact because, they have never seen or tasted them, and it is perhaps because they harvest too early… Alas, who am I to change the way things are done? As a once oriental sage said whose name I forget, «you can always lead a cow to the water, but you can’t make it drink» Ouf, it’s time to go and sleep J))

Hervè Bizeul

PS. My oenologue, Athanase, about whom I will talk abundantly another time, for it is a novel all in itself, confirms it and goes further: According to him, 90% of the harvested grapes in the world will never be ripe! But, he is Greek and it is known, with the mediterraneans, they like to take things into consideration. Finally, Athanase, when he talks about wine, doesn’t often talk foolishly…

PPS Serge, our head of viticulture, to whom I told my story, grumbled to me that if others harvest their grapes early, it is perhaps because they can’t do otherwise, because they don’t have our sun, nor our northerly wind, and that instead, they often have too much botrytis,. This man has his feet on the ground. ))

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