Drawing off

Posted on | November 29, 2005

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 after this step, no return is possible. The decision is not without its consequences. Some tanks will not have known more than ten days of being filled. Others will have been put in the tank a month ago. For sure, the key, everything depends on the grape, at the outset, and its evolution in the tank, but also and it’s not negligible, the objective of the vigneron. Who in me, to tell the truth, can decide at that moment? At the risk of appearing schizophrenic, I must compose with several «me» all of whom may be antagonistic to each other.

There is Hervè Bizeul «ex-sommelier», who looks to make simple good wines, destined to brighten a meal, several years later. To procure pleasure, a fragment of drunkeness, an unforgettable memory, a perfect wine match.

There is also Hervè Bizeul «business man», who runs an enterprise, must pay his staff, his expenses, his heavy loan repayments and who must therefore make a wine which corresponds to the desires of his clients, professional as well as individuals, two categories of taste often very different…

There is of course the «Ego» of Hervè Bizeul, who wants to make the best wine in the world. Oh, he wrestles, but, fundamentally, the passion remains strong. It is such a motor, such a force, such an impulse that it must, all whilst strugglling against it, respect it and converse with it.

And finally there is without doubt a little of Hervè Bizeul «the child», who feels bad on a a Sunday evening, without doubt from an old Pavlovian conditioning, who always wants his good scores, pictures, first prizes and who would thus like, still, to have good scores at comparative tastings or in the press. It is idiotic, I know, but it is like that.

Add to all of this that it appears there is also an «American taste», for whom the wine is never concentrated enough; one must, apparently, make a wine which pleases the «big chains», (to the young, to women); without forgetting those who would like it without sulphur or with freshness and minerality: those who want colour, those who don’t; those who judge only on its oak for complexity, others who judge by the vinification, by the fruit…

Ouuuuhh là là, I stop there. I am going to carry on making wine the way I like it, that will be simpler, in trusting my instinct. I can’t think how else to do it.