Domaine Lou Cayla

So here it is, our first vintage. 100% Syrah, unoaked and bottled on the 3rd May. All 373 bottles of it! Plus the 153 bottles of Rosé that were bottled in March.

It has been a huge learning curve. Not just the viticulture and winemaking but also battling our way through all the paperwork that goes with it. Despite the tiny quantities, we have done it all by the book. One of the most difficult decisions was the name. We chose Lou Cayla (pronounced Kyla) because it is the name of the hill which we can see from our bedroom window and it is right beside our vines. It is a very important archaeological site and you can still see the traces of an ancient hilltop settlement dating back to 900 B. C.

So what are the wines like? The red is deep, inky purple with black cherry and olive on the nose. Rich and full bodied with deep plum and black cherry fruit and firm but not obtrusive tannins. The rosé is a very pretty medium pink with attractive red fruits on nose and palate. Rich and vinous for a rosé (it is over 14% alcohol) it is destined to be consumed pool-side by our many visitors over the summer.

Santé! 

Extraction

The red wine has finished alcoholic fermentation. In fact, it had largely finished after just 6 days, a bit quicker than expected. We have just got the analysis back from the lab and figures are 13,64% alcohol, pH 3,53 and total acidity (expressed as sulphuric) 4,87. The wine hasn't gone through MLF yet.

We did 2 pumpovers a day during fermentation and left the lid off the tank all the time to stop the must from getting too hot. Average fermentation temperature was 27°C. We also carried out délestage (rack and return) twice at the height of fermentation. This process helps extract colour and fruit although to be honest the colour was very deep anyway. It also oxygenates the must and keeps the ferment going. Another reason why we did délestage was to control the temperature. Also, it was interesting to see how much free run juice there was.



People often remove pips during délestage but as the grapes were mostly whole there weren't any pips to remove. Did put a filter (yes, it is an Ikea bin!) in the bac and had a filter on the hose going from the bac to the pump but, no, there weren't any pips. Just lovely, deep coloured, fragrant fermenting juice.


The wine is now macerating on its skins. The cap of skins is still at the top and I do a daily pumpover to keep the cap moist and aid gentle extraction. Then the lid is put back on the tank to keep those pesky fruit flies away.

The grapes have gradually broken up during vinification and more pips are in evidence. I taste the wine twice daily to check its evolution. The colour is v deep and there are nice cherry fruit flavours. Black cherry. Over the last few days the tannins have become more pronounced, the flavours have filled out mid palate and there is more length of flavour.

Not sure when we will press. With such a small volume I don't think that a really long post ferment maceration is appropriate. We'll just keep tasting and see.

Winemaking at Château IBJ

For the last 12 years the grapes have been sold to the co-op and gone into the soup to make rosé. So we have no idea of historic wine quality.

The varietal is Syrah and we want to make around 500 litres of Red and 150 litres of Rosé (because we like it).

After destemming, we put the grapes in the 1000 litre tank and lightly sulphured it, around 3g.
After about half an hour we bled off 150 litres of grape must into a 200 litre tank and chilled it as much as our technology allowed. Very sophisticated technology - frozen bottles of water and a wet cotton sheet! We added approx 4 gs of enzyme to aid settling or debourbage. We then covered it and left it overnight. After about 12 hours it looked like this. It is still grape juice at this point.



Back to the red wine. After we had bled off the rosé, we then added 250g of yeast to the red grapes. Lallemand Lalvin GRE selection ICV, which is a selection originally from Cornas and promotes fruitiness in Rhone style wines.

We mixed it into the grapes, covered the tank (but not airtight), and left it overnight.

By 7am the next morning the wine was starting to gently bubble and hum and had warmed up to 26°C. I felt like a parent with a newborn baby!

Harvest time at Château IBJ

After 20 years in the wine business (how time flies), 7 of which have been spent in the Languedoc, I couldn't resist any longer. Yes, we bought a vineyard. Since May this year we have been owners of a small but perfectly formed hectare of Syrah vines. 15 years old, and in a beautiful spot on the other side of the hill from our house in the Minervois village of Mailhac.

The vines came with a share in the local cave co-op so we sold some of the grapes there but kept back 3 rows for ourselves which we have vinified in the corner of the garage.

The bit for the co-op was harvested on the 9th September (hubby's birthday).



The grapes for us were harvested a week later on the 16th September.



Here is our neighbour and consultant winemaker, Didier.


The grapes were destemmed


And then poured from the bins into a 1000 litre tank. They just fit!


More on the vinification in the next post.

Ch Ollieux Romanis Cuvée Prestige Corbières 2009

A quick post to share thoughts on one of the best white wines I've come across recently. It is a Corbières blanc from Chateau Ollieux Romanis. I've often enjoyed their more easy drinking, 'basic' Corbières blanc but this is only the second time I've tried the top white, the cuvée Prestige. I didn't write tasting notes at the time so the impressions below are from memory.

Made from 50% Roussanne and 50% Marsanne, this had some skin contact before being fermented and aged in new oak for 12 months. The oak is evident on the nose, but there is also notes of almond blossom and peach so the oak doesn't dominate. The palate is smoothly rich and satisfying with creamy oak balancing well with the fruit. Overall impression is of an extremely well balanced wine with excellent mid palate richness, good acidity, excellent length. The palate profile is similar to that of a good white Burgundy. At 15,50€ it is expensive for a Languedoc wine but not if you consider it is better than many village level white Burgundies.

The tasting notes from the property recommend drinking it with foie gras, roasted scallops or cheese. Sounds good to me.

I am ashamed to say that I have never visited this property although I've enjoyed the wines and frequently recommended them. So a visit there is now one of the more fun things on the 'to do' list.

Early flowering means early 2011 harvest

The continuing warm spring has promoted rapid vine growth. Some vineyards in the Minervois near Argeliers were in full flower over a week ago which growers predict will mean harvesting by the end of July, some 3 weeks earlier than normal. So that could mean that the first primeur bottlings are available in September.

The above photo shows the beginning of floraison in a Syrah vineyard. The flowers themselves are not showy, but they are surprisingly fragrant. Someone asked me last week if this was so as to attract insects for pollination. The odour may attract insects but they are not necessary for pollination. Grapevines are hermaphrodite and so self pollinating.

Montmajou - cracking St Chinian Blanc

St Chinian doesn't produce very much white wine - I'm guessing less than 5% of all production. And the AOC wasn't extended to white wine until 5 years ago. So it is not a wine that one comes across very often. But, for the record, I enjoyed a rather special St Chinian blanc last weekend.

We were tasting in the best possible environment. Relaxing with friends Patricia and Luc Bettoni over a leisurely Sunday lunch while the kids ran around outside making mud pies. Luc pulls out an unlabelled bottle of his new white, first vintage 2009. First impressions - very subtle aromas. To be honest, I can't get alot from it. Take a sip and initally subtle fruit too. Peach maybe, minerally. Then just when you start to think there isn't much going on - wow - the palate opens up into beautifully textured, creamy, nutty fruit and continues into a long finish.

I didn't write any notes on the wine at the time but my memory of the wine centres not so much on what it tasted like as on what it FELT like. It is all about texture and mouthfeel and balance, which this wine had in abundance. It felt more like a white burgundy than a wine from the south of France which is what Luc was aiming for. This wine will not appeal to everyone as it is not immediately fruity but it deserves a loyal following from good restaurants, upmarket wine shops and wine nuts like me.

So, what is it? Domaine Les Eminades Montmajou St Chinian Blanc 2009. 80% Grenache, 20% Marsanne. From Montmajou, a sub-region of approx 250m altitude between Cebezan and Cruzy. Organic, handpicked, natural yeast, maturation in barrels for 11 months on fine lees, malolactic fermentation.

You can't actually buy this wine as it's sold out (I know, I tried) but the 2010 will be available later in the year and there will be more of it. Price about 11€/bottle.

Montazellis

The Côtes de Thongue is that gently rolling area between Beziers and Pezenas which covers 14 villages. It may only be classified as lowly vin de pays, but it has a good number of forward thinking, energetic producers who produce cracking wines that are great value for money. Domaines de l'Arjolle, la Colombette, Sainte Rose, La Croix Belle and St Georges d'Ibry to name but a few.

The newest kid on the block is Domaine Montazellis, since 2005 owned by a French/British couple Dhanya and Nova Collette. The domaine is between Alignan du Vent and Abeilhan and on the map it is called Montarels. They had to choose another name for their wines as Montarels was already used by the local co-op and Montazellis was the name of the property in the middle ages. There are a collection of ancient buildings and approx 11 hectares of vines here; sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, syrah, merlot, carignan and alicante bouschet with plans to plant grenache and some more white, perhaps viognier or vermentino. 70% of the production is sent to the co-op.

There first thing you notice on entering the lofty cave is a set of drums. Dhanya is a musician while Nova works in fashion, commuting to the UK every second week, and it is clear that they brought their creativity and imagination to bear on their vision for the domaine. Not only the wines but plans for renovations of house, stockage, gites and parking for camper vans etc. They have their work cut out as several of the buildings are still ruins but they intend renovating a bit at a time.

Danhya had no winemaking background but learnt quickly via a course in Pezenas, various stages at other producers and from the advice of his oenologue. Low yields, pigeage, modest use of oak result in a wines that have delicious fruit, excellent balance and are very fairly priced. They are not showy or incredibly complex but provide a lot of pleasure. My favourites were the chardonnay and their top Syrah, Etienne although their entry level syrah showed well on retasting/drinking in the evening.

Chardonnay 2008
nutty, creamy nose. Gentle toasty fruit - very discreet touch of oak which provides richness mid palate. Elegant. 7€

Merlot 2008
Easy drinking, brambly cherry fruit here. A quaffer. Only 5€ a bottle but in my view it's worth paying a euro more for...

Syrah 2008
Pure raspberry, cherry fruit. Good concentration and firm but ripe tannins. Decent length too. Good value at 6€

Syrah Cuvée Etienne, 2007
Named after their son who was born soon after their arrival in France, this is their top syrah which is aged for around a year in oak. 2000 bottles made. Deeply coloured, good concentration of spicy raspberry, blackberry fruit on nose and palate. Tannins are grippy but there is plenty of fruit to balance. Oak is evident but not dominant. Good length.

Kaiya 2008
Tiny quantity made of this late harvest sauvignon blanc, named after their daughter. Pretty, medium sweet, nutty.