Rainy days

It absolutely tipped it down last weekend which wasn't ideal. Firstly, we still have some Carignan out there which is nearly but not quite ripe. Secondly, we had some old friends from Uni staying whom I hadn't seen for a very long time. As our plans for a day hiking in the garrigue was out of the question, we took the only sensible alternative. Food and wine. I raided the wine cellar and did an impromtu tutored wine tasting. Of Languedoc wines of course.

We started with some bubbles, the 2010 vintage of Cremant de Limoux 1531 from Sieur d'Arques. Cue the story of how sparkling wine was 'invented' in Limoux. As one would expect, this was very well made. Fresh and easy with good mid-palate richness.

We happened to have a bottle of Mas de Daumas Gassac White 2010 in the fridge, so that was opened next. An eclectic, unoaked blend of Chardonnay, Viognier, Chenin Blanc and Petit Manseng which is bottled young. I found the nose a bit funky - honey, floral and exotic fruits but almost too exotic and overripe. Definite sweetness on the palate and rich, vinous, exotic mouthfeel but not quite enough acidity to balance. I loved the 2009 so was disappointed. However I have found in the past that this white goes through a dumb or discordant period and comes right again in a few months. I have five more bottles so will try again in the new year.

La Voulte Gasparets seldom disappoints. Nor did it that evening with the 2010 Cuvée Reserve Corbières.  A whiff of the garrigue and leather on the nose and decent concentration of plum and blackberrry fruit, again with a spicy/meaty edge. All nicely balanced with user friendly tannins. Well worth the 9€ I'd paid for it in Carrefour earlier that day.



However the star of the show was definitely D'Aupilhac 2005, Montpeyroux. I decanted it beforehand, anticipating that it would take time to unfurl. A glorious nose of leather, plums, smoked meat, wild herbs ...  Beautiful mid-palate richness and lovely ripe plummy fruit. Lots of complexity here - from (a somewhat hazy) memory, meaty, smoky, all framed by plump, smooth tannins. Excellent finish.

Sadly we were too  befuddled to attempt the Muscat de St Jean de Minervois from Michel Poudou at Domaine de Montahuc. But I had it the other day and it is suitably fragrant and elegant with a lovely seam of acidity running through it. Delicious.

Rain? What rain?

Lou Cayla harvest 2012

We picked our Syrah yesterday, under a bright, beautiful Languedoc sky. The grapes look fabulous - gloriously healthy and delicious.

Many thanks to our international team of pickers who not only harvested the grapes but also hand destemmed them when our destemming machine misbehaved. Now that's dedication!

Hand labelling at Lou Cayla

With a total production around 500 bottles,  labelling by hand is a breeze. Particularly with willing guests such as Mal, Ali and Ben (wielding the heat gun). However, getting the label absolutely straight is surprisingly difficult, and best attempted before lunch!

Winning Corbières in Narbonne

Last Monday I spent a very hot and sticky hour at the CIVL offices in Narbonne, tasting a selection of Corbières. All the wines had won a gold medal in the Concours interprofessonnel des Vins de Corbères.

It's always difficult tasting in the heat and while there is usually enough ice to keep whites and rosés fresh, reds suffer more unless the producers have the time to play the hokey-kokey with ice buckets for them too. My favourite reds were from two estates that I already know well. Ollieux Romanis Prestige 2009 was beautifully balanced with silky tannins and a minerally, spicy complexity. Château de Cendrillon Inèdite also had lovely elegant tannins and excellent concentration of flavour to support the oak. Lots there but not overextracted at all. The Cave co-op at Gruissan had managed to get the temperature just right for their Les Pujots 2010, an attractive spicy, tarry wine with lots of red/black fuit.

Château des Amandières Corbières was from 2011 and was inky and brimming with vibrant fruit, thanks to its youth and to carbonic maceration for Carignan and Syrah and cold soaking for Grenache. Should be delicious in 6 months. Chateau Vieux Moulin Les Ailes 2010 was very concentrated and extracted with plum/plum flavours but I found the tannins rather stewy. Similarly extracted and very powerful was En Sol Majeur from Domaine du Grand Arc in Cucugnan. 60% Grenache, 40% Syrah, aged in oak for a year. No sulphur added until the bottling. Inky, minerally and needing a knife and fork to consume it. Not my style, too OTT, but I'd like to retaste in cooler conditions.

I was pleased to taste the Rosé and red from Domaine Combe Grande in Camplong d'Aude. My local wine shop in Argeliers, Bouchon et Tradition had raved about the red and indeed it is a lovely wine, appealing red/black fruit, a touch of spice and well-managed tannins and all for under 6€. It was their Rosé that won the gold and very nice it was too - fresh, candied with a herbal nose. Château Canos is well known for their Rosé - it accounts for 85% of their production - so no surprise that it had won a gong. Rosé made from press rather than saignée (difficult to do saignée when you only make 15% red!) and from Grenache Gris and Noir. Refreshing with lots of strawberry and redcurrant flavours, and a touch of herbs.

The only whites I tasted were from Roque Sestière who are better known for their whites than their reds. Their Vieilles Vignes white, made from 55% Maccabeu, 35% Grenache, 10% Roussanne was delicious with ripe apple and peach flavours, a hint of almond and a minerally edge.

Floraison

Some arty shots of flowering in our Carignan vineyard. Taken last week.

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!