Rouge-Bleu

Wine tasting

One of our old Grenache vines planted "on the rocks" on a typical sunset Mistral day. These grapes participated in our Mistral "cuvée"

Dear wine lovers,

All our tanks have now finished both their fermentations (alcoholic and malolactic). The four filled tanks we have express their "terroir" identity with, of course the grape variety's influence. What is interesting here is that depending on "terroir" and with the same grape variety, the wines express themselves very differently.

What we have thought before harvest has come true. Our Carignan, harvested at low yields, gave a very smooth and fruity tank. The Grenache, if they were planted "on the rocks" or on sandy limestone soils, give either red fruits or roasted hints. And Syrah has given us its typical blackcurrant aromas. The small amount of Mourvèdre and Roussane bring complexity and freshness.

And a common point of all our tanks is that, besides good levels of alcohol, we have been able to reach high acidity levels (around 3,8) which not only permit the wines to balance alcohol and not feel it but also to insure a promising aging. That is the result of very low yields and organic farming where vines have given their best to produce vines with two major components which are sugar and acidity

Enough talk for now, let's put these words into You Tube video

And here are the details of what you have just seen :

- Domaine Rouge-Bleu "Dentelle" red 2007. This "cuvée" is mainly made from Carignan (63%) and with a Grenache blending (27%). This wine is "on the fruit side" : Fresh, smooth and elegant are the words to characterize it and it will be available in April 2008.

- Domaine Rouge-Bleu "Mistral". This special "cuvée" is mainly made from our 55-year-old Grenache (68%) with a blending of Syrah (17%), Mourvèdre (9%), Carignan (4%) and Roussane (2%). 15% of this blending is now aging in old barrels. It is powerful with complex notes, evolving from black fruits (figs, blackberries) to cacao and roasting hints. We will bottle it before the 2008 harvest in order to release it at its best for the 2008 Holiday Season.

At last, regarding our label and since no one has been largely approved (many congrats by the way to Ryan who won the poll), I have finally decided to follow my heart, listening to many comments I received. With Florent, our graphic designer, we have been able to modernize and bring out this old Carignan grape vine which represents so well our terroir and the spirit of our wines made from old vines. We are not 100% done so all comments are always welcome, we can always make it better.

Please accept all my thanks for your participation (label submission, vote) to this big brainstorming.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

Griffonnage

Scratching ("Griffonner") the soil on a beautiful fall day

Dear wine lovers,

Our current Indian summer has permitted our vines to keep on accumulating sun energy since not all the leaves haven't fallen on the ground, showing us their beautiful colors which change from each variety.

Before life stops for a few months, it is still time to stimulate life and think about the future :
- Stimulating the underground microbian life, which is one of the reasons I follow the biodaynamy concepts, can be done now by scratching the soil. This way, oxygen aerate it and permits to compost dead leaves. I also use a special preparation MT 500 (mainly made from cow ...) to ameliorate this organic decomposition.
- Replacing the dead vines by news ones. Even if the baby vine will be planted next spring, it is now time to make the future holes so that the hopefully winter rain (which we now need so much) will create water reserve for the future planted vine.

When I am done with these tasks, I will have completed a full year of vine care. I am almost impatient to start pruning just to have this great accomplishment feeling.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

Grapillons

Grapillons from Carignan before late harvest

Dear wine lovers,

I thought we were done with harvesting and pressing...until I recently realized that the sanitary state of the "grapillons" in our vines was just very interesting.

In France, there is an old tradition of picking those grapes left at harvest time, since those "grapillons" were not ready then. Grapillons are small grapes that came out of vines 2-3 weeks after the first "real" ones and that's the reason why they are not mature during regular harvest time.

In the ancient times, those grapillons were usually picked by poor people who would make their wine. For us, those grapillons harvested are now over matured and will provide sweet wine, considering the high level of sugar that they content. Yesterday, some very good friends came over to renew this tradition and share good times with us. Like for the first of our regular harvest, Mistral was blowing strong and it was great to remind our exceptional harvest conditions.

Back to our cellar, we had to crush those grapes with our feet like it was done by our ancestors and I could count with the great help of my wife's best friend, Susan , for this fun task. During the picking, we might also have disturbed a few ladybugs that came with us to inspect the cellar.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

PS : The label poll is about to give its outcome. We will surely consider carefully the results and will include some ideas to affine our label.

Assembler

Our cellar with full tanks and a few used barrels

Dear wine lovers,

Now that all the grapes have been pressed, it is time to fill the tanks at 100% their potential (note that during the winemaking, they are filled up to 80% with both grape juice and marc) since the wine can't be in contact with air.

This means that we have to make choices about which tank must be blended to the other one, having in mind that we are planning to elaborate two kinds of wines.

To help us fill the tanks, we will use smaller ones like these used barrels that will welcome our best blend for 10 months.

Our wines are now aging and the most urgent works in the cellar is almost done. That gives me time consider marketing aspects :

- We are leaving the label poll give its outcome (so it is still time to expression your opinion) and at this point I would like to thank you SO MUCH for your massive votes (about 1,800 votes so far) and for all the comments left which help a lot in the final decision.

- At last, I am working on a wine club offer for our dear readers in order to respond to all the requests we had on how to get our wines.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

Back to labels...

Dear wine lovers,

As we are almost done with pressing the grapes, I am now back to what occupied my mind before the harvest (which seems an eternity ago)...

We have received a lot a suggestions, comments and submissions, thank you so much !

Here are all the submitted labels. When you get to the label album, click on each image to see it bigger.

IMPORTANT : For those who have sent their piece of art, please make sure the label is the right one. Also, it is quite possible that I may have made a mistake or forgotten some. So please let me know if I should modify something before we do the "official" poll next Monday.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

PS : At this time, label submissions are closed

Press time

Syrah "marc" which will be pressed soon

Dear wine lovers,

When the grape juice has fermented into wine and after it has macerated long enough, it is time to separate the wine from its "marc" and press it.

First, we have to pump the wine to put it in another tank and then we have to fill the press machine with the marc, pulling it and even going inside the tank to recuperate as much as we can.

Then, the press starts and stops when the wine which drops has too much vegetal hints.

This operation takes a whole day for one tank and it is very physical. As a great reward we get lots of nice flavors but unfortunately I can't give you a sample of this through this blog...but next spring, we should have our first vintage ready to ship !

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

PS : We have closed the submission for labels. Thanks for all of you who have posted and emailed with ideas. We will put online the photo album and the poll next week.

Working the wines

Mr Delhome father (87 years old man who proudly says that he only drinks wine) tasting ours

Dear wine lovers,

Now that all our grapes are in the cellar, it is time to work the fermented juices. And this task essentially consistS in pumping the juice at the bottom of the tank and pouring it on the "hat" which is the solid part composed by the skins and the stems of the grapes.

Some grapes like Syrah have a tendency to "reduce" which is the opposite of oxidation and then, we will also aerate this fermented juice while doing this "remontage".

What is also important is the follow the density curb which show the diminution of sugar since it is transformed into alcohol and make sure there is no stop which could mean that the bacteries have a probel working. Also, it is important to make sure the temperature initiated by the natural fermenation remains below 28°C (82°F).

While doing this, I see our wines evolve to change flavor everyday and I have no words to tell you the joy it provides me. At this time, we have 7 tanks and they have all their identity. Tasting them everyday give me the idea of the best blending we could do and at this time I am thinking about a fruity-smooth-fresh "Cuvée" made from Carignan-Syrah-Grenache and a more structured one mainly based on Grenache with a small amount of Mourvèdre and which would age partially in used barrels.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

PS :
- I am still very behind on answering emails so please forgive me but I do have my hands full.
- Thanks to all of you for your words of encouragements, please be sure that they are always very much appreciated.

Harvest is over !

Dear wine lovers,

Here is the link to see the photo album of the first Rouge-Bleu harvest :

http://a-la-recherche-du-vin.typepad.com/photos/harvest_2007/

...and a few videos :

Téléchargement SansTitre_0006.wmv
Téléchargement SansTitre_0007.wmv
Téléchargement SansTitre_0012.wmv
Téléchargement SansTitre_0013.wmv
Téléchargement SansTitre_0011.wmv

We had the best weather conditions I could have ever hoped.

Our grapes are now fermenting and the few tanks that have already finished their alcoholic fermentation are very promising.

Now the cellar work starts with the best ingredients we can get.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

PS : I way very behind on answering emails. Please allow me some time.

Vendanges !

A few harvest white grapes...an a ladybug (that we did not put on the tank !)

Update Sepetmber 15th

Found the right cable...

Go see album pictures at

http://a-la-recherche-du-vin.typepad.com/photos/harvest_2007/

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Dear wines lovers,

I can't find the right cord the retrieve the harvest pictures (this picture above was taken with my mobile phone)...so here are a few videos as I do have the right cord for that :

Téléchargement SansTitre_0006.wmv

Téléchargement SansTitre_0007.wmv

When I find it (hopefuly soon), I will do a photo album with a new post.

Mistral and sun always give the best grapes and that's just what we have now ! We are very lucky and our grapes are now fermenting.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

PS : I will not be able to answer emails before 2 weeks from now, I hope you understand that our grapes come first.

Back to the drawing board

Dear wine lovers,

I had not scheduled another post before the harvest but after all the comments and emails received on the label's poll, I could not help telling you THANK YOU so much for all the gold mine feedbacks I got.

You have really permitted me to make up my mind which was not 100% sure about the first label (The one on the left) even if I had my personal reasons to like it.

I am back to much more traditional ones now and the one above has no more anti-conformist notions but really reflects the way we work. Of course it is not the final one but, at this point, that's the one I would submit if we were on September 30th.

Please continue to comment and offer labels : width size at 7 cm (2.8 inches) and 10 cm (4 inches) for the height.
Please send your wine art labels before September 30th to jean-marc@rouge-bleu.com (JPEG format at 200-300 dpi).
We should produce no more than 3,000 cases per vintage and our target markets are high end retail stores and fine restaurants.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

PS : J-5 for the big day of starting harvesting and weather forecasts are just perfect...