Made in 2018...
To be enjoyed in 2019...
Happy New Year !
Where to find our wines
For our Dear US Friends : The last bottles of Mas des Brun Rosé 2016 are available in :
- Houston TX :
French Country Wines, 2433 Bartlett St, Houston, TX 77098. Tel : 713 993 9500
- Washington DC :
Cork & Fork Logan Circle 1522 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20005. Tel : 202 588 5766
- Alexandria VA :
Planet Wine, 2004 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22301. Tel : 703 549 3444
- Los Angeles CA :
Larchmont Village Wine, 223 N. Larchmont Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90004. Tel : 323 856 8699
- Asheville NC :
Bouchon, 62 N Lexington Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801. Tel : 828 350 1140
- Phoenix AZ :
Vincent on Camelback (Bistro and Restaurant), 3930 E Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85018. Tel : 602 224 0225
- Portland OR :
* Pastaworks Providore, 2340 NE Sandy Boulevard at 24th. Tel : 503 232 1010
* E&R, 6141 SW Macadam Av. Tel : 503 246 6101
* Division Wine, 3564 SE Division St. Tel : 503 234 7281
Please contact those wine stores to make sure they still have our wines in inventory
For our Dear French and Europe Friends, please contact us at [email protected]. We still have a few magnums left
Cheers!
A very difficult year leading to a painful delivery (our first vintage)
2016 "delivery"... La Vie en Rose ? I so wish it was... At least, the wine is quite good =)
Dear Friends,
At least, nobody can reproach me to bombard you with blog posts... Well, in fact, I feel very bad not to have kept you informed about what is going on here. After 3 years of happiness (and maybe a bit of naivety), some major bumpers have crossed the way on our path to build this vineyard on the Mediterranean.
The first alert has been the planting of our 2 acres vineyard in 2015 in a parcel co planted with olive trees. Combined to a major mistake to plant too close those beautiful trees, 2015 summer has been hot and dry and I spent most of my time to try to maintain those baby vines alive, especially the ones too close to the trees which finally died (and would have even died with a gentler summer). The way I planted this parcel has also generated issues in using my ancestor tractor and so I had to plow around those 6 000 vines by hand which was no fun indeed.
baby vines watered during the 2015 summer drought
The second bump happened when I broke my elbow, a year day to day from now, actually. Racing against the clock in order to clear a parcel ready to be planted, I took many bad decisions which eventually put me in front of administrations problems
With a broken elbow, after our olive harvest
And suddenly, the magnificent view on the sea created by clearing that parcel turned, in my eyes, into a painful view that reminds me many times a day of my mistakes. I then begun to see everything negatively and criticize all the decisions I took The even more dryer and hotter 2016 summer did not help to see this blue sky (yes it was) but dark. This anxiousness about the weather was not only for the baby vines just planted but for the promise of some grapes from the parcel planted in 2014 which was supposed to produce grapes to make wine as the reward of 4 years of hard work. But those very young vines suffered a lot from the very big drought and the few grapes they produced were very small in weight.
At this point and as I was constantly suffering from this global situation, which was not at all what I anticipated when I started this project, we decided to consider moving. This recurrent failure feeling was not good at all and I knew that, even with the mistakes I had made, we had well valued this place and that if we could sell it for the the all sweat, pain and worries I endured, I would eventually consider this venture as a learning lesson rather than a failure.
First official harvest at Mas des Brun
Before putting our vineyard and house on the market, I managed to built a small cellar, bought some used tanks, a press and pump and all my very best friends and family came to harvest September 3rd; from 6 30 to 10 30 AM. We made a little volume but the quality is definitely there. I hope this is a sign that the wheel is turning into better days, wherever the winds will take us...
Most of the 2016 harvest team. "Merci à tous pour votre soutien"
Cheers,
Jean-Marc
A very hot and dry summer
Watering our baby vines with Love
Dear Friends,
I have not posted for a long time so here are some news coming from our good friend Robert Camuto who went at Mas des Brun to experience drought during a summer day at our vineyard
It has been very dry here and we are still waiting for a decent rain after almost 6 months of drought. Our baby vines have suffered and actually many have not survived but we managed to cross that very critical period.
Beautiful Mourvèdre cluster
We also made a little batch of "officially non official" rose from our second leaf vines and I experienced doing the malolactic fermentation by harvesting very early (August 19th) as to still have some natural total acidity when malolactic fermentation is done.
2015 "officially non official" Mas des Brun rose at 11.7 alcohol with high acidity
Time now to prepare new lands for 2016 plantation. We have almost 1 acres of vines to put on the ground and, as you can see, we really need to find some space!
Opening some space for future vineyards
Cheers,
Jean-Marc
Gérard's Vineyard Parcel
Just planted Cinsault baby vine on Gérard's Parcel
Dear Friends,
All winter, we have been preparing our Centenary Olive Grove parcel to welcome baby vines. This parcel was actually formed by two blocks with, in the middle, a small stone wall which we broke but more space and work convenience. We also had to move some of these elderly Olive Trees in order to align them with the future vines.
Then came the time to plow a bit deep in order to de-compact this soil which had not been worked for decades. With a quite wet winter, this task has not been easy but by the end of February, this 2 acres parcel was ready to welcome almost 6 000 baby vines with mostly the "king of Bandol" Mourvèdre, some Cinsault and a touch (10%) of Ugni Blanc to bring acidity and fruit in the future rosé wine.
The planting team after that very special day - March 2nd 2015
Plantation took place March 2nd, day for day 30 years after my Dad Gérard passed away. I actually realized it when I was helping during that very special day as; "Yes", it took the 5 of us one day to plant 6000 vines ! When this came to my mind, I thought my Dad should be proud of my Nature path. He is one who seeded in me the Love for Mother Nature and this is this deep Love that, I think, pushed me into becoming a farmer and a winemaker.
Watering the just planted baby vines...
Then came the watering time where I spent 4 full days getting to know each baby vine by watering them, which permits to cover their roots with wet dirt and avoid any threatening oxygen around them. This was a special time where I have been in deep thoughts with the past, the present and the future..
Baby vines have bloomed...
3 months after, most of our babies have bloomed and are very healthy. In 2 and 1/2 years time, they will produce their first grapes.
I will most probably make a wine from this very parcel, guess which name I will name it ?
Cheers,
Jean-Marc
Summer has gone and new challenges are ahead
With my 50 years old caterpillar-"chenillard". Thanks Chris for the great tee-shirt
Dear Friends,
I know that I am not posting much...but this project has not a lot to offer as news as it is still small.
I wanted to start with a big thanks to my friend Robert who managed to capture with talent the spirit of Mas des Brun in this article posted on the Wine Spectator
Our first farming year happened very smoothly. Summer was hot but not too much with a few welcome showers for our fragile baby vines. I took the best care the make sure those baby vines did not get too much "weed" competition as the video below explains...
And they actually grew quite well! Some Mourvedre produced more than my size vine shoots, showing that even with any industrial food, vines can survive !
As tall as their "Dad" after only one year. Those baby Mourvèdre vines seem to be happy in their terroir
The hightlight of my summer end season is that I actually had the privilege to be a cellar assistant during harvest at the very famous Château de Pibarnon and where I learned a lot from this place which "does not leave a cigarete paper space" for chance when it is time to pick, by sampling, analysing and tasting every day the grapes that will soon be harvestingand which made, I am sure a wonderful vintage was performed, not thanks to my little help but because Pibarnon always makes the best of the vintage
Analysing and tasting grape juice is an everyday very important task at Pibarnon
At the very end of harvest, I had the chance to process in their cellars, a ton of Mourvèdre (producing about 600 Liters of wine) and decided to vinify them sulfur free. Of course, the wonderful sanitary state of the grapes and the modern cellar equipments have been a blessing for this still (at least in Bandol) "newbbie" winemaker who decided to make his first sulfur rose. The result is that I manged not to turn it into vinegar and that it is actually not bad at all...
<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;" data-mce-style="color: #800000; font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">2014 rosé, on winter day !</span>
During my little winemaking experience at Château de Pibarnon, I carefully analysed their cellar's organisation because soon it is going to be time to think about building Mas de Brun cellars. This project is not going to be easy, thechnically, financially and, most of all administravely speaking. Already, I know that I am not eligible just beacause I officially don't have enough agriciltural production registrered...
Yhe other challenge is to be ready to plant our next parcell of vines next March. The "issue" is that we are going to plant right in the middle of the olive groove and that a few tres have to be removed as they were not aligned...
We have also been delayed by the very wet weather which has brought always welcome rain but now, my wish for 2015 is to have a little wind and sun as to be able to welcome another 6000 vines in 2015.
Wishing you a wonderful Holiday Season...and see you in 2015 for new stories @ Mas des Brun
Cheers,
Jean-Marc
Farming those baby vines
Plowing one foot around each baby vines has been my summer's morning work out. Braise and Smokey loved it too!
Dear Friends,
Summer is about to say good bye and our baby vines can thank the sky for a gentle climate and enough rain.. Humidity which can be an issue when vines mature grapes did help our babies not to struggle too much from drought, as there is obviously no systematic irrigation in our vineyards.
It actually started quite hot and dry. As I had decided to seed yellow flower mustard in betwwen rows in order to bring natural nutriments and oblige the vine to root vertically (they vould not compete with the mustard roots), this drought started to endenger our little ones and I decided to cut them just as the strated to flower.
But as rain then started to come regularly, it did help weeds to grow and this allowed to maintain myself in good shape, plowing manually one foot around each vine, which is at sunset, is actually a real joy
Manual spray straight to the leaves permit more efficiency and less product to the ground
In August, I manually sprayed the first mix of natural copper-sulfur in order to avoid leaf mildiou and also help the new vine shoots harden. The past heavy rain in August will oblige me to do nother spray soon and a last one in September as to keep as many leaves alive, which charge their batteries when it is time to bloom in the early spring.
Our baby vines and our olive trees, where next year's plantation will take place... Photo from Dorothy
As I often say, vines are like human beings. Some are big, some are small, some take off early some later, some can be hill, some are in perfect conditions... But the outcome of this first plantation is incredible and I am proud to announce that only 5 vines out of 3600 did not make it.
Time now to think about next year's plantation. This will be another challenge as we will plant right in the middle of the Olive Groove. But I like challenges and this is an exciting new project.
In the meantime, I will leave you with this wonderful photos album made by our good friend Dorothy and do not to miss video of ladybugs pictures
Enjoy the end of summer
Cheers,
Jean-Marc
3550 new baby vines in our family
A sample of these lucky bugs that have settled down in our new baby vines. Don't miss the video of them at the end of this edition
Dear Friends,
I know that I have not writen for a long time and that it is late to announce but, as we say, better late than never... We finally planted our very first vines at Mas des Brun and while I am doing this edition, 99% have bloomed and are quite healthy.
Before planting, it was necessary to decompact put back into the soil all the just germinated cereals which seeded from last year farming. Then, we needed to make the earth solf enough as to dig the wholes in the ground. Here are some videos that will explain this
On March 15th, some farmers friends from Languedoc came to help me get started and plant half of the vines. Most important is to be straight and to do so, we used Pithagore lessons to make sure our angle was straight.
After planting, the most important for those weak plants to give give them a lot of water in inder to evacuate all the air around the roots and give them the message that it is now time to work and root down.
Then, I decided to seed some mustard flowers in between rows as to compete a bit with the baby vines. Our winter has been very wet and I knew this would not endender the rooting of the vines. Most important, I want to give a lmessage to the vines to develop as straight down as possible their roots and this competition would help. Another interesting point of the mustard is that it re-seeds naturally twice a year and will bring green nutriments to our vines. When they got yellow, I decided to cut them, especially since we are now facing a major drought (it has not rained for 3 months)
For the moment, a lot a work is done manually but I can also count on my remodeled 1954 tractor. This is so precious as it turn on really small spaces but, most of all, it is very narrow. Thanks to it, I have been able to plant 40% more vines in the same block. This means that I will lower down my yield per vine per 40% and then produce better grapes.
The very last of our baby vines endevor has been to plant...poles. I decided shaping those vines around poles because it is the traditional way and because my plantation density is high (40% than average). I will then trim them verticaly so that they don't interact each other and benefit from all the sun and sea breeze from the Mediteranean
See, I have not posted much but we indeed worked hard. This morning, as I was manually plowing around the baby vines, my back told me to stop... I guess it was time to take a break and write this note.
I will leave you with this worderful video of many pictures
Wishing you a wonderful summer.
Cheers,
Jean-Marc
High Tech' Rosé
Our very first rosé at Mas des Brun
"Rosé may be the easiest wine to drink...but certainly the most difficult wine to make !"
Dear Friends,
I did not know how those gleaned grapes harvested mid October would do but it seems that they were actually quite good for rosé. True is that this 2013 vintage was late and true is that acidity is a key word for this atypical crush so late harvest
Well, Alcoholic fermentation is now over and the tasting of the first clear wine shows a great potential. 12.8%, high acidity, grapefruit hints and a pale colour are all what I enjoy in a rosé...
Even if the "image" of rosé wine is not still to the level it should be (some people still don't consider rosé as a wine + there is still a bad confusion with the white Zin), true is that it has made a lot of new fans in the last decade. Maybe because (thanks ?) to global warming and a more times to enjoy it, maybe also because some glamorous people have invested in our Region and are using all their marketing tools to promote it but the real explanation is simple : Quality.
And, if rosé is considered the easiest wine to drink (and I agree on this), it is also probably the most difficult wine to make. High tech' and cold monitoring are actually the two main ingredients for success. After having picking beautiful grapes early morning, it is important to direct press right away. And a pneumatic modern press helps a lot getting the essence of the juice without extracting too much material and color.
Pneumatic press
Once you have harvested your grapes, preferably early morning at fresh temperatures, you want to bring them right away to the press for a direct press. And a modern pneumatic press really permits to increase the juice quality since to makes a very gentle work without extracting too many solid parts from the grape skins.
But the most important part is what we call "débourbage à froid" (cold settling). This operation consists in separating as quick as possible the clear grape juice (which is the one meant to ferment) from all the sediments caused by the press. In effect, the thick part which settles at the bottom of the tank is not offering the best aromas to the wine so we do not want the wine to be altered by dirty hints. The problem is that we do not want fermentation to happen before this separation is done and that we need a little time for the settling to happen. An option is to use sulfites which kills bacteries and delay the start of fermentation but the problem is that sulfites do not only kill bacteries... It kills aromas...and once you use sulfites, you often have to use super active industrial yeasts to re-activate fermentation...and this will create artificial aromas and kill terroir expression.
So, the recipe is to use cold devices that will permit to bring your just pressed juice to a almost freezing temperature and this will not only stop any fermentation start but also accelerate the settling and so leave the grape juice less time in contacts with oxygen, which is always a plus especially if, like me, you don't add any sulfites which are also an antioxidant.
Once you think your grape juice is clear enough, it is time to pump it from the top until you reach the "bourbes" which can eventually be filtrated and give some "fat" to the wine. And when your clear grape juice is on its own, it is now time for fermentation to start ASAP in order to avoid oxidation of this juice so you will need to warm up your grape juice very quickly up to 65° F. And to start the fermenting process ASAP, you can either use industrial yeasts (but as I said above, it kills your terroir expression) or you can use a "pied du cuve" which is a small amount of grape juice already fermenting and that will make you whole tank start fermenting and then be protected against oxidation. I have used this solution and it worked right after.
Rose fermenting. Note the two pipes on the right linking a cold exchanger
Another great asset of temperature monitoring is that the longest the fermentation happens, the more aromas you will extract. A regular fermentation happens at about 75° F but if you can maintain it around 60° F, then it will make it happen longer, especially if you do not use industrial yeasts made to make super fast fermentation for super industrial wine process...
Once fermentation is finished, which means that there is almost no sugar left (FYI, the grape juice starts at about 220 grams of sugar per liter and ends when it is below 3 grams), you will want to let it by itself and use again some cold device to accelerate the settling of the lies, which is one outcome of the fermentation. Once those lies lie down the tank, you will have to reproduce the same operation of pumping the wine from top until you reach the deposit of lies that you will get rid of. And for the pumping, the use of a high tech material avoiding any oxygen input is always a plus.
It wil be now time to let the wine sit in its tank and let time operate. Cold temperature will permit to naturally have tartar cristal deposit and, when Spring is around the corner, it will be time to bottle the wine without filtration in order to keep all its natural assets.
As you see, quality rosé and high tech' are deeply linked. Of course, the most important is the grape quality but as you can see, there are many ways to spoil it with delicate operations and there are now very interesting tools to bring the initial potential to its best. As much as I consider myself as an old school winemaker, I have learned that you have to use modern tools sometimes in order to stick with quality.
A Big Thank You to Patrick and Pascale from Domaine Antiane (a new garage winery in Bandol) who have accepted to host our grapes, juice and wine inside their new cellars and with all the very best materials I could ever dream to have...when I have my own tools.
...
Sparkling rosé. Note the bluryness of the lies deposit
On a side note, I have decided to experiment making a fuzzy-sparkling rosé. I have used the "Pétillant Naturel" method which consists in bottling the almost wine when it is almost done fermenting. The carbonic gas produced during the end of fermentation in bottle will create the sparking. This wine will probably be a bit blurry since I won't have a chance to clarify it but it will be a natural wine and, I am sure, fun to drink.
We all hope now that summer will come as quick as possible in order to enjoy this beautiful wine when higher temperatures and sun are back.
Cheers,
Jean-Marc - Mas des Brun
Wine - Olive Oil - Honey....
Making a little wine...
Stomping on grapes... A great feeling
Dear Friends,
I still have not planted our very first vines but I was able to make some wine... Actually, I did a barrel of red in 2012 with some grapes I found unpicked just at the corner of our property. After having asked permission to the owner, we have picked about 1/2 ton of old organic Mourvedre and I made the wine in a very artisan way : Foot crushing, cap plunge down with hands, hand press...
My first first wine at Mas des Brun
This wine now ages in a barrel coming from Chateauneuf du Pape and it is slowly smoothing it rustic (but eventually elegant) tannins.
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This year, I told myself that if those couple of rows will still remain unpicked, I would like to try to make some rose. I found a garage winemaker in Bandol with some modern equipments which are a must for rose and, when I found out that some grapes were eventually for wild boars and birds, I decided to take a little share.
Proud pickers
With the help of our kids, we very carefully picked the best grapes from Mourvedre and Cinsaul and pressed them right away in a pnenmatic press. the juices have been placed in a refrigerated tank at 6°C - 43° F in order to prevent fermentation to start (yeasts don't work at low temperature) and, in the same time, accelerate the "débourbabge" (settling). The quicker you make this crucial operation which consists in fermenting only the clear juice and then eliminate the "bourbes" (the thick part of the press juice), the less time the juice will be exposed to oxidation. OK, one way to also do this is to add a bunch of sulfites (which calms down yeasts and protects the must from oxidation) but, as you know well, sulfites are not my best friends...
fermenting rose
So when the settling was done, we have pumped the clear juice from the top od the tank until reaching the bourbes which we eventuallt gave back to Nature. On the clear juice, I have added 20 liters of fermenting rose which I had started a few days earlier) in order to start the fermentation right away and, there again, avoid using sulfites in order to protect the juice from oxidation... And it worked.
This rose is now fermenting slowly at 16°C (61°F) which is the best way to express its natural aromas. Needless saying, no industrial yeats have been added. When it is almost done fermenting, I will make an experimental natural sparkling, bottling some almost done wine (with about 15 g residual sugar) which will continue to ferment in the bottle and create the sparkling.
Can't wait to be in summer and enjoy those !
Golden Honey
On a side note, last week was also oilve and honey harvest at Mas des Brun which eventually gave me the idea of our motto :
Mas des Brun
Wine - Olive Oil - Honey
Cheers,
Jean-Marc @ Mas des Brun
