Old Grenache grape in our future vineyard
Dear wine lovers,
I have the huge pleasure to announce that your "servitor" might put into actions his words regarding the wines he tries to describe in this blog.
Two months ago, we found a "vignoble*" with 21 acres of vines in the beautiful rocky terroir and village of Sainte Cécile Les Vignes, near Cairanne, the Majestic Mont-Ventoux and the beautiful Dentelles de Montmirail where Gigondas and Vaqueyras wines are produced.
**The grapes are mostly "King Grenache" in great shape despite their age (55) which, as you know, is always a plus in a quality perspective. There is also some 35 years old Carignan, a grape that gives awesome results when harvested on low yields, and some young Syrah. In addition, I will be renting another 7 acres of Mourvèdre and Grenache to vinify a total of 28 acres (10 hectares)**.
Most of the vines are located in Côtes du Rhône AOC and a small lot has been "banned" into Vin de Pays even if the general opinion tells that it produces better grapes. In fact, this area is not AOC because it used to be a river millions of years ago. But now, there is a lot of pebbles and the soil is not rich at all. That is one of these exceptions that confirm the rules of AOC...
Since the grapes were brought to the coop, a cellar has to be built and the race against administration has started. I need to be able to vinify the 2007 harvest in order to meet with the financial forecast and even if this will be in 10 months, it is not 100% sure to have this cellar built, especially after I told the administration that I wanted to use solar panels to produce my own energy. As you see, the fight against trying to preserve our planet is not that easy, even with the best intentions in the world.
Ideally, I would like to elaborate a wine that resembles to the ones I describe in this column :
- Working organically as much as possible (we call it reasonable fight) in order to have the soil live, harvesting grapes that are at full maturity, which means to have a perfect sanitary state in the vines. Since I plan to leave 4-5 grapes per vine for a 30-35 Hl per hectare (about 1,5 tons per acre), the grapes will be aerated and with better concentration, which permits to take this risk to harvest at full maturity even in the difficult years where rain can interact.
- Being very natural in the cellars using concrete tanks which will recieve the whole cluster (no de-steming). This will produce more tannins but with some great aging potential. In order to express the diversity of the terroir, I want to vinify in small tanks and there might be a short aging in used "demi-muid" barrels (600 L instead of the clasical 225 L).
That's about all I can tell you for now. We should start pruning the vines soon and, of course, you will get updates on what's going on in Sainte Cécile Les Vignes.
In the meantime, and if we want to make this dream come true, we need to sell our house and any help for that will be much appreciated. Please contact me if you or someone you know is in the market for a villa in Provence.
Special Cheers,
Jean-Marc Espinasse
Any comments, edits are very welcome at [email protected]
PODCASTS :
Listen to this whole edition in English (allow some delay depending on your speed internet connection)
Our "vignoble" is located in the Rhône. Learn about about this area with these two books :
See where our vines are located on a French wine map
