News from the vats: Bordeaux 2008

The rains have arrived in Bordeaux and luckily all the grapes have been picked, squashed, fermented and now the wine is undergoing its post fermentation maceration period. The fermentation lasts around a week on average and then the wine is left on its skins for approximately another two weeks. For each vat the density of the sugars in the juice are recorded daily along with the temperature. The sugar density starts at 1090 and ends at 9914 when all of the fermentable sugars have been converted into alcohol. It is measured with a hydrometre.

It is during the post-fermentation maceration that the alcohol in the wine helps to further extract the tannins and colour from the skins (remember the juice itself is clear in red and white grapes).

The other phenomena that happens during this maceration period is an enrichening of the wine, literally thickening of the feel of it in your mouth. This is due to the breakdown of the dead yeast cells (lies) membranes (mannoproteins) which enriches the wine giving it body and structure. These mannoproteins also acts as a stabiliser for the wine.

Throughout the fermentation and maceration this extraction is helped by pumping over (remontage) of the juice/wine onto the cap (chapeau). Once the wine is made (ie is ‘dry’) the winemaker is continually tasting the different cuves checking to make sure that the wine is gaining in body particularly in the middle of the palate but not drying out the finish too much. The winemaker is vigilant against any bitterness from the tannins. Over extraction in a vintage like 2008 will bring a hardness to the wine and overpower the fresh fruit flavours of this light but very aromatic year. Definitely do not want the particularly astringent tannins from the grape pips (particularly as these were not very ripe this year). As soon as you are not gaining anything it is time for the ‘ecoulage’ run-off and pressing of the grape skins.

I tasted the progress of the vats with Franck Moureau at Chateau Beard La Chapelle, St Emilion Grand Cru during this maceration period after the fermentation. Interesting to see the effect of the thickening out of the wine but also how the tannins start to impact the wine.  Interesting to see the reduction in sweetness and development of the alcohol. Before that tasted Cuve No 1 as the fermentation progressed at sugar density of 1090, 1040 and 9914 (end). During this period this winemaker used his hand for the juice to pass through during pumping over which seems to have helped with colour extraction. The colour is deep this year with high phenolic content. Wait to see if it holds.

 The winemaker controls the speed and degree of this extraction through the number of times during the day that the wine is ‘pumped over’.  Towards the end of this period it is every two days –  always ensuring though that the cap is kept moist with some spraying of wine at regular intervals. Evidently each vat is not the same.  They are from different parcels picked at different times, from separate grape varieties, varying soils and vine age. The pumping over programme can differ for every vat.

So to sum up where we are today. Yields at least 30% down, good sugar/alcohol levels, good colour, good aromatic potential, high acidity levels. Waiting for the Malolactic fermentation to start and this will reduce the total acidity levels (with the tart malic acid turning into the softer lactic acid). Need this to happen before conclude how serious this problem is and what to do about it.

Franck Moureau, Chateau Beard La Chapelle, St Emilion Grand Cru

For more information contact: beard@worldonline.fr

2005 Château Beard la Chapelle, Grand Cru St Emilion

Tasting Note: Refined Grand Cru St Emilion with well-integrated smooth tannins and rich but fresh black cherry flavours. Attractive long finish showing its pedigree. Serving: For the 2005 Beard make sure to open the bottle at least four hours before serving. Ideally decant. This enables the wine adequate time to breathe and open up. Serve at a cool room temperature (14 to 17°C). This wine is well-matched to;

·     Roast lamb, beef or duck

·     Even milder flavoured game such as pheasant, guinea fowl and rabbit

·     Harder cheeses such as Pecorino, Comté, Manchego and Brebis

 

The Terroir: Seventeen hectares of parcels in the Commune of St Laurent de Combes in St Emilion with a range of different soils inlcuding the Pieds de Cotes (foothills of the limestone plateau), clay and sandy soils. 90% Merlot with remaining 10% being made up of aromatic Cabernet Franc.

 

Winemaking: Winemaking is traditional with lengthy fermentation and  maceration. The wine is then aged in French oak barrels

2008 Bordeaux White Wines Winners again

: With the coolness of the growing season and the resulting high acidity levels the white wines of 2008 seem to have a wonderful aromatic profile and freshness and even more concentration than 2007. Bodes well for the sweet wines too. They are in the process of being harvested. This is done by hand and takes place over a period of 6 to 8 weeks as the individual berries become affected by the ‘noble rot’ and shrivel to concentrate not only the sugar levels but the acidity levels too. Perhaps Bordeaux is going to be known for its wonderful white wines in the future. Forty years ago it produced more white than red….today it produces 89% red wine.

2008 Bordeaux: Small Yields help with the quality

Yves Raymond of Chateau Saransot Dupre, Listrac, Haut Medoc comments on the recent 2008 harvest at his property in Listrac:
“I have just finished the harvet and this year have very small yields – around 35 hectolitres per hectare. Thanks to this small quantity the quality will be at least equal to 2007 and perhaps even better. The balance between the tannins and the anthocyanes (colour pigment) is good and the alcohol level is also high. It wont be a 2005 or 2006 but will perhaps resemble the style of wines produced in the 1997 vintage.”

Red grape (15 ha) : Merlot 56 % – Cabernet Sauvignon 24 %
Cabernet franc 15 % – Petit Verdot 3 % – Carmenere 2 %

www.saransot-dupre.com

In French:
           ”Je viens de terminer les vendanges et j’ai fait une toute petite récolte
-environ 35 hectos par hectare- Grâce à cette faible quantité la qualité sera au
moins égale à celle du 2007 et peut être encore mieux. Les équilibres tannin
antocyanes sont bons les degrés alcooliques aussi. Ce ne sera pas 2005 ou 2006 , mais ce
sera sans doute dans le style 1997.”

Bordeaux Harvest 2008 Roundup

The temperatures are mild and the sunshine is still around with brief rainfalls. The 2008 red harvest has started in the Bordeaux vineyards. For those who have carried out leaf pulling and grape thinning there is not too much rot. The grapes are sweet and should naturally give around the 12.5% alcohol that the producers are looking for depending on the soils. The problem is acidity levels are very high so alcohol needs to be at least 13% alcohol to balance the high acidity. Chaptalising (addition of sugar) is being carried out to enable this to happen. There also seems to be high levels of tannins and colour in the wines – overall good phenolic ripeness.

Low Yields: The yields are very low (less 30%) on average particularly for the Merlots. The Cabernets had a better even flowering in May so the harvest is more abundant and ripeness more uniform. Winemakers would ideally carry out a ’saignee’ of around 15% removing some juice before the skins can impart their colour and tannins to the wine. This has the effect of concentrating the aromas, tannins and colour into less juice – but yields are too low to do this. Yields are low due to two reasons; poor flowering in May due to cold temperatures and also due to the record lack of rain this year during the growing season. What this did mean was that the vine did stop its vegetative growth early on enabling the grapes to start their maturation and ripening of tannins. With the rains in 2007 this did not happen so there were many vegetal notes in the wines produced. 

Late Harvest: The growing season was very cold which slowed the vine’s growing cycle down. Harvest was delayed compared to last year by at least 15 days (and last year, 2007, it was already delayed by 10 or so days!)

Most of the Merlot has been picked (the youngest first) and now vigneron are making the most of every last sunny autumn day to ripen the Cabernet Franc and then the Cabernet Sauvignon which are normally last to ripen. Rot is appearing so many will have to harvest sooner rather than later. The Cabernets are high in polyphenols so it is important to leave the grapes as long as possible on the vine. In this cool vintage it is the vineyards on warmer more gravelly soils that have been able to ripen earlier.

Fresh Fruit and Elegance…and it is Spanish?

We had just finished our sixth glass of a dark spicy, cherry sweet wine at our Winetasting club (all women working in the wine trade living in Bordeaux – Irish, English, French, Dutch representatives). The theme was ‘Grenache/Syrah’ and we were pretty much ’shirazed’ out. Each of us girls brings a bottle and serves it blind to our fellow tasters. We comment on it, the ‘owner’ then reveals what it is and tells us a little about it. It turned out that most of the wines happened to be from the Cotes de Roussillion, the French wine region around Perpignan on the Eastern Mediterranean coast. The star of these wines was undoubtedly 2000 Domaine Sarda-Mallet ‘Terroir Maroilles’ made by talented winemaker Jerome Malet. Yields are kept very low for this rich spicy enticing wine of Syrah and Mouvedre. Smooth and sweet and complex. (It turns out that one of the girl’s husband’s, Frederic Engerer, has bought a property in the Rhone near the renowned Domaine Gramenon with this winemaker – keep your eye out for Fort Bonneau from 2009).

It was my turn and I served my offering decanted and slightly chilled (half an hour in the fridge). It was different. It did not have the boiled cherry sweet nose or the rich sweetness on the palate. It was finer, fresher still wonderful smooth ripe red cherry flavours and redcurrant notes but it had finesse and length. A certain vivacity and delicateness. The wine is called S’Alqueria 2006. It is made by Yves Dominque Pages in the northern part of Catalonia from old vine Carignan (80 years), Grenache, Petit Verdot and Macabeo Blanc (yes a few percent of white grapes are added). The vineyards are near the sea and grown at altitude – both factors helping to cool the hot Spanish temperatures and produce freshness in the wine. The terroir is schist.

It has been a life-long dream of Yve’s to produce a top quality authentic wine from this region where his family has a home. Apparently already the wine is going down a storm with interest in France, England and Spain including ‘El Bulli’, the famous three star Michelin restaurant in Catalonia. We all enjoyed it eventhough it was the final wine and by this time it was getting on for midnight. Sign of a good wine – perhaps. Sign of a group of girls who take their ‘work’ very seriously – definitely.

To read his on-going story see Yve’s blog at  www.vinyaivo.wordpress.com

Bordeaux Harvest 2008: Ready, Set, Go…..

The sun has stopped shining in Bordeaux and short spells of rain mark the end of the autumnal top-up that made the wine producers smile for a while. They have not got a lot to smile about this year. Sugar levels are surprisingly quite high but acidity total (malic and tartric acid combined) levels are also very high and not going to change quickly now (malic acid will reduce after the second fermenation so is not such a worry). They have to pick before the rains come whatever. Wine producers are rushing to complete any last minute preparations before harvest starts.  It is already record-breakingly late. Normally the juice would be happily fizzing away by now – the yeasts busy turning the sweet syrup into wine.

Franck Moureau of Chateau Beard La Chapelle, Grand Cru St Emilion based in the hamlet of St Laurent des Combes starts harvesting tomorrow. It will take the harvester 5 full days to pick his 17 hectares which are spread in parcels over the commune and adjoining ones. He grows predominantly Merlot (which matures first) and some Cabernet Franc. Hopefully he can squeeze these days in before the forecasted low pressure arrives at the end of next week.

See Vat News blog 31st October

The grapes from each plot have been regularly analysed for sugar levels, tannin ripeness and acidity levels (tartric and acid and total). This is carried out by a local oenology laboratory. Each plot has different results due to their differing soil types, age of vines, grape variety, lie of the land etc. This is obviously taken into account when choosing which plots to harvest first.

2008 Dry and Sweet White Wines: Yields are down this year due to poor fruit set due to cold spell during flowering in May. The dry whites have been already harvested (Semillon and Sauvignon). Yields are down by 30%.

The sweet wine producers have just started to pick their first ‘tri’ literally combing the vineyards for individual grapes that have been affected by the ‘noble rot’ fungus. Depending on the year they will be doing five or six different pickings. Will be visiting Second Growth Chateau de Myrat in Sauternes on Monday 6th October.