The decision to harvest was a difficult one this year, since March was so warm and maturity raced ahead. We irrigated quite a bit after veraison (when the berries change color) and this paid off very well. We still have green, healthy leaves and hardly any shriveled berries on the unharvested fruit. Even the acidity in the grapes is still very decent despite the heat, and alcohol levels stayed well under 15%. People have been reporting less color this year, but so far we've had better color than ever, so we're not complaining. The berries have stayed very small, so the ratio of skin to pulp is very high, which could explain the improved color.
We felt that by 22 March some of the Syrah was ripe enough to be harvested, hoping to avoid jamminess and overripeness. This Syrah has now finished fermentation and is looking great. Fantastic color and very fresh and intense flavors. It's undergoing some extended maceration on the skins to gain a bit more tannin (structure), especially since the berries were crushed very little and the skins are so healthy. Malolactic fermentation (a secondary fermentation which is desirable in most red wines) has started on this wine, so with a bit of luck we'll be able to finish that and fill the barrels with a clean wine.
Harvest continued with some Cabernet Sauvignon from a plot that we hadn't vinified ourselves in years before, out of curiosity to see what it would give. Then on with some more Syrah and the bulk of our Cabernet from the beginning of April onward. We're fermenting a few tanks spontaneously, which spoils our sleep at night because this increases the risk of a stuck fermentation -every winemaker's nightmare - but can give some extra interest and complexity to the finished wines. Other tanks are inoculated with selected yeast to have a more predictable and consistent result. One of these yeasts is very expensive indeed and packed in small, gold-coloured packages. The people in the cellar call them the golden nuggets and expectations are very high. It is very unlikely that a yeast can substantially change the way a wine tastes, let alone convert bad grapes into good wine, but it is nevertheless worth the try. Not that we have any bad grapes of course!
At the same time we harvested fruit for our customers, so at some point there were well over 50 people working in the winery and the vineyard. A logistic nightmare, especially for the vineyard manager who is still walking around with puffy eyes and less energy than usual. Thankfully that is over now, so we can concentrate on our own grapes and wines again.
We only had some Syrah and Petit Verdot left when we ran out of tanks, which forced us to stop harvesting. I wish I could say everything was planned this way, but the logistics at most wineries end up dictating what can be done and what can't. Since the weather is cooler now, with sunny but cool days and very cold nights the grapes are staying fresh and healthy, so it doesn't seem much of a problem. Next week we'll be bottling some wine for an importer in the USA which will give us an empty tank, and the first Syrah is almost finished by now, so that'll give us the other tank we need to finish the harvest. The last grapes to be harvested are Carmenère, Grenache and Mourvèdre, but they're very slow ripeners and will have to wait another two weeks or more.
A friend from Holland, who is also a winemaker and in charge of a small cellar in Maastricht, came over to give us a hand this harvest. We studied in Montpellier together and he's a very good friend and a great person to be with. He took six weeks of holidays, a luxury not everyone can afford, and has lots of energy, ideas and practical solutions. I already know that we will miss him a lot when he's back to Holland. But for the moment he's still here and we're taking full advantage of that! We've done lots of improvements in the cellar and in his spare time he does some gardening and even built a dog house for all five dogs!
As usual during the harvest, things normally go wrong at the worst possible moment. This year three dogs got dermatophytosis and a filling in my teeth fell out. The dogs are treated with an iodine solution (my hands are stained yellow now as well as dark red) until I find the time to see a vet, and my teeth will have to wait. Otherwise it's been a relatively quiet harvest and certainly one of the most pleasurable ones I've had so far.
An importer and connoisseur from the USA came by to see what we're doing and he felt that this year there'll be another step up in quality in our wines, which was very encouraging.
Lastly, I just got a message from a friend in Brazil, quoting a comment from Jancis Robinson -yes, the great lady herself!- on a wine I made last year for another winery:
"Very dark crimson. Very intense with a suggestion of tarmacadam and liquorice. Really very impressive. A real line through this wine, to borrow an Australian tasting term. Velvety texture but the wine is not at all sweet. Great character and definition. Burnt black fruits. Really rather sumptuous."
We only tried to make a relatively simple, varietal Carignan and stress the qualities of this lesser known grape variety, but these tasting notes left me feeling very content. All I can say is: "Thank you Mrs. Robinson!"