Well, what a great time we all had. Perfect weather and great food. Nearly 50 on Saturday, 35 or so on the Sunday. Lots of old friends and some new faces too.
And nor must we forget that this event heralded the unveiling of the 2005 vintage. Loving looked after and nurtured by David and Sarah for the last 3 years.
The VAT 565 and 465 had been bottled and stacked, and then restacked, on Wednesday and Thursday. They need more bottle age but the signs are good for yet another quality, natural product and nearly 60 bottles were consumed over the two lunches. It shows you don't need cow shit, picking at the full moon, french builders urine and all those other bio-dynamic treats to make a premium red wine! Get those orders in now! PS David says 2006 and 2007 are looking even better!
The fact that the Cot, Tannat and Syrah were still too acidic to pick due to the lack of sun, meant that we had finished picking the Gamay by lunchtime on Saturday and had also picked the Merlot. Those of you who were there last year will remember we picked the Merlot in 20 minutes flat then. This time it took 90 mins and there were loads of fat, lovely, sweet and juicy grapes everywhere, alot of which ended up inside Zach; many, many more than 2007.
On the Sunday we finished off a few odd rows and then started on the cabernet franc up behind the house for the 2009 'Hint of Pink'. We pressed them too and then added the 'grape cake' to the grapes we had picked the day before.
Yet again a 2pm finish left loads of time for another long lunch. This was followed a wine making masterclass from David as he took a number of pickers round the chai and showed them how all their hardwork picking the grapes would be turned into great wine.
As you will have seen from the pictures.......
http://picasaweb.google.fr/Merchien.Vineyard/Vendage2008; (just copy and paste if you haven't)
.......everyone enjoyed themselves. Made all the better this year but only having to work half the time as last year! But just as hard as there were many more grapes. This left more time to consume Carol's walnut and chocolate brownies and Emma's sausage and beans. There were some jet propelled pickers around on Sunday!
You'll be glad to know there will be more than a few bottles of Rose 'de la Nuit' in 2009, and when we transferred some of it to the smaller tank on the Sunday, it was deliciously sweet and fresh. Yes, we had a taste just to see how it was getting on. The rest was left to form the basis of our red when the rest of the grapes are picked. The 'Hint of Pink' was looking good too.
To those of you who weren't there, commiserations, you missed a great time. To those of you who were, David and Sarah look forward to seeing you in 2009.
And please use this blog to tell everybody what you think about the wines
1 comment:
Well, what a great time we all had. Perfect weather and great food. Nearly 50 on Saturday, 35 or so on the Sunday. Lots of old friends and some new faces too.
And nor must we forget that this event heralded the unveiling of the 2005 vintage. Loving looked after and nurtured by David and Sarah for the last 3 years.
The VAT 565 and 465 had been bottled and stacked, and then restacked, on Wednesday and Thursday. They need more bottle age but the signs are good for yet another quality, natural product and nearly 60 bottles were consumed over the two lunches. It shows you don't need cow shit, picking at the full moon, french builders urine and all those other bio-dynamic treats to make a premium red wine! Get those orders in now! PS David says 2006 and 2007 are looking even better!
The fact that the Cot, Tannat and Syrah were still too acidic to pick due to the lack of sun, meant that we had finished picking the Gamay by lunchtime on Saturday and had also picked the Merlot. Those of you who were there last year will remember we picked the Merlot in 20 minutes flat then. This time it took 90 mins and there were loads of fat, lovely, sweet and juicy grapes everywhere, alot of which ended up inside Zach; many, many more than 2007.
On the Sunday we finished off a few odd rows and then started on the cabernet franc up behind the house for the 2009 'Hint of Pink'. We pressed them too and then added the 'grape cake' to the grapes we had picked the day before.
Yet again a 2pm finish left loads of time for another long lunch. This was followed a wine making masterclass from David as he took a number of pickers round the chai and showed them how all their hardwork picking the grapes would be turned into great wine.
As you will have seen from the pictures.......
http://picasaweb.google.fr/Merchien.Vineyard/Vendage2008; (just copy and paste if you haven't)
.......everyone enjoyed themselves. Made all the better this year but only having to work half the time as last year! But just as hard as there were many more grapes. This left more time to consume Carol's walnut and chocolate brownies and Emma's sausage and beans. There were some jet propelled pickers around on Sunday!
You'll be glad to know there will be more than a few bottles of Rose 'de la Nuit' in 2009, and when we transferred some of it to the smaller tank on the Sunday, it was deliciously sweet and fresh. Yes, we had a taste just to see how it was getting on. The rest was left to form the basis of our red when the rest of the grapes are picked. The 'Hint of Pink' was looking good too.
To those of you who weren't there, commiserations, you missed a great time. To those of you who were, David and Sarah look forward to seeing you in 2009.
And please use this blog to tell everybody what you think about the wines
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