Eugenia Keegan

The French are a strange mix when it comes to socializing. They are very private and an invitation to dine at someone’s home is a true compliment and sign of friendship and affection. But they love to bavarder and therefore the town cafe is a marvelous source of camaraderie and information. The town of Maury is no different. Many people think that sitting around the cafe is a post card picture of sipping rose (sorry can’t do accents on this device) with a cashmere sweater draped over the shoulders, no socks and gucci loafers. BUT, at our cafe the look is more vineyard grunge. Virtually any working person in the village works either in the vineyard or the winery and after a long day in one or the other a cold beer is just as welcome. An evening at the cafe is one of the true delights of our little town. I start this short photo journey with a shot of Pierre the most generous and even keeled proprietor.

This year we had a fun group of Brits in town to intern and/or make their own wines. They added a lot of color.

I arrived in Maury to the first sounds and smells of another vendage. The whites had been picked and were just beginning their transformation into delicate and aromatic wines. There was a decided break while waiting for the reds to reach optimal flavor and phenolic ripeness. The previous year had been hot, hot, hot with six brutal weeks of temperatures in the 90’s. This year was decidedly different. The sun made only an occasional appearance and was usually accompanied by wind. I had never seen wind damage like this before where actual full sized clusters were whipped off the vine….and so close to picking time.

Two thousand and twelve was already a year where weather had battered the vines. Hail in both April and August had lightened the load considerably and there was constant pressure from oidium. I immediately made a trip to each of my little vineyards (OK, at this point NOT my vineyards due to a weird banking snafu. The money was “lost” in transit…now really Wells Fargo, I’m supposed to believe that??).

La Mouriane, the more easterly vineyard is approximately 65 years in age. The vineyard is remarkably healthy and vines have a full canopy. This is particularly important here where the sun can be intense. The shade is greatly appreciated by the clusters and the winemaker. On first tasting the berries were still fresh and full of acid with the beginning flavors of red raspberry and black currant.

The westerly vineyard, Falgauayra sits on bare schist. The vines are closer to 85 years and they show their additional age. Canopy was sparse, but still a virulent green. The crop was small but the berries were juicy and succulent with black cherry notes supported by a distinct spiciness.

The low crop made for a slow easy harvest. Each day we would pick and process with very little backup or need to push. The fruit ripened slowly due to the cool weather and cloud cover. The acids remained high and the fruit maintained a lovely freshness.

We picked my fruit on the last day of harvest, October 4th. At this point the money for the vineyard purchase still had not arrived (it was getting downright embarrassing!). I had Wells put a trace on it and miracle upon miracles it instantly was found.

The boxes of grapes were put into the cooler (a refrigerated container) overnight so we could process the fruit cold. The morning of Friday the 5th we gently placed one cluster at a time on the conveyer, through the destemmer and then the berries were dropped onto the sorting table running at a very slow speed. Practically every berry was given a little smootch on the way to the fermenter!

After a celebratory lunch Jean-Roger (who was signing for my cousin, my partner in this purchase) and I drove the short ten minutes to Estragel to the office of the notary to sign the papers.

After 36 years in the business I finally have a little piece of dirt to call my own. Happy does not come close to a proper descriptor for my feelings. Not even sure”ecstatic” is adequate!

As one can imagine everything that I am doing now is on a steep learning curve. Certainly general winemaking practices apply particularly those about good housekeeping as sanitation is the backbone to the cellar. But otherwise the grape variety itself, the age and layout of the vineyard, the growing issues specific to southern France and the Roussillon, and the techniques employed in the winery are all new. This of course is the excitement but can also be frustrating.

So, imagine my delight when my friend Carrie Sumner told me that she was going to make a pinot noir. She and her husband Marcel have a small winery in Maury, Domaine des Enfants www.domaine-des-enfants.com. Of course they make the wines that are known from this area, grenache gris/blanc, grenache noir and carignan. But Carrie is from Oregon and has wanted a small project of her own so pinot noir was a natural. She and Marcel found the fruit in Limoux. The vineyard is farmed biodynamically which is in keeping with their philosophy of farming here in Maury.

I took the morning off to hang out and provide moral support. It was also fun in that I could share all that I had learned on the specifics of pinot noir such as no crushing, whole berries only, a three to five day cold soak, punch down protocol, etc. Of course they attacked this project in the same meticulous way that they handle their other grapes. They literally review EVERY cluster and by hand remove any unwanted berries (this is after severe triage in the vineyard). For 1/2 a day I felt completely at home. Thanks Carrie and Marcel!

So, what does this mean, the latest (or in the case of France, the earliest) harvest ever?  The season of the grapevine is like that of any other plant.  Certain conditions, in this case soil temperature, set off a chain of physiological events, kicking off the annual cycle of the plant.  This year 2011, we have had a cool, wet spring (as we did in 2010)  followed by a VERY mild early summer.  This past weekend, the final weekend of July, we had a string of days with temperatures from the high 70’s to the low 80’s, clear, low humidity, and a very slight breeze.  Perfect grape growing weather.  But this weather should have started a month earlier. Coupled with a cool spring and therefore a late bud break (first signs of new life) the whole cycle runs tardy.  For Oregon this means harvest (there is a formula that predicts harvest based on the flowering portion of the cycle, when the actual berries are fertilized and formed) should start around the last week in October and finish around the end of November.  One should assume that around that time of the year we will  have lower temperatures and rain.  So, can anything be done to facilitate earlier ripening?

Sadly, not much.  Solid heat for as long as possible is very important to staying on track and maybe pushing things along a day or two.  When the temperature is too high, over 95-98 ambient degrees the leaf surface is well over 100 degrees.  The vine realizes that it is expelling liquid faster than it can possibly find replacement H20 and the vine literally shuts down. Hot weather is not an opportunity to play catch up.

One technique that is frequently used however is leaf pulling or leaf removal.  Leaves on the east or morning side of the plant are stripped from the fruiting area that lines up along the lower catch wire.  This exposes the front side of the cluster to greater sunlight and opens the foliage to help lower any mildew pressure by allowing breezes to pass through the canopy.  This measure does not come without its potential of a downside however, most notable is berry susceptibility to sunburn if there is a heat wave. In my experience the birds seem to find these exposed berries a little more quickly as well.

Before Leaf Removal at Ribbon Ridge

After Leaf Pulling at Ribbon Ridge

So what do we do?  Drink a little rosé, do a sun dance, hit the river, and prepare for a late, potentially wet season.  Up until now, 2010 was the coolest vintage in history.  The reds are bursting with red/blue fruit backed by ripe tannins and juicy acid.  The whites are simply spectacular:  bright stone fruit flavors sparkling with racy acidity.   Another glass of rosé please.