Harvest Diary 2016 - Seven year itch?

And the lid comes down on the vat of another harvest.  Our seventh in fact! Just as quickly as it started the harvest is over.

The first bunch was picked on 29th August and the final berries plucked on the 29th September -  a relatively quick harvest because of the low yields which allowed the grapes to ripen evenly and quickly.  The forest fire that we had just before we picked the reds doesn't seem to have had any major effect on the quality of the wine. Even our firebreak vineyards which we have carefully separated from the rest of the harvest are not showing any untoward smokey flavours.

But after the mayhem of the harvest there is a lovely sense of calm as the grapes finish fermenting and we start to get to know the personality of each of our wines.  We have 20 small vats and barrels from our different vineyards so we have quite a task on our hands but it is intriguing to see how individual they all are.

There are the well behaved ones and then the not so well behaved that take a bit more looking after.

So as we wait for the final grammes of sugar to be fermented and cross our fingers that the malolactic fermentation will kick in straight away, we say a massive thank you to all those who made our 7th vintage one to remember.

But am I starting to itch?  After seven years am I thinking perhaps that the grass is greener on the other side?  PAS DU TOUT!  There is so much to learn, every year is different, every year is organised chaos but less chaotic than the previous one.

I just had the best harvest ever, the team was solid, everyone mucked in, every one kept smiling from the vineyards to the vat - I loved it - roll on 2017!

Behind every great wine, there is a great team of people

Harvest Diary 2016 - my point of view

The first red grapes came in on Saturday 17th and oh dear me, where were all the grapes?  We were worried.  We started picking the grenache vineyards lower down in the valley and yields were dramatically down, bunches thin and berries small.  Now I know that we like low yields here at Domaine Jones and we do everything we can to limit over production but there is a bottom limit where you wonder if it is worth going out to pick.

However, as we continued to pick the different vineyards (I have about 25 small vineyards between Tuchan and Paziols) we started to relax a little.

My favourite vineyard (where Jean Marc proposed to me 2 years ago) really came up trumps with lovely bunches of carignan and grenache.  It's a beautiful vineyard with 5 small plots separated by stone walls and with just the most amazing view.

Another of my little favourites is the first vineyard that I bought here in Tuchan.  100 year old carignan and grenache vines and 40 year old syrah half way up the Mont Tauch mountain and with a view over the Chateau d'Aguilar.

I am sure that there are many scientific reasons to explain the variation in yields, but I have come to my own Katie conclusion for 2016 and it seems to be the better the view, the better the grapes.

Harvest Diary 2016 - The extremely rare Carignan Gris

We have a very small vineyard of 60 year old Carignan Gris at Domaine Jones and I always look forward to harvesting it.  The Carignan gris is a bit temperamental and takes its time to ripen so this is always the last white grape to be picked. Well it's not officially white but gris.

Carignan blanc on the left, Carignan Gris on the right -multi coloured vine!

Its late ripening is probably why Carignan Gris isn't so popular down here and most has been ripped up.

Wikipedia and Wine Searcher both say that there is less than 1 hectare planted in Languedoc Roussillon so if that is really the case I must be one of the world's largest producers with a total production of 800 bottles per year.

AND I LOVE IT!!

Here I am checking to see if the grapes are ripe the evening before harvest.

They tasted delicious so we picked and then pressed and out third vintage of the rare Carignan Gris 2016 is bubbling away happily in a tiny 500 litre vat.

Harvest Diary - break down

Midway through the picking and starting to feel the weight of all those grapes - or perhaps lack of them given the very small vintage this year.

The week started badly with my Citroen Dyane having a bad Monday and blowing up half way up the hill in Paziols.

It is now resting in the yard, feeling very sorry for itself until Bjorn the german mechanic opened her up and tickled her insides.

She still doesn't want to go back out into those vineyards though.

The week saw the departure of Julia, the arrival of Bjorn, Dan, Ele and Holly and a quick visit from David.

Harvest Diary 2016 - rain does not stop play

6.00 am          Alarm rings but already awake listening to the sound of rain.  Rain was forecast but until it actually happens you are never sure - forecasted torrential rain has too often than not turned into a light shower but today is going to be different - it is actually raining big time.

6.15 am         Coffee and croissant

6.45 am         Down to the La Gare Winery to get the first press of the morning on.  Lovely muscat grapes bursting with sweet juice.  50 cases loaded in the press by hand - no need to go down the gym.  Full body work out and 10 000 steps before 12 am.

Team Jones ready for action in the rain - Tassy, Steve and Pauline (Vinesmiths).

7.30 am         Washing the empty cases in the rain doesn't have the same attraction as in 35° heat but team Jones is on the job (thanks Tassy).  I'm just reliving memories of childhood caravan holidays in Wales and relieved to finally have some rain.

9.00 am          First press of the day finished.  Time to gently pump the lovely juice into the tank to settle and empty the stalks from the press (thanks Steve).  Sounds easy but need to push press out of winery, empty stalks or as many as possible into tray, then shovel others off the floor into tray.  Then one lucky member of team Jones needs to get their wet weather gear on and get inside the press with the hose and give it a good rinse out.  I think I'll get the kettle on!

Well earned coffee break 

9.15 am         Press clean (thanks Pauline) and pushed back into the winery, 50 more cases waiting to be loaded.  The challenge for team Jones today is 4 presses before bedtime!  Thanks team Jones.

Smiling through the clouds

Harvest Diary 2016 - rack and roll

Friday 9th September

It's time for a bit of racking to get the grape juice ready for fermentation. The grape juice has been chilling nicely in the vats for a couple of days and now we want to start fermentation. but before we do that we need to take the clear juice off the crud that has deposited at the bottom of the tank.  If you don't you get what is known as a dirty ferment and we don't want one of those.

Sounds easy and it is at least for the first 5 minutes but as you get nearer the bottom of the tank the danger is that you disturb the sediment with a false manoeuvre and it clouds the clear juice. I am the queen of false manoeuvres so this is a job for Steve or Monsieur Jones who both have longer arms than me.

Harvest Diary 2016 - a pressing question

It's been all go last week at Domaine Jones as the white harvest starts to come in.  Lovely but small berries of Grenache Gris and Grenache Blanc from our vines in Maury and in Tuchan have been hand picked in to our blue harvesting crates and brought back to the Gare winery.  

Temperatures have soared reaching 35° by midday so we are only picking in the early morning and then chilling the grapes down when they arrive at the winery.  They get to spend the evening in an air-conditioned container just next to the winery.  It’s a rather chilly 5°C but given the extreme heat in the vineyards you can almost hear the grapes' sigh of relief.

Crates of grapes on their way to be chilled

Given the small size of the berries this year we have decided to press whole bunches rather than destemming like we have in previous years.

Leaving the stalks on means that the grapes have something firmer to press against as the big balloon in the pneumatic press expands and the stalks also help as drainage channels for the juice.  But we definitely don’t want any stalky flavours so we selected a very gentle cycle.

Whole bunches of Grenache blanc going into the press

Harvest Diary 2016 - ready, steady pick!

6.30 am Monday morning

The first pickers arrive at our house in Tuchan.  Bleary eyed and a little sleepy after the summer's rest, it's time to swing in to action and go get those grapes.

7.00 am

Still waiting for one picker whose donkeys have escaped from his garden.

7.15 am

Pile into the Dyane and arrive at vineyard - a mix of old vine Grenache blanc and Grenache Gris between Tuchan and Paziols.  Distribute buckets, crates and secateurs.

The 2016 harvest has begun 

But where are the grapes?  The bunches are small, the berries are small, everything is small.

Grenache blanc and Grenache gris - field blend

 

Harvest Diary 2016 - rapid ripening

What a difference a week makes!  We were a little taken by surprise on Thursday when we checked the sugar levels of our grapes in Tuchan - a healthy 13°.  As everyone has been talking about a late harvest it has been panic stations here to get everything ready in time for what for us is going to be an early harvest - at least for the whites.

Clean picking crates all ready to go!

We drove down to the vineyard in Maury as this vineyard usually ripens earlier than the vines in Tuchan.  But this year for some reason the grapes are not quite as ripe as those in Tuchan.  To get an idea of the sugar level we take a representative sample of the grapes from the vineyard in a plastic bag, squeeze the grapes and measure the sugar content of the juice in a refractometer. This is me looking at the level in our vineyard in Maury.

Sugar baby!

So we now have a plan - start picking in Tuchan on Monday (29th August) and then move on to the vines in Maury.

Harvest Diary 2016 - Rain dancing

With only a couple of weeks to go before we get the secateurs out for the 2016 harvest the question on everybody's lips is 'is the 2016 going to be the vintage of the century?'

Well in a nutshell, no!

Although it is still too early to tell this looks like it may be the most challenging vintage yet.  We can't remember the last time it rained here in Tuchan and the lack of water means tiny berries.  So volume will be down but what will the all important quality be like?

The saving grace at Domaine Jones is the age of our vines.  The older the vines, the deeper the roots and the more drought resistant they are.  So far the leaves are still fresh and green allowing the berries to ripen.  So if we get small berries which are ripe this could in fact be the vintage of the century but if the small berries don't ripen properly this may be the vintage we wish to forget.

I have an inkling that our old vines won't let us down but we'll keep on doing the rain dance just in case.

Grenache gris ripening on 80 year old vines in Maury

Lledoner Pelut in Tuchan