Terroir - What's ours made up of??

Last week I had the pleasure of finally meeting Bruno Weiller a specialist in soil analyses, plant observation, and biodynamic compost, among other things...  Bruno and his wife Anne-Laure run a company called Prométerre (site in French) that specializes in workshops teaching farmers and amateur plant lovers how to recognize medicinal plants in the wild (or in their natural habitat).  Matt had met him twice already this year, he participated in one of their  2-part seminars this spring and summer.  The first 2-day seminar was not far from here, in Laudun at Domaine Duseigneur, a biodynamic winery with vineyards in the Lirac and Laudun appellations.  The second part of the seminar was at Domaine Leflaive in Puligny Montrachet!  Not a bad place to study plants.  Matt even had the pleasure of sitting next to Anne-Claude Leflaive .  It was a great thing for him to participate in,  A) because he loves plants and B) because he got a chance to meet other vignerons that were interested in and practice biodynamics, and C) so that he could just be Matt and not have me there always interjecting and speaking better French than he - sometimes that can be annoying!!  In any case Matt really liked Bruno and his wife Anne-Laure, so he asked Bruno if he would stop by our vineyards and start consulting with us on the best ways to ameliorate our soil and our vines in an organic and biodynamic sort of way.

We spent lots of time walking through our various vineyards observing the different plants growing in and around them, and most of all checking out the different soils and stones found in each vineyard.  Bruno would often whip out a magnifying glass to get a closer look at the rocks he found, breaking them apart to get a better look at what they are made up of.  It was a very interesting session, and I look forward to working with him more in the future. 

The grenache is starting to turn now too, it's hot and dry here, some of the vines are starting to show signs of stress!  Harvest will definitely be early here, I think we'll start picking for the rosé at the very beginning of September, if not the end of August!  So far things are looking great, we're supposed to have thunderstorms on Thursday, hopefully it will simply rain, and not hail!