Pure Pink Pleasure, the power of SO2, and other tidbits...

We did our first "controle de maturité", or sugar test on Saturday.  Everyone has been saying that harvest will be early this year, so we wanted to take a reading so that we're ready to pick, and not taken by surprise.  The syrah, which in general is an early ripening varietal, was at just under 11 degrees potential alcohol, and the grenache from our biggest vineyard was already at 12!.  The rule of thumb is that they gain one degree a week in sugar/potential alcohol, so we will be shooting to start picking on the first weekend in September.  The weather has been particularly beautiful here, not too hot and often a bit chilly in the evenings, not our usual hot August weather.  Hopefully it will hold out until harvest, hopefully we won't have any big storms either!  I'm knocking on wood as I type.

After I crushed the grapes to test the sugars I strained the juice so that we could drink it.  Delicious!  It reminded me immediately of harvest.  It's exciting to think about another year soon to be in the tanks.  The color of the juice, even after only about 15 minutes was a very pretty pink, due largely to the syrah.  We drank some of the sweet, still quite acidic juice that evening and then I put the rest into the refrigerator.  The next morning, I found the glass that I had been using to take these pictures still sitting on the sideboard, and the color had greatly changed.  The juice was now brownish-pink in color and the taste had lost much of it's previous zing.  A perfect example of the benefits of adding sulfur dioxide (SO2) as a preservative.  It's something that, for me personally, is absolutely essential in winemaking.  There are people that don't use SO2 and they make some pretty decent wines, but in the long run they don't have much hope of longevity.  Un-sulfured wines can be interesting, many even delicious in their youth, but for me personally, I wouldn't dare do it.  Hygienic conditions in the winery have to be ideal, and you have to be super careful every step of the process.  Then you have to make sure that the wines are perfectly stored at every step of the way. One person that has definitely mastered it is Eric Pfifferling in Tavel.  I bought a bottle of his Tavel rosé at a local shop recently and it was delicious.  A rosé without sulfur is even more daring, as whites and rosés tend to oxidize more quickly than reds.   Pfifferling also makes red and white, all without the addition of SO2, so if I ever want to learn how to do it, I think I'd go see him!

Here's a few pictures I've taken as we've been out and about  over the past week and I haven't been writing this blog!

Hard to see, but this is Nora Jones singing at the Roman Arena in Nimes...spectacular setting for a spectacular artist!

One of my favorite views in Uzès, the terrace of the Restaurant Zanelli:

And finally, some delicious blackberries!  Our walks with Daisy take longer now because I'm always stopping to have a snack!

Comments

[Greg]

That juice looks great! We just crushed a few varieties on campus this last week and are doing more this week. Good luck with this harvest, I can't wait to try it. I'm glad that you use SO2 in your wines; I also think that it is the prudent thing to do - you can't worry too much about bugs.
-Greg

[Tim Stephens]

Lovely! I like to hold back some juice after the crush, settle and filter it, dose it with about 50ppm SO2, and then freeze it. It's fun and educational to do a juice/wine tasting when bottling time finally rolls around. It sort of closes the loop...

[Steve L.]

I'm glad to hear the dog's leg appears to have mended well!

[Alice Feiring]

Amy, This as well as the Kermit entry...I am drooling with envy. We have to pick up the sulfur debate at another time. Best, Alice

[lagramiere]

Greg, yes, sulfur is a good thing, but if I could do without it I would... it's nasty to deal with and when I think about it's origins it makes me cringe...

Tim, freezing the juice is a good idea, I'll try it. We had lunch yesterday at Domaine de Pujol and they served us grape juice sorbet which was delicious!

Steve, yes the dog is doing very well, back to her old self. The wound isn't completely healed, but it's getting there...

Alice, yes I look forward to discussing the SO2 issue with you in the future!

Thanks to all of you! Amy