wine cellar – The Vigneron's Wife

some sights #5 – images from the Minervois

September 21, 2012November 7, 2012The vigneron's wife

: a view from Chateau Maris

the eggs! — Now this is crazy (but beautiful) …LES OUEFS! – these are the egg-shaped tanks used to age wine in the Maris winery.
I keep thinking Mork from Ork is going to crack out of one…

inside the new Chateau Maris cellar — Jean-Pierre in the Chateau Maris winery yesterday (the walls are made of hemp!)

la liviniere — driving from La Liviniere

Mauzac Nature 2011 — Now this was hard, parting with this bottle today to throw it into the recycling bin. It was SO delicious!! A sparkling white that almost tasted like a very dry cider. Lucky the bottle was big, it went down so quickly!
(Merci Isabelle et Vincent)

last night's tomatoes — Last night’s tomatoes.
Got to make the most of these babies before the season is out.

Saint Chinian flags — Bleu, Blanc et Rouge in Saint Chinian

carca wine shop — wine shop in Carcassonne

hanging the laundry — hanging out the laundry

European Carpenter Bees — European Carpenter bees in the garden

thongs, flip-flops, claquettes — ‘thongs’ in my home (yes, not the ones on your butt), ‘flip-flops’ in the UK and the US, ‘Jandals’ in NZ, ‘slops’ in South Africa, ‘schlapfen’ in Austria… ‘tongs’ or ‘claquettes’ in France. I like this one – Lilas said the name comes from the sound they make as you walk? Anyone know if this is right?

window in Saint Chinian — window with ‘fresh’ flowers

Rebecca's curry — Rebecca’s Kerala Prawn Curry, mmmmmn. The onion bahjis were a knock-out too, but my photo didn’t work out

a house inside a building — a house in a house

Grandma's Pussy — ‘Grandma’s Pussy’ – from *Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories, Series B, Volume 10*
…Really!

Tasting the juice on Boulevard Napoleon

June 4, 2012October 18, 2012The vigneron's wife

We joined in on Benji and Trevor‘s tasting yesterday morning at the cellar on Boulevard Napoleon.

These 2011 wines are ageing in both barrel and tank – and at 10am were tasting incredibly delicious. To the point where I realised I should have had more breakfast! Still haven’t learned the spit method, more like the ‘drink and tip’ – but not enough tips.

And as Jen warned, the kids get going early in these parts too.

the grapes are GO on Boulevard Napoleon

October 15, 2011June 5, 2012The vigneron's wife

the grapes have arrived at the cellar — grapes fresh from the vineyard, lined up waiting to be de-stemmed

Well that’s it for picking this year. All the grapes are in, busy fermenting, creating heat in the tanks and Benji can breathe a sigh of relief. We’ve had good amounts of sunshine and wind, no hail, no rot – now it’s time to leave the grapes to do their stuff in the winery and see what sort of juices evolve.

Benji and tractor at la cave (the wine cellar) on Boulevard Napoleon — Benji at ‘la cave’ (the wine cellar) on Boulevard Napoleon

These photos show the last of the grapes from the harvest – the Grenache – coming in. We hung around for a couple of hours to see the action. It might sound nerdy, just hanging around and watching grapes go into a machine for processing, but really, it was quite exciting! Really! There’s something about the odour, the colours, the satisfaction on the faces of the grape growers seeing their fruit finally picked and about to perform their transformation.

As I’ve already said, the harvest is a wonderful time to witness. And it was just great taking in the blokes’ excitement in the cellar.

Yves emptying the grenache grapes into the crusher — Yves emptying grenache grapes into the crusher

Benji and Pierre ready for the first delivery — Benji and Pierre waiting for the grapes to come through from the first delivery

Pierre photographing his fruit — Pierre (le viticulteur) photographing his babies

les filles in the 'sandpit' — les filles keeping busy in the ‘sandpit’

The grapes were carefully emptied from their ‘caisses’ (box/basket) one by one into the de-stemmer/crusher (yes, it does what it says, plucks the berries from their stems and sorts away the leaves) which then drops the glistening little purple ‘beads’ (they look like jewellery) onto the sorting tray. They are dropped down into another tray, with a huge turning ‘screw’ and then pumped up through the red hose, straight into the tank. Some of the grapes were collected into buckets and emptied directly into wine barrels (second-hand, so not full-blown wood influences on the juice). A small experiment to develop different flavours.

If the wine is as delicious as the berries tasted, everyone will be happy!…