Living a Dream in Provence

Doug Graves has had a long romance with wine. From his position as a manager at Boeing (where he worked 34 years) he became a member of the Boeing Winemakers’ Club. However purchasing good wine wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to make wine, and serious quantities of it, not simply a couple of jugs for home consumption.

So he started purchasing grapes locally in Washington State and he took oenology and vinification classes at UC Davis on the weekends and he jumped in. On a small scale to start with, in his garage, with some help from family, friends and colleagues at first, and then on his own and seriously (even before his retirement from Boeing) he made wine under the Graves Cellars label.

But, even that wasn’t enough. Yes, the wine was good, yes, he was getting skilled at the chemistry side of things but, well, something was missing.

And so he came to Provence and he looked around. He’d traveled here before with his wife, exploring the country, most particularly the wine regions. So, he had an inkling of what he’d like. He’d studied French in high school, and so could cope linguistically. And then he found the Mas de la Lionne. And what a find!

The property of the Mas de la Lionne is in a tiny corner of the Côte du Rhône that butts right against the Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyards. In fact all his closest neighbors are Châteauneuf-du-Pape. And he, with similar vineyards covered in those rolled stones, filled with 30 to 60 year old grenache vines, has a terroir to envy, if not the AOC (name brand if you will) to go with them.

He had never been a vintner in the vineyards before. But the man who sold him the winery with all the equipment, stayed in the neighborhood for the first full year to help Doug adapt to his new life as a farmer/vintner. He was there to show him how to prune in the winter, there to show him how to scratch the earth with the plough, there to show him when to spray the copper sulfate and how to mix it, manipulate the monster machine that sprays it, clean it, etc., When Doug needed assistance and teaching, he was there. Need I say that he was a quick learner? As you can see from the image above, he is adept at explaining the goblet pruning of the vines in this region to visitors.


This is Doug’s third year on the property and soon to be his third harvest. He has learned that his land tends toward very ripe grapes (read alcohol content) and is adjusting. He has learned that the locals are a bit shy of foreigners (read fewer local purchasers of his wine -- those faithful to the former owner haven’t necessarily stuck by him). He is adapting to the ways and means of this corner of Provence. It is a lonely life at times, but also gratifying. You can learn more from his own words on his blog : delalionne.blogspot.com

And yes, he is making very good wine. This is what happens when you put together the brains of an engineer, the passion of an individual and a good terroir. There are three wines to choose from: his bright and fruity Côte du Rhône rosé, his classic, very jammy red Côte du Rhône and a special reserve red wine aged in small oak casks. Now, the only link of the chain that he needs to work on (in a difficult economy) is getting it to the consumer. It’s a truism that a vintner must be gifted in the vineyards, the cellar, and at the selling counter.

However, for those of you in the Northwest his wine is available in Seattle and around Washington State. So look for it! You will be most pleasantly surprised.

Harvest around the Corner

Well, the news is in, harvest is just around the corner. For many it has begun, but gently, slowly. The cool spring, short summer, cool early fall, drying winds, minimal rains have all collaborated to push back the harvest for ten days to two weeks. This after multiple years of early (précoce) harvests here. It keeps you on your toes!

But, those first white grapes are coming in, and the younger reds for rosé. Picked in the cool morning air they are carried in bins to the cellars, de-stemmed (égrappées) and pressed directly before being pumped into the stainless tanks where they'll be kept cool and permitted to start fermenting either that same day, or two days later, depending on the vintner and his ability to quickly descend the temperature of his juice.
We had two fierce rain storms last week. Good news for the agricultural world -- yes, it's been a dry summer. But bad news for my roof (ouch!), and my sleep. Okay, a good harvest in 2010 is very important, that the grapes be fully ripe and not stunted is of supreme importance. But I tell you, it is a bummer getting up at 4 in the morning to put pans and cups and towels under not quite a dozen leaks, and the next night from 1-2. Yup. Better get that B&B in Arles sold so I can repair my roof!

But on to the ostensible reason for this post. This is also a period that I've lots of visitors (thank you!) and of course we visit the wineries. Thankfully I've friends and colleagues in a number of them. Thus even during this busy period we've been welcomed warmly, briefly shaking the hand of one vintner as he headed off to shower having just finished harvesting and pressing for the day. He simply left the store to me and I handled the tasting.

Last week's visits were between harvest days. The storms came down mid-week and all was put on hold till the roots absorbed the extra water. This helped the grapes finish up their ripening and from this Monday (in the case of those on the lower and more Southern slopes) the harvest picked back up.

And so depending on where you are in Provence and Southern France at this moment you will no doubt have many a tractor in the roads pulling their very full bins behind them. Some may drip a bit of that lovely red juice along the road, leaving their trail of crumbs if you will... Others having worked more carefully (hand-picked) will be gently heading down to the cellar, to the de-stemmer (égrappeur) and the presse. It's a busy busy time down here.

The Oenologist's visit

The harvest is in -- excepting the late ripening Mourvèdre which is slated to be brought in Monday, five days after the other varietals. It is a time for attentive and daily cellar work. Sugar is transforming into alcohol. Daily the density of the liquid is measured: sugared liquid is heavier than water (thus numbers in the thousand plus); and alcohol is lighter (numbers in the very high 900s). Daily the total acidity is measured (by the lab), as well as the sulfites (those naturally present, those combined with the liquid, and those floating freely), the temperature and the presence of malic acid which will transform into lactic acid. Yeasts are working on the wine, but also indigenous bacteria. It is a highly methodical surveillance of a natural and occasionally shifting process. Each year, each grape, each day is different.



This year, for many, the sugar quantity is high. The grapes are very sweet. But, the tannic ripeness wasn't commensurate (phenolic ripeness). As such, the precise timing for the harvest was not an easy decision. And, in the cellar, the numerous consequences of this must be handled with care. If the malo-lactic acid transformation begins before the alcoholic fermentation is finished, this provokes problems, and must be attended to quickly -- urging the vintner to intervene and speed up the alcoholic fermentation by raising the temperature of the vat, for instance.



A few of the tanks have already finished their alcoholic fermentation. Six-eight days was sufficient. The temperature during this period was controled--kept relatively cool; the yeasts were efficient in their work, and the sugar has been fully transformed into alcohol. However, at this point, depending on whether the end product is a vin de pays, or an AOC wine, more or less extraction of matière is desired. Thus, for that which will become a higher-end wine, the solids, le marc, is left with the juice to macerate for another week or more and so, thus extracting a maximum of density and concentration, polyphenols and other good things. To encourage this process, the tank may be heated, and the liquid stirred up by pouring it out into a neighboring tank and pumping it back atop its solids.




When JP sits down with the oenologist, he has already removed samples from every vat in his cellar. They go through every wine, tasting, smelling, and noting what next to do with that particular wine. All these samples will then be off to the lab, who will efficiently get the results back to JP that same evening so he can get to work immediately on the next appointed task. This is a period in the year when the words Saturday and Sunday have little meaning! The wines need attending to.



So, I helped him immediately get to work removing the cooling insert from the grenache, adjusting the tubes and pumps to do the délestage, which can resemble the traditional technique of pigeage, slightly differing from a remontage. As I've just learned, the first lightens the vat: you remove all the liquid, allowing the solids to fall completely to the bottom of the vat, then you send the liquid back atop, breaking the solids, and fully mixing them in. Pigeage is that great technique (be it with your feet or a wooden tool) where you crush grapes to release their juice. And remontage is a continuous process of removing liquid from the bottom of the tank and sending it back in on top, yet keeping the quantity in the tank at the same level throughout.



We went up and down rickety ladders (a new stairwell is to be built to facilitate this, but at the moment, the building of such is in the stage of proposals from various ironworkers). We carried buckets. I cleaned tubes and overflowing tanks. We hosed down and scrubbed, double-checked temperatures, and removed the heating element from the Carignan. The clairette will need to be nudged towards finishing its alcoholic fermentation pronto as the volatile elements that the malic acide transformation creates will potentially cause problems.



There's always something to do.

When Friends come a'Harvesting

For many years, I looked forward eagerly to the wine harvest period, and one of my favorite outings. On the third Sunday of September, I would bring my guests of the moment to JP's friends’ harvest.

Arles to Vauvert was but a short distance. We skirted the town, took tiny roads up to the plateau, down a seemingly abandoned road lined with vineyards, till we reached his dirt road and the small sign confirming our arrival at the Mas. Clients and children in tow, clippers and buckets in hand, we would all join in to carefully hand-harvest grapes.

Laughing, sticky hands all, brushing away wayward strands of hair falling in our eyes, each person adapted himself to the short vines so typical of this region, and sought out the awkwardly placed grape bunches. The little tractor trailed its large bin, awaiting the buckets of grapes. Wasps buzzed in the air attracted by the sweet juices.

JP would pass by each of us, a large grape carrier on his back, smiling his encouragement. The goal was to reach the end of the row, and then to go back and help the others finish up. Keep an eye open for who needs help so all advance together, then shift over to the rows that have yet to be done. Teamwork in the most basic sense. For we harvesters for a day, it was also fun and -- can I say -- romantic. But be not persuaded, joyful as this day is for visitors, picking grapes is hard physical labor, most often done in hot, uncomfortable, backbending conditions, with frequent possibilities for wasp stings.

The friends’ harvest days ended with lunch and nibblies aplenty. A hose was readily available to rince hands, clippers and buckets. A bit of music was put on in the background, and our host offered up a toast to the day’s volunteers. We then all settled down to the rows of tables laden with our pot luck feast, liberally washed down by last year's wine.

Le Vendange - The Harvest

All over the lower lands of Provence (this is relative as they are still atop plateaus) it is harvest time. Grape juice on the roads, workers up and about early in the morning, the presses, pressoirs, working at full tilt. Bins are filled, tractors are blocking traffic (or at the very least slowing it down). The weather has been wonderful, and today we've a cooling Mistral blowing through the vineyards. Hard to ask for more.

Syrah, aka Shiraz, is the first of the red grapes to be ready for harvest. The team is out (predominantly female) from 7AM to bring the grapes in at their freshest (temperature-wise). The early morning is necessary as temperature control during fermentation is one of the arts of wine-making. Those who harvest by machine have been known to harvest from 2-7 in the morning... In fact, this is the case of at least one of the neighbors. Two bins came in this morning filling the 20 ton tank. The chilling system - reverse radiators fed by the well water under the cellar - was a bit iffy last night, but in fact is working fine, much to the relief of the vintner. This morning the tanks were at their proper temperature, and the day's work was put into motion. Besides removing the grapes from their stems, les érafles, there will also be multiple airings of the grapes and liquid, remontages, by which the juice and some of the grape solids are pumped out of the tank from below and poured back in from above, breaking any cap that might form atop the liquid, and encouraging a better mixture of the skins into the juices. This is desirable for a maximum extraction (same word in both languages).


This week a WOFeuse, i.e, an intern via the World Organic Farms association which places individuals from all over the world with organic farms for a proper internship, or a working vacation, is here from Paris. Normally a skilled store manager for a leather designer, travelling throughout the world setting up stores in Lebanon, Russia and South America, she is spending her vacation learning about wine from A to Z, and working the harvest. Energetic, willing and bright, she's trading room, board and a short education for her labor.



It's been a stressful week getting everything back into working order, amidst the presence of the electrician and the plumber working on the house above the cellar, etc., But at least the masons have removed their presence from the courtyard, having finished the new roof and flooring. It's been a race against time to have the cellar in shape for this harvest. But, after the first few kinks, things seem to be back in order, and all is moving along as it should. The viognier is looking lovely, currently evaluated at 14 degrees (a bit high for a white, but then again, this grape tends towards this), with rich fruit and amélique flavors (banana, English candy, malabar) inherent to the fruit itself.



The final rosé will be have approx. 25% syrah from this week's harvest. So far, so good. The cooler it is kept, the more delicate and captivating the fruit and floral aromas. It, like the white, has had the solids removed prior to fermentation, débourbage, and is progressing nicely.

Wine Harvest just around the corner.

It's time. In the morning I hear the neighbors' machine harvester at work. Grape juice stains have sluiced onto the pavement as the tractors bring the over-full bins down to the village cellars. The heat of August -- and lack of rain -- have brought the promised conditions. Mildew and Oidium (variation of mildew) have attacked a few of the bunches and leaves over the season, but no further. The worst has been held in check by as-needed treatments of copper and sulfur (both permitted in organic agriculture), prudent pruning, and frequent scratching of the earth. Today, the breeze has lightened the heaviness of the heat, and any threat of an untimely thunderstorm.



Here at Mas Madagascar the harvest begins Tuesday with the Viognier, a white grape known for its heady perfumes of apricot and flowers. As of Thursday, it was already at a potential alcohol level of 15! This is quite high, but typical for this grape which can make nearly syrupy, heavy white wines. However, as Domaine Cabanis prefers a tart, crisp and lower alcohol white... this element has him just a wee bit anxious. The last week's heat has risen the degree in a flash, and plans to begin harvesting later had to be readjusted.



You'll notice in the photos that there is quite a bit of leaf coverage over the grape bunches. The syrah (the red pictured here) are pruned in the goblet form, and the extra leaves are left by design to limit the intensity of the summer sun's heat. But the grapes are low to the ground and benefit from the radiated heat of the earth and stones through the night. The viognier (green) is trained on lines, but there again, the abundant leaf coverage has been purposely left.



However, all is set. The team has been alerted (all but the Mourvedre grape -- a late-ripening variety-- are hand-harvested here), and will be here 7AM on Tuesday morning. Today, Monday, and perhaps part of Sunday it is clean-up time in the cellar. All week the machines have been rinsed and prepped. Mechanical elements have been fixed. The tractors have been tuned up (ancient that they are, they're still running). The electric pump tested. So much, so many strands to be gathered together for a harvesting season to flow smoothly.



I can see the tension in the eyes and face of this vintner. Stressful days are around the corner. He'll survey the harvest, but also be at the cellar to receive the bins, which will be pressed immediately (this being a white wine). The juice will go straight into tanks to be chilled over the next 24 hours. The chilling holds off fermention and encourages the solids in suspension to descend to the bottom of the tank as sediminent. The clear juice above will then be transfered to a different tank for to ferment. This technique is Débourbage (known as racking must or musts clarification), and permits a cleaner and brighter flavor as it removes potentially vegetal, bitter or ascerbic flavors. It's an added step that improves the final product, but if there is a glitch and the fermentation gets going before the wine's been clarified... you just need to go with it and say, better luck next year. Yet another crucial step requiring attention and control.

And thus shall begin Harvest 2009. May the good weather hold, and cool breezes be many.