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The Vintner Out & About

16 Grapes for Stage 16: Bikes and Wine, Le Tour de France

Written by: Tom Gilbey

One of our favourite games is finding an excuse to talk about and drink our wines. What better excuse is there than to find a “bike ride” (as Hamish describes it) that goes through one of our favourite and most diverse wine regions. Of course, we’re talking about Le Tour de France, with stage 16 starting tomorrow from Carcassonne.

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Fun ways that you can host a themed wine tasting at home

Written by: Tom Gilbey

Wine tasting is a great way to discover new wines and styles with a group of friends or a group who are yet to become friends but the problem we’re often faced with is that it’s just too stuffy and boring.  In my mind, wine tastings must never be that when there are so many ways you can create a really fun, memorable and relevant experience.  I like to choose themes to add depth and context to my wine tastings which certainly helps me enjoy it more and I’m told by .  So here’s one we did recently …..

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Discovering Alsace

Written by: Gavin Smith

As we careered into Alsace on a rather stormy Friday morning, the driest wine region in France was looking decidedly sodden. Nearing the end of November there are still some grapes on vine, slowly concentrating and waiting to be picked for 'Vendange Tardives' (late harvest) wines...

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My harvest in Beaujolais

Written by: Gavin Smith

Ten years on I returned back where my life of wine all started for me. It was ten years almost to the day when I did my first harvest in what I still believe to be the most beautiful part of France - Beaujolais. Those two weeks of rising before dawn, in the vineyards at sunrise, breakfasts of cold meats and chilled Beaujolais, long mornings of picking grapes then a long lunch before back in the vineyards til sunset were some of the longest and most memorable days of my life. It was 'real' work and those first few days felt like weeks! My back felt like it was broken, my hands blistered and covered in cuts. The evening would be a cacophony of drunken noise with sing songs, accordions (so French), guitars round the table and an endless stream of flowing wine, pastis and roll-ups. It was and still is a rite of passage for many French students and it changed my life!

 

I was always interested in wine but on UK soil, wine circles always seemed a bit stuffy and felt contradictory to my more anarchic ways. My initial trip round the vineyards of France that summer with a friend and a tent and nowhere near enough money was the beginning of my journey that showed me a very different side of wine.

 

Despite the overwhelming friendliness we experienced in both Champagne and Burgundy (invited to lunches, clubbing with the kids of Beaune!! - that was weird) it was when we were really broke and we hit Beaujolais on the football World Cup final night - July 2006 (where France lost and Zidane was sent off for head butting) It was that night that the world of wine really spoke to me. Despite  France losing in such dramatic circumstances there was a massive street party in the tiny village of Chiroubles and it was there we bumped into our new winemaking friends Romuald and his girlfriend Mélanie, over a glass of fizz of all things. We were trying to hitch a ride back to the campsite in Fleurie but for them the night was just beginning! We stayed and drank and danced and partied hard that night (in Beaujolais it happens a lot!) and the next day went for lunch at their newly acquired/ rented winery.

 

Romuald is from a wine making family and has been making wine since he was a boy but he had just started renting a beautiful winery in St Veran. Those long summer days we spent in Beaujolais were etched in my memory. We would drink a few bottles of wine, make our own epic sandwiches then have a siesta lying outside the church of La Madonne atop of the hill overlooking the village of Fleurie and surrounded by vineyards. It was beautiful! We arrived as strangers and left as friends. One month later I was back there picking grapes. And now ten years later I am back again.

 

A lot has changed in those 10 years but the harvest hadn't changed at all! It is like it hasn't changed in 100 years. Perhaps mentally I was a more prepared for the hard work but I had asked Romuald if I could take more of a role in the winery too which meant after picking all morning you had to get all the grapes in the tanks before lunch and protected, then the same in the evening leaving the winery spotlessly clean. The days were just longer, even harder and remember I'm older and the body aches more!

It has been a tough year in France this vintage and no tougher than in Beaujolais. As we travelled through the vineyards of Morgon there were waves of vines with brown leaves and zero grapes. Romuald himself has a small prized vineyard in Chiroubles and this year no grapes. It is heartbreaking particularly as his Chiroubles 2015 is a thing of beauty! He claims it is his first natural wine since the grapes from last year were in such good condition they needed minimal protection during the production phase.

 

 

 

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Kevin Tessieux visits for our Producer Series

Written by: Will Trotman

The ‘summer’ isn’t just my favourite time of year because I get to indulge in copious amounts of cricket at Lord’s as England’s international season begins, it is also because during these months we have the pleasure of welcoming many producers and representatives of the wineries we work with across the globe, as part of our Producer Series.

The visits of Kevin Tessieux of Collovray & Terrier are always keenly anticipated by our staff and clients alike. We’ve been working with Collovray since our inception back in 2010 and the fact we’re still listing a host of their wines is not only testament to the extraordinary consistency of their white Burgundy, but also to what a delight they are to work with.

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