Jurançon from
Domaine de Souch, Yvonne Hegoburu
We are proud to announce our newest vigneronne
-- The youthful and energetic 80+ year-old Yvonne Hegoburu
In the early 70's, Yvonne Hegoburu and her husband René found a pile of rocks, the ruins of an old house, at the top of the hill in the village of Laroin, about 6 km towards the Pyrénées from their home in Pau, southwest France. They both fell in love with the spot. He was a former, dashing Jai Alai champion, currently editor of the local sports newspaper, L'Equipe. After years of rebuilding this manse and enjoying life in this beautiful hillside retreat with his wife and child, he died. They had always both dreamed of planting a vineyard on their 40 acres inside the demarcated zone for the unique Jurançon wines, but they never got around to it.
By this time in 1987, Yvonne was 60 years old. Determined to complete their dream and to honor her husband, she went ahead and planted those vines - eventually, 6.5 hectares of them. Her first wine in 1990 won a gold medal in Paris which only encouraged her "folly" more. Through her friendship with Pascal Delbeck, then vineyard manager of Château Belair in St. Emilion, she came to an understanding of biodynamie. She saw that fruits and vegetables farmed using these methods and the vineyards tended with biodynamic practices produced fruit that was healthy and even more delicious than those grown conventionally. In 1994, she embraced the philosophy for her own estate and has continued it to this day.
Jurançon is an old appellation and one of the first to be classified. It has an important, legendary place in the history of France, since, as it is generally related, the lips of Henry IV of Navarre, one of the boldest Kings of France, were rubbed with Jurançon wine at his baptism , the result of which was, of course, his courage and charisma. The 20th century writer Colette added to the wine's cachet by touting its excellence.
But Yvonne, while appreciating the history, is very much a person of the here and now. She has completely charmed the rest of the French wine world, and can consider among her many friends, some of the finest winemakers and personalities in wine. Didier Dagueneau was especially fond of her and assisted her with some of her work. His sudden death in 2008 is still a grave loss of a good friend. Not so long ago, she also had a moment of celebrity as one of the sage and more memorable winemakers in Jonathan Nossiter's film, Mondovino. She even attended the premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on the director's arm where she walked the red carpet. "I planted vines when my husband died," she said in the film, 'Ever since then, all this love inside me, I give to the vines. I talk to them. I have an exchange with them. I ask them to drive their roots deep down into the soil to get the best from the land."
All the harvesting is done by hand in successive passes through the vineyards. The pressing is done in a pneumatic press.
The estate makes the following wines:
Jurançon Sec – 70% Gros Manseng, 20% Petit Manseng and 10% Corbu. Vinified in stainless steel vats, with daily lees stirring and usually 3 rackings.
Jurançon Moëlleux – 50% Petit Manseng and 50% Gros Manseng – .Vinified in stainless steel vats, with daily lees stirring.
Jurançon Cuvée Marie Kattelin – 100% Petit Manseng – Only partially de-stemmed fruit, direct press than vinified in barrels. 3 rackings. No fining, light filtration. This cuvée is named for Yvonne's granddaughter.
Yvonne is now in her early 80's and in terrific form. We look forward to a lot more great vintages from her. She just got a beautiful new 3 month old Great Pyrenees puppy. She also has a cat that's 22 years old! Perhaps there is something in these Jurançon wines.
An Exciting Addition to
Louis/Dressner's Burgundies
Chablis from Alice and Olivier de Moor in Courgis
Courgis is a small village 7 km southwest of Chablis where Alice and Olivier de Moor live and work. It is where Olivier grew up, and his "old" cellar, the part where he ages his Chablis in oak barrels, is underneath his grandparents' house. From the hill where Courgis sits, the view is of vineyards over hills all the way to the Chablis Grands Crus.
Olivier says the landscape has changed a lot in his lifetime, that all the woods, bushes and fallow land that dotted the hills have disappeared in favor of vines. There is a good side to this transformation, he says: this being a very northern climate for vines, spring frosts are usual, and very damaging; now that the spots that could retain moisture and stop the winds are gone, frost is less of a threat.
Alice is from the Jura, and the two met at a large Chablis estate where Olivier was in charge of the vineyards. Both are enologists, graduates of the Dijon enological school, with enough knowledge to take a radically different direction for their vines and wines than their neighbors.
They began their estate by planting three plots of Chablis, -Bel Air, Clardy and Rosette,-in 1989. Of their first harvest, in 1994, they kept only 15HL. They were still employed elsewhere, but quit that fall after leasing their Saint-Bris vines: 0.55HA of Aligoté planted in 1902, and 0.40HA of Sauvignon blanc from 1945. For the next three years, they worked their 4HA of vines, and in the vines of other winemakers to make a living. In 1996, they planted a large plot in Chitry (called Champagne) with Aligoté and Chardonnay.
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Arianna Occhipinti in Sicily
October 25, 2008
Kevin McKenna and Shawn Mead just visited two days ago and it looks like a fabulous vintage.
Laurent Barth's Second Report from Alsace
A few impressions as the harvest continues and little by little the vats fill up.
September 30th: Harvest of the Pinot Noir : an intense and laborious sorting which allowed us to vinify two terroirs separately. The devatting is planned for this Wednesday (Oct. 15th). The grapes were able to attain ripeness (13.1%), but as far as the tannins go, I'm not so sure. I decided to keep about 10% of the stems for the Cuvée "M" (only after aging will we be able to know if this cuvée will ever see the light of day). I reread some pages from a book by Peynaud le Bordelais (in which philosophical and technical reflections confirm each other) to reassure myself about the choices I was making about vatting and pigeages.
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News from the Bugey: “Merci mon Dieu!”
Franck Peillot, Montagnieu
This old French expression is not part of everyday language any more, but it suits me perfectly for vintage 2008. For, if the year is far from perfect, I deem myself lucky and happy.
The season started with a cold snap and freezing temperatures in the week of April 15th. But we suffered more fear than damage, only a small plot at 400m high was affected.
May went went without problems, then, when the flowering was already occuring late, at its very beginning (on the Altesse, notably) we got big rains and cold temperatures. Rain is not a friend during flowering, and cold even less so. Imagine trying a fecondation in a cold bath, at around 35F! most studs would renounce. For vines, it is the same problem, and many flowers aborted, bringing coulure, that winemakers' bane.
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Domaine Thomas-Labaille, Chavignol (Sancerre)
Jean-Paul Labaille
After rainy and cold July and August, disease (mildew and oidium) got worse. The harvest of 2008 looked to be even more difficult than in 2007. We were planning a harvest like in the 80s and 90s, i.e. in early October.
The second half of September was very dry and cold, which concentrated the juice, the acidity level was high. The official date to start the harvest was set on Sept. 29th. On that day, we had a major disappointment: the potential degree was high (13.5) and the yields were very low (30HL/HA.) We had to wait for some rain to soften the berries.
On Oct. 3rd, I started with my Pinot noir: good quality and low yields, which is perfect for the variety. On that day, we also got the rain we were hoping for.
We started picking the Sauvignon on Oct. 7th, our hopes are growing, since there is more juice and the degree has fallen to 12.5.
The harvest went slowly, this year one had to have patience. We finished on Oct. 14th with the Monts Damnés vines.
2008 seems to have good balance, and small yields, it should be a lot like 2007, but with more structure, and acidity similar to 2002.
We will know more after the fermentations.
Clos de la Roilette in Fleurie, Beaujolais
Alain Coudert on Oct. 22nd
A harvest like in the 80s
The official date for the start of the harvest was set on Sept. 15th, which had not happened since 1996. The vintage is square in the average of the last 50 years, but later, and yet the growing season's temperatures were 0.5 degree C above average. But it rained a lot: from January til the end of August, there were 152mm above the norm, and 30mm extra for August alone.
After a strong presence in 2007, mildew was again in the spotlight. Other diseases were negligeable. The buds sprouted leaves very late, around April 20th, which is 15 days later than in 2007.
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Catherine and Pierre Breton, Bourgueil
Oct. 23rd
Three notes follow: from Claire and Anne, who were stagiaires (students in practical training) during the harvest, and from Pierre Breton.
Claire: "Two apprenticeships in one."
I had just encountered the work of a winemaker, and I got to meet The vigneron and The vigneronne. In their own passionate ways, Pierre reassured us by kicking us in the butt: how to manipulate with precaution the ends of hoses, how to put the pails uspside down to dry, how to clean the vats, all this without any preoccupation for our physical and mental health. Catherine, the singing woman, was focussed on pigeage and arrosage (pouring juice over the vats) of her dear carbonic maceration vats while humming "Dansez sur moi."
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Catherine Roussel's Final Report
Mareuil-sur-Cher in Touraine, October 14th 2008
We finished yesterday (Oct. 13th) under hot weather and in a cheerful atmosphere, with a tough customer, our Cabernet: we had to wait an extra week to harvest it, but fortunately, most our pickers showed up.
At first sight, the yields are around 25HL/HA, degree: 12.5%, acidity: 6.4g.
Didier is relieved, and relatively relaxed, given this difficult vintage.
PS: weather too dry for mushrooms (waaah!)
PPS: Buster has to be warned, we have two new tenants: Sécotine (striped) and Pélagie (black), two adorable kittens. Sécotine follows us everywhere (hence her name, i.e. a brand of glue) and Pélagie loves to sleep in cardboard boxes
Looks Good for Sophie & Vincent Morey
Santenay in Côte d'Or, October 14th
We started on September 25th and finished on October 4th, and picked under sunny skies, sometimes with a few clouds and one small midday shower, so under very good weather.
This was a rather long harvest, but it was worth the time spent. We picked beautiful grapes, plump and juicy. There was very little rot, thanks to two weeks of sunny and windy weather in the second half of September. The ripeness is good, in white as in red.
Our worries of early September have turned into a smile of contentment, this vintage promises to be good, in white especially. Vincent is very busy in the winery, he has started devatting the reds and has to closely monitor the whites' fermentation in barrels.