The season is changing it felt like the first day off fall this AM. That smell and cool was in the air.

Bottling today. We anticipate a very long day.

Was a long day and a bit retro of yesterday. The bottling machine took a while to get organized and en route. Also, the forklift was acting up.  You name it and the piece of equipment  needed attention. Same as when you are getting ready to sell your house and the hot water heater dies.

Mid morning I checked out the Clos Vougeot parcel I wrote about yesterday. It is quite nice and frankly better than I’d expected. The vines are quite old and the berries are medium in size to small. The parcel starts at the lower portion of the middle parcel and rises for 200 meters to the upper slope. It is a good mix of dirt and we should be able to make something very interestong.

Once cranked up, Diana and Geraldine were troopers and got a good rhythm going. Bottled until 8:30 PM. Will restart at 7:00 on Thursday morning.

Afternoon I bottled 160 magnums. Actually quite soothing bottling and corking the bottles by hand with cranked up rock and roll from the iPod. It was a Southern Rock day with Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers leading the charge. After about 80 magnums my arm was beat from the corking machine and the 3 Musketeers arrived and I introduced them to the romance of winemaking; learning how to cork by hand (takes a bit of coordination, more than you would think), and cleaning tanks and hoses and of course the art of the squeegee. The squeegee, aka le raclette in French is a winemaker’s best friend. Remember there is water everywhere during the harvest and the raclette is indispensable. In addition our cuverie,  even though new the floor is original and uneven thus the breaks flow (of course) away from the drains toward the walls and under the tanks. Thus the art of racletting is one that must be mastered early.

Ah, the fine art of the raclette and cleaning!

Magnums bottled and corked by hand.

Geraldine and our beautiful if temperamental bottling machine.

The bottling ended about 8:15pm.

In bottle today:

Bourgogne Chardonnay Cuvee Prestige: 8 barrels/pieces
Chassagne-Montrachet: 9 pieces
Fixin Blanc: 8 pieces

Total: 25 pieces ~ 7,500 bottles, ok but we lost a good amount of time this morning.

Dinner chez Denis Toner. We arrived late as you would expect but he had the first soiree of the fall in honor of Jacques Lameloise of 3 star Lamelois in Burgundy. Jacques and his wife could not be more down to earth people and it was a warm and at the end hilarious evenng – as it ended with Jacques learning to use Denis’ dart blow gun for target practice (in the house). As you will hear me say many times; you can not make this stuff up.

Dinner at Denis Toner's with the guests of Honor Jacques and Nicole Lameloise and Michel and Martine Anglada of Colin-Deleger

It was one of those days.

First thing at 8 AM Geraldine comes into my office with her face ashen; “the cuverie floor is covered with red liquid.” Well it was not wine but was the cooling liquid from a tiny $1.00 valve that had rusted off. Well, pas grave but it was an inauspicous start to the day as we were hoping to start early and get the wines ready for the bottling starting tomorrow. Winemaking is so romantic.

The morning was beautiful and warmer than the lst couple of days; about 18 c. We hit 25-26 about 2:00 and then at 4pm we got some heavy rain up and down the Cote.  No panic and in some cases it might be positive to refresh the vines and grapes.

Good deal of the day: I made a deal for three barrles of Clos Vougeot in grapes. I will look at the vineyard tomorrow but I know the position and have tasted the finished wine several times and it has great portenial. I know you are going to ask who is it from; no telling. One of the rules is that we rarely if ever speak of our suppliers in order to keep their privacy because thay often are well know winemakers and secondly, of course, to keep this information or intellectual property in house. There is fierce competition for grapes and thus one keeps ones cards close to ones chest.

Our three muskeeteers/interns came by for the first time today. We will slowly get them into the rythm of the harvest. So far thier program at the school is very thorough; I can imagine many Amercians paying a great deal of money for the inside tours and tastings they are receiving.

Stagaires Jane, Marietta and Gavin.

Evening weather overcast and some drizzle.

Monday August 31, 2009

Geraldine’s first day chez Gambal. I am afraid we scared her a bit with our enthusiasm especially when she learned we were doing a blog; she was amazed and thrilled. Thus we had to put a photo up of her measuring the sugars and the acids in the grapes we pulled today.

Geraldine Godot on her first day with Maison Gambal.

Megan’s first day back in the office with little Jack and 2 year old Lila. As I have told you this is a family affair,. The day care begins later this week so Megan is making a slow but comfortable transition for everyone; especially herself.

Encore a perfect 10/10 day. It was quite chilly this morning 10-12 c but hit 30-33 this afternoon as we walked through the vineyards. This is perfect weather for getting the grapes ripe and preserving the acidities at night. It was a blue bird sky with a bit of a breeze and ZERO humidity. Absolutely perfect. Again I do not want to jinx us but it is looking great.

Tonight the moon is getting to be full and is brilliant in the late summer sky above Orches.

Tomorrow we take the wine off of their collages and get them ready for bottling. We have a lot to do before next week. We are looking at starting next Tuesday September 8 and after another 1-2 rounds of grape checking we can be sure. It is interesting to note that as last year our Puligny is more ripe than our 1er Cru Chassagne La Maltroie at this early stage. Thus I am beginning to see patterns and it will be interesting to see where the final picking dates sort out.

Sugars:

Chassagne 1er Cru La Maltroie (Gambal): 11.0

Puligny Montrachet (Gambal): 11.9

St. Aubin 1er Cru les Murgers des Dents de Chien: 11.2

Bourgogne Chardonnay Les Grands Terres (Gambal): 12.4

Bourgogne Pinot Noir Montpoulin (Gambal): 11.5

Volia for tonight.

Alex

Sunday August 30, 2009

Aperitif on the deck in Orches with Fabienne and Pierre Escoffier, Diana and Alex and stagaire Marietta.

Lunch:

Tempier Rose 2007 2 btls… pourquoi pas… why not as an apero on one of the most beautiful days I have ever experienced?

Beaurenard Rose 2007 1 btl: with Gazpacho: made from heirloom tomatoes from our garden, made by Joyce and Etta Fitzpatrick. Wine does not go with Gazpacho so when you have it made from heirloom tomatoes from your garden you eat first and ask questions about the wine later.

Marinated pork roast aka: down east North Carolina sauce made by Joyce and cooked on a low heat and seared at the end along with cole slaw made by Diana.

2006 St. Joseph: a baby and a steal from a great unknown producer: Rousset. Their Crozes is even better.

1986 Trevallon: 50% Syrah and 50% Cabernet: smooth as silk: wine is amazing.

1982 Trevallon La Tourtine: off…. bad cork? but not corked…lots of earth but not clean..too bad.

1990 Chave Hermitage: well… again why not  this is why we always liked really old Burgundy because there was great syrah in it. Do not be shocked my children but the truth will set you free to question all.

The above three wines were bought in the 1980s in CA, shipped to DC, then shipped to Boston in 1997 and then reshipped to France last year.

1998 Clos St. Landelin Gewurtzramier Grand Cru Vendanges Tardives: Rene Mure…. why Gewurtzramier is one of the great cepages in the world in the hands of a master: sweet but not too, lemon curd with great acidity…wine wonderfully balanced but is a baby. BRAVO!

Diana made peach tart from Julia’s cook book… yes were are hooked also, but even Diana could not put in the butter that Julia called for.

OK, its true, I am trying to torture you but we did have a great lunch today here in Orches with Fabienne and Pierre Escoffier of Ma Cuisine in Beaune. The laughs were non stop as we prepare to start the harvest and they go back to work tomorrow.

The weather this summer has been more than perfect and we will be beginning to pick in a about a week. This is my 17th summer in Burgundy and I have never experienced such great weather from the spring though the summer. This is to say it has been sunny, with bit of rain in July (when needed), a hot and relatively dry august, and since last weekend clear, sunny and now a dry north wind as I look across the valley and see Mt. Blanc 150 miles in the distance. When one sees Mt. Blanc it means we will get rain in th next 24-48 hours but the weatherman has announced this with great weather to follow through the month.

Yesterday I made my first serious tour of the vines with the prelevements “pre-harvesting.” With my good friend Joyce Fitzpatrick from NC and her daughter Marietta “Etta” who will be working the harvest with us. We covered both the Cote de Nuits and the Cote de Beaune and what can I tell you but the grapes look great and the sugars at the moment are terrific. For you techies…and you know who you are… this is what we found:

Marietta's first "prelevement."

Already great color in the juice.

Fixin Blanc: 11.1-11.2

Vosne parcel 1. 11.6-11.8

Vosne parcel 2: 11.4-11.6

Savigny Les Beaune: 11.7

Bourgogne Pinot Noir Petits Pres Gambal: 12.1

Bourgogne Pinot Noir Le Long Bois Gambal: 11.8

What the above means is that the grapes are well along to being ripe, the acidities are in terrific balance and most importantly the seeds, or pepins, are getting ripe and crunchy. As many of you who have heard my rantings in the past, the key in making red wines is the degree to which the seeds are ripe. Thus the “management” of the seeds, and their inherent astringency is key to the vintage. So far, we are progressing to have the seeds that are beautifully ripe; or as I think of them “neutral.” The problem is that all the BS that is written about “phenolic ripeness” has everything to do with the seeds and how one “manages” them. Something to the degree of 80% of the astringency and “bad tannins” come from the seeds. So as Euell Gibbons said, “do they taste like grape nuts?” i.e. when they are crunchy and taste nutty the grapes are ripe. It is as simple as that.

Well take a look at the attached photos from yesterday and today’s lunch.  As we did our prelevements, which is literally randomly picking 300 berries throughout the parcel every 5 days, we commuted via my 1943 Willy’s Jeep and it was not in a GOOD MOOD.  Yesterday Joyce and Etta were the starter; i.e. at least 10 times we had to jump start it. Yes it was epic, classic and welcome to my world.

There is so much more to write but I hope that you will enjoy my musings. We will probably be begin next week on the 7th or 8th of September. The team is arriving as I write and team Gambal will be assembling in the next few days.

Finally, let me introduce to you our team.

There are many veterans returning but also several new faces some of whom have vital roles in the organization.

Winemaking:

Alex Gambal: As you would suspect my role is doing a bit of everything. Because we have a new winemaker, Geraldine Godot, I will be staying more in the cuverie until she feels 100% comfortable with the setup. During the height of our bringing in grapes, I will again be in the vines a great deal. We also have the some potential to add some new contracts which will require me to follow them closely.

Megan McClune: Megan is in charge of administration and finance. She had her second child Jack in July and is still officially on maternity leave. I know it will be hard to keep her out of the office and the cuverie but she will be here a few hours at a time to make sure all of our paperwork is in order and I do not get us in trouble.

Geraldine Godot: Geraldine is joining us on August 31 from Domaine Philippe Colin in Chassagne-Montrachet. Geraldine is in charge of all wine related issues; i.e. she is the boss in the winery. When she says jump, etc….

Diana Williams: Diana, my spouse, will be covering the office. Diana is a problem solver and detailed oriented – something I need very much. She will also be handling many of our visits and tastings during the harvest and is one of the best tasters and teachers among us.

Matt McClune: Matt aka MacGyver McClune first worked with us in 2001 and he loved it so much he and Megan moved here in 2004. Besides managing the renovations at our winery and numerous other jobs, not to mention their home in St. Romain, Matt is our resident and accomplished artist. Matt has several gallery openings in early September and will be helping out as soon as he is free. Matt could also be described as our assistant winemaker because he has done everything many times over chez nous.

Will Bissonnette: “Midnight Will” is coming in from Vermont and this will be his 5 or 6th harvest with us after a hiatus of 2 years.  Will has been assistant manager at an inn in Vermont and is leaving this job and thus we can use him between stints. Will will be running the forklift and generally coordinating the receiving of the grapes and in charge of all “back lot” operations. You will see Will with a cigarette in his mouth and often a beer in his hand; it makes him more accurate.

Cara Schwindt: Cara who is back this year for her 4th??? vintage with us could not come last year because she was working at the Beijing Olympics as a master sommelier. Cara is the wine director at The Stein Erickson Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah.  Cara is our jack of all trades; cleaning, bringing in boxes of grapes, punch downs, triage on our “table de tri” etc. You will often see Cara stretching or lifting something like 5X her weight.

Jonathan Bonvalot: Jonathan is our “stagaire” or apprentice. Jonathan is 25, a Gendarme, but is changing careers to go back to his family domaine in Pernard-Vergelesses. Jonathan will be attending the CFPPA (wine school) and getting the same wine degree as I did. He will be with us during the harvest and for several weeks throughout the year. Jonathan will be in the cuverie and will be Geraldine’s assistant.

Kevin Mathiot: Kevin is a real jack of all trades and when Matt is not around he is our substitute MacGyver. Kevin works at night at Le Bistro L’Hotel in Beaune and has his own small contracting company during the day. Kevin will be driving the 2nd truck during the day and will try to be around in the evenings when he can get off from the hotel. Kevin is a real worker and is always upbeat with a smile on his face.

Our Stagaires/Apprentices “Etrangers:”

Through the CFPPA (adult wine school) there is a stagaire program open to foreigners so that they can legally participate in the harvest. They take a 1 week course at the school and then will work for us throughout the harvest and the wine making period. We have three “slaves” this year….. and by the way the program looks fantastic with some great tastings and tours of vineyards as well as some good lectures.

Gavin Monery: Gavin is  from Australia and is currently working at a wine store in London.

Jane Shiverick: Jane is from Connecticut, graduated from Trinity last year and is currently working at a wine store in NYC.

Marietta Stewart: “Etta” is transferring from the University of Vermont to the University of North Carolina and will be a junior.

Food: For the 6th year in a row we will be spoiled by the impresario Dr. Henry Talberth and his wife Stacia. Henry is our “Chef de Cuisine” and we will eat as kings. In the AM there is always of plenty of coffee and croissants, lunch tends to be salads, sandwiches and great leftovers; at dinner Henry lets out the stops. His mac and cheese and bangers is the stuff of legends.

Support Staff:

My good friends and partners in our « compound «  John Hayes and Denis Toner will be here throughout the vendange. I want to thank John in advance for allowing us to use his garage as our harvest kitchen. As usual we can expect both John and Denis to be generous with wine, laughter and a helping hand. Denis always has interesting guests staying at his house which often provides its own form of entertainment.

“Security: »

“Big Al” “our pal” will be making a visit during harvest and will prowl the grounds at all hours.

Big Al

I hope you enjoy our blog and I look forward to hearing from you.

Alex