A lovely day today. The wind has dropped, and it is hotter than it was during the past few days.

This time we are starting our harvest at Vinsobres. The Syrah there is now very ripe and deep in colour. We have about 45 hectares (110 acres) of vines in Vinsobres, at a place called « Les Cornuds ». We purchased this estate in two stages over the past three years. Its vines are terraced and lie at an average height above sea-level of 300 metres. Vinsobres is an area that shows great potential for us, especially for the Syrah grape. This variety seems to show more finesse and crispness of flavours when produced in Vinsobres than in any other village of the Southern Rhône region, and at lower altitudes. In a nutshell, Vinsobres is the Southern Rhône village whose style is closest to the Northern Rhône.

The village of Vinsobres

In 2003 we produced three different wines from our estate in Vinsobres, in the following quantities:
- 6000 bottles of 'Les Hauts de Julien', which was made for the first time in the 2003 vintage, from a plot of old vines co-planted with Syrah and Grenache.
- 18000 bottles of 'Les Cornuds', a 50/50 blend of Syrah and Grenache.
- The rest of the production (around 80000 bottles) is declassified to Côtes du Rhône and goes into the blend of the Perrin Réserve.
These proportions will probably remain steady this year.

At Beaucastel, we pick Bourboulenc in the morning, and continue with the red Grenache for the remainder of the day.

The first box of Bourboulenc grapes come into the winery

At Gigondas and Vacqueyras, we are also in full swing with the harvest. The Grenaches are superb, and most of the Syrah has now been picked.

After a very windy and sunny weekend, the mistral dropped a bit today, and the weather is splendid!

We have finally started picking the Grenache at Châteauneuf, and have reinforced our “main team” of pickers for the purpose. Grenache constitutes about 30% of the blend of Château de Beaucastel, and 70% of our other Châteauneuf, Les Sinards. So it’s an essential variety for us!

The main team, behind Château de Beaucastel

The grapes are magnificent, perfectly ripe but not over-ripe. The harvest is very healthy, thanks to these exceptional weather conditions, with plenty of wind, over the past weeks.

Between grape sorting sessions, the team picks some olives from the trees just behind Beaucastel. These will produce green olives, once we have removed their natural bitterness by rinsing them and then leaving them to soak for several months in brine. The remaining olives will be picked later on, and we will make a few dozen litres of olive oil from them.

Vines and olives are inseparable in Mediterranean culture.

Another magnificent day, thanks to the mistral wind.

There was some cloud cover early in the morning, with a light southerly wind, as you can see from the photograph taken this morning.

Around 10 am the mistral wind picked up and blew it all way. This picture was taken from the same place, in the afternoon.

We had a light picking day today. The full team is resting, as we prefer to wait a bit longer. The small team gradually continues to pick the Syrah grapes at Beaucastel.

We use truncated segment wooden vats for fermenting Syrah and Mourvèdre grapes. These two varieties tend to show reduction, and wooden vats limit this phenomenon. Another advantage is that cap-punching is easier in wooden vats than in most other types of vat.

Empty wooden vats awaiting Syrah grapes at Beaucastel.

Another magnificent day today, somewhat warmer than yesterday as the mistral has weakened and is not so cold.

As expected, we start harvesting at Vinsobres, which is a village about thirty kilometres north of Châteauneuf. We pick a little syrah but rapidly decide to stop and wait until next week. We feel that the grapes will get even riper during the coming days. More will be said about Vinsobres as it has excellent natural conditions. Its terroir lies at the northern limit of the Southern Rhône area, and is particularly suited to the syrah grape.

In our Château de Grand Prébois vineyards we continue to pick the Grenache grapes that will contribute to the Perrin Réserve. They look very good.
In Saint Gervais, as expected, we start picking syrah grapes that will also go into the Côtes-du-Rhône Perrin Réserve.

As is the case for any of our vineyards that lie more than 5 to 10 kilometres from the Perrin et Fils winery (at Grand Prébois), we transport the grapes in refrigerated trucks to avoid them being damaged by heat.

Things are naturally quite tense and « tight » at the winery, with all these different grapes, from varying sources, coming in at the same time. What makes is worse is that some tanks which were ordered months ago for the vinification of vineyards that we have recently leased are just being delivered, in the middle of harvest! But we are very happy to get them.

There is no reason to rush at Châteauneuf. We visit each plot of Beaucastel and les Sinards daily, but we feel that the Grenache can wait as the weather is set fine. Mourvèdre and Counoise are later ripening varieties. The Syrahs are looking superb and we start to pick them, gradually, with the small team of pickers.

Another splendid day today, with full sun and quite a strong, cold mistral that lowered the temperature.

Today we are picking the ripest of the Grenache grapes from Coudoulet and Grand Prébois. The grapes are in good shape but we still sort them very carefully.

After fining, the juice from the Roussanne Vielles Vignes grapes that we picked yesterday is put in barrels.

And each day, until the end of the harvest period, Fabrice checks the density of each barrel to check on progress in fermentation. This analysis will tell us how often to stir the lees.

We have a very big day ahead of us tomorrow, as not only will we start to pick at Vinsobres, but we will also be picking much of the Syrah planted at Saint-Maurice (a 35 acre vineyard that we rent and whose wine goes into the Perrin Réserve blend), and some more Grenache at Grand Prébois.

We produce small amounts of rosé wine, using exclusively the bleeding technique, and essentially the cinsault grape.

This technique consists in de-vatting, or belleding off, the free-run juice quite soon after the crushed grapes have gone into the tank. In this way the anthocyans, which provide blueish colour, are only partially released from the skins to the juice. The wine takes on some colour, but this doesn't get as deep as for a red wine.

To enable the juice to run more freely from the tank, we make up bundles of wild asparagus which are placed in front of the draining valves inside the tanks. Here is Francois Perrin checking the run-off juice of the first batches of Perrin Réserve Rosé.

And here you can clearly see the colour of this free-run juice.

This juice is then "fined" before undergoing normal fermentation at low tempereatures.

Magnificent weather again today, with bright sun and quite a strong mistral wind.

So far, the weather conditions have been perfect!

This morning we harvested our plot of Roussanne old vines (RVV), which are 80 years old. We always vinify this plot separately from our other white grapes, and use it to make the cuvée that bears the name "Roussanne Vielles Vignes". We usually produce just around 500 cases of this, which is the only wine we make from a single grape variety

The Rousaanne Old Vine grapes are magnificent this year...slightly shrivelled as in every great vintage.We naturally sort them but only have to remove the odd leaves this year as the crop is perfectly healthy.

We finish off the morning by picking the Clairette grape, another Châteauneuf white variety.

This afternoon we pick the Cinsault from Coudoulet and Prébois. And we start bleeding, or de-vatting, our tanks of rosé (see above).

The weather stayed fine all weekend, and is continuing so this morning.The mistral wind is blowing, but not too strongly. These are perfect conditions, helping the grapes to full ripeness and imporving their concentration.

Today we harvest some of the Cinsault at Coudoulet, as well as the Terret Noir and Vaccarese grapes at Beaucastel. Beaucastel grows all the thirteen grape varieties authorised in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and even if these ones are not the "major" ingredients in the wine, they add something to the blend.

The mistral wind has calmed down today and the sun is strong: summer's back!

Yet despite these exceptional conditions, we have decided not to pick today. This is because we think that we can improve the quality and ripeness of the grapes by waiting. The weather forecast is good for the next few days, so we have decided to risk it!

The tanks of syrah that were picked last week are now fully fermenting. We carry out regular cap-punching or pumping-over on these.

Cap-punching means pushing the solid part of the grapes, which has floated to the top of each tank, down onto the liquid part. This enables one to extract tannins and colour due to increased contact between skin and juice.

Pumping-over means taking the wine from the bottom of the tank and sprinkling it over the solid matter lying on the tank's top.

Autumn-like weather today: the mistral is blowing hard and it feels chilly, despite plenty of sun.

We harvest the Muscardin grapes at Beaucastel.This is one of the 13 authorised grapes in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It may not be the most widely planted or the best-known, but we feel that it adds something special to the final blend (we will talk more of this later).

As for all our varieties, the grapes are rigourously sorted as they come into the winery to eliminate any damaged berries (see photo below).

In tricky years, we set up an extra sorting table in the vineyard itself, in order to ensure that no damaged grapes can find their way into the tanks.

For Perrin & Fils we also harvest a plot of Syrah that will become part of the blend of our Côtes-du-Rhône Perrin et Fils.

We stop picking quite early in the day.

Chateauneuf is a magical terroir, for numerous reasons than we will go into later. A vital ingredient is our famous northerly wind, the mistral. It thoughtfully and regularly blows strongly after spells of rain, drying out and concentrating the grapes.

Today we have a perfect example of this magic. After the rain that fell recently, the mistral is on schedule! This map shows wind force in terms of kilometers per hour (the figures in red indicate peak force).

And the sun is shining, the weather staying very fine and bright but not too hot.

We are picking the viognier grape in the Coudoulet vineyard (viognier is authorised in Côtes du Rhône, but not in Châteauneuf-du-Pape)

At Perrin & Fils, we have started picking the first grenache grapes at the Château de Grand Prébois. This grenache will form the basis (60%) of our Côtes du Rhône, Perrin Réserve. The weather forecast is excellent, with the fine weather steady for the coming days. Perfect!

Clouds have covered the sky and the forecast says it will rain. We have therefore decided not to pick grapes today in order not to have them full of water.

It looks as if we made the right decision: after a cloudy morning we had 7 millimetres of rain from 2 pm onwards. This gave us a break to adjust our sorting tables and look after the tanks of syrah that were picked last week and which are starting to ferment.

The weekend showed some rain, but nothing excessive. It stayed fine on Saturday most of the day, clouding over in the evening. We had 14 mm of rain during the night. It was fine on Sunday.

Today the weather is very fine. We are picking white grenache grapes, which are an essential part of the Château de Beaucastel white Châteauneuf, forming around 20% of the blend. The grapes look very good.

The weather is cloudy this moring, with a few drops of rain. Around 10 am it lightens and becomes fine with occasional cloudy spells.

This morning, at Beaucastel, we continued picking white grapes, harvesting our small plot of the Picardan grape. We also picked a few rows of Syrah at Coudoulet, to complete the tank of this grape that we had started yesterday. We stopped picking altogether at midday.

We have been picking so far with the "small team" (25 people), and expect to use the "big team" next week. To take the pickers form one plot to another, and from one village to another in the Southern Rhône area, we use a bus (here you can see it by a vineyard plot at Coudoulet, with Mount Ventoux in the background.

Very fine weather today, just like yesterday.

We grow all 13 grape varieties authorised by the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation at Beaucastel. Naturally, each variety has its specific date of optimal maturity and the order of picking will vary from year to year.

This morning we started our harvesting with the plot known as "young Roussanne" (actually these are 50 years old Roussanne vines!), which we picked under exceptionally good conditions. A glorious harvest.

This afternoon we picked some syrah from the Coudoulet vineyards, but most of the syrah can afford to wait if the weather stays fine.

Glorious weather today. Here is the map that we will be showing you every day to help you track the local weather in the various villages of the Southern Rhône valley where we produce wines.

We didn't pick grapes today, which gave us time to finish preparing for harvest at Beaucastel:

- sorting tables which will enable us to check all the grapes, eliminating any damaged berries as they come into the winery. We have separate tables for white grapes (right) and red grapes.

- the presses have been carefully cleaned and checked. We have three of these, ready for the white grapes as from tomorrow.

- we've just set up the air extractor in the winery. This is a large tube with an electric motor to push the air outdoors, ventilating the winery and extracting carbon dioxide gas produced by fermentation.

- and we've re-painted the slates that will have details of the contents of each tank written on them: plot and grape varieties.

- tanks, pumps and pipes are cleaned with hot water and given a final check-up.

We have already mentioned maturity checks. Here's the procedure:

Pickers collect about 150 single grapes from each plot. These must come from different vines, situated at various places on the plot, the idea being to represent the future harvest as closely as possible.

- Then the grapes are crushed and the juice kept for analysis.

- Here are batches of juice that will be analysed in our own laboratory, or sent to an external laboratory to confirm (or infirm) our own conclusions. Sugar content (which will determine the final level of alcohol) and acidity are the main items to be checked.

Weather fine, sunny and hot.
We finished the Chardonnay this morning. Fairly small crop of excellent quality.
Also picked some Viognier for vin de pays. Stopped harvesting at midday.
Yesterday's picking of Chardonnay was settled (we'll tell you what this means in due course) and racked (same story) this morning, prior to fermentation.

As expected, picking started this morning at Perrin & Fils with the Chardonnay. We rent this vineyard, and its grapes contribute to the blend of our Grand Prebois "vin de pays".

Weather slightly cloudy but fine and warm.

"We'll start picking on Monday"
This was the verdict this morning, following our visits to various parts of the vineyards planted with white grapes. The earliest to ripen (chardonnay destined for the Grand Prebois vin de pays) seemed practically ripe when tasted. We send samples to the lab to be checked but the result is a foregone conclusion. For an experienced taster, the flavour of the grape is the best sign of all.

In the Perrin & Fils winery, we finish fitting the new reception trough which has to be fully ready for Monday; a bit of a rush!

At Beaucastel, everything is ready for the 96th harvest picked by our family (the Perrin family acquired Beaucastel in 1909). Experience helps! We should be starting next Thursday.

The weather is splendid, fine and hot. Let's hope it lasts.

Harvest-time is always very stressful.

The weather is stressful as we totally depend upon it - this morning started with a little light rain: not a serious problem as the northerly Mistral wind blew right after, drying the grape bunches and avoiding any disease settling in them.

Getting ready in the winery is another source of stress. In our Perrin & Fils winery we have taken delivery of new tanks, as well as a new reception trough for grapes. Tanks have to be empty and clean, the crushers spick and span, and all the other equipment (such as pumps, cooling systems, and so on) fully checked.

Then there's the stress of when to start picking. We visit each plot and taste the grapes on a daily basis. This is the best way to check on their ripeness, especialy phenoloc ripeness in the skins and pips. We also take samples of grapes which are sent for anaylisis of suger, acidity etc.

Hello.

For the very first time, we have decided to give you the opportunity to follow our harvest day by day, thanks to this "blog". We will try to convey the intensity of the event as we live it, almost as if you we here with us. This will help you to understand how our Southern Rhone wines are produced, via photographs and comments.

To discover more about us and our various wines, please visit our web site :

www.beaucastel.com

We hope that this will give you a closer understanding of wine and of the specific conditions of this year's harvest.

The Perrin family.

We are passionate about wine… and food too!

We have entrusted the Château’s kitchens to 35 year old chef Laurent Deconinck. Laurent worked with the biggest chefs: Michel Rostang, Pierre Gagnaire, Raymond Blanc and Alain Senderens at Lucas Carton in Paris.

His mission? To match each one of our wines with a cuisine that we call a “produce” cuisine. The role of each produce is to reveal the wine and bring out the best of it.

Laurent will reflect, adjust and prepare a match for each wine and vintage taking into account the characteristics of the terroir the wine comes from. Inspired by local, Provencal and Mediterranean cuisines, the match will be the result of a research on the cultural setting of our region and will place the wine back to its origins.

In this gastronomy section we will share our findings with you, a few recipes and some events that we organise around the world using this concept.

We encourage you to make these dishes that have been specifically created for wine at home and send us your feedback and comments.