We have just harvested our small parcel of pré-phylloxérique Grenache (old vine) in Gigondas....

Technorati Tags: philosophy, puppy, rhône, terroir, vinification

Harvest is progressing and most of our appellations have now been harvested: Cairanne, Vacqueyras, Gigondas, Châteauneuf du Pape...

Only Vinsobres which is 20 km north of Châteauneuf du Pape is left to be harvested. As the vineyard is situated at 300 metres altitude, the maturity of the grapes is much later in this terroir. Also Syrah, a northern varietal, does really well growing at this altitude.

In Gigondas we finished harvest last week with the Grenache from le "Clos" at the Domaine des Tourelles, our new property. Although it is too early to say, this plot seems to produce some Grenache with extreme finesse - keep an eye out for this one!

Once again, the Mistral has played an important role this year especially at the beginning of the month of September when it dried out the crop after the storms.

Cool nights and sunny days have allowed us to pick good quality grapes in 2008 although yields remain low.

And now the work in the cellar can begin where we shall put all our efforts to ensure each wine expresses the best of the terroir.

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The good weather is still with us despite some cooler temperatures. Most of the Châteauneuf du Pape Syrah is now in tanks. Today we picked some of the early ripened Grenache at Beaucastel and our plot just under the castle of Châteauneuf that we use for the Perrin & Fils Les Sinards. We are continuing harvest in Cairanne and we have finally started harvest in Vacqueyras by picking some Syrah. Despite a busy week, we will be harvesting this weekend!

Technorati Tags: terroir, vinification

As every day, the first thing we do in the morning, is check the over night evolution of the fermentations in each tank.

This photo shows us checking one of the Syrah fermenters that was harvested last week. The reading at 7.15 this morning was a density of 1020 and a temperature of 24°C.

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The weather forecast for the next few days is still excellent which makes us think that we shouldn't hurry. Today we are harvesting the Clairette and the Grenache noir from the Coudoulet.

;At Perrin & Fils, we have decided to send a small team to pick the Grenache for our Perrin & Fils Les Sinards, AOC Châteauneuf du Pape while another team will go to Cairanne to pick the Syrah. See the photo of the beautiful village of Cairanne.

Today we continued to pick the Syrahs at Beauacstel that we had started last week for our Chateauneuf du Pape.

At the same time another team went to the North in Vacqueyras to harvest some Syrahs for our Perrin & Fils "les Christins".

We usually start South and head to North following the ripeness and the differences of temperatures.

Pick up your secateurs, harvest has started!

As every year, we started harvest with some whites. A small team of harvesters have been picking the Viognier from Coudoulet since Wednesday.

It rained a bit last night so we had to stop harvesting today.

Thankfully the Mistral has been blowing strong since this morning, as is it often does after rain and has blown all the clouds away and is drying out the grapes.

This weekend we shall be resting!

See you Monday!