Eugenia Keegan

As one can imagine everything that I am doing now is on a steep learning curve. Certainly general winemaking practices apply particularly those about good housekeeping as sanitation is the backbone to the cellar. But otherwise the grape variety itself, the age and layout of the vineyard, the growing issues specific to southern France and the Roussillon, and the techniques employed in the winery are all new. This of course is the excitement but can also be frustrating.

So, imagine my delight when my friend Carrie Sumner told me that she was going to make a pinot noir. She and her husband Marcel have a small winery in Maury, Domaine des Enfants www.domaine-des-enfants.com. Of course they make the wines that are known from this area, grenache gris/blanc, grenache noir and carignan. But Carrie is from Oregon and has wanted a small project of her own so pinot noir was a natural. She and Marcel found the fruit in Limoux. The vineyard is farmed biodynamically which is in keeping with their philosophy of farming here in Maury.

I took the morning off to hang out and provide moral support. It was also fun in that I could share all that I had learned on the specifics of pinot noir such as no crushing, whole berries only, a three to five day cold soak, punch down protocol, etc. Of course they attacked this project in the same meticulous way that they handle their other grapes. They literally review EVERY cluster and by hand remove any unwanted berries (this is after severe triage in the vineyard). For 1/2 a day I felt completely at home. Thanks Carrie and Marcel!

Finally I had to call old age and take a day off. The morning was gray and damp and I thought that I had chosen badly, but by 11:00 the clouds had been blown west and the sun appeared. I headed into town to have lunch with my Maury neighbor Ron, who is an exceptional photographer www.ronscherlphotgraphy.com on sabbatical from life in the states. What a delight to sit down for a true French lunch and linger over delicious food, a hearty bottle of wine and a perfect cheese course to put the harvest in perspective. A look at the scrumptious main course:

After lunch agenda included a few errands. My phone had been acting up (turned out to be the battery) so I stopped into the Orange store (the primary French carrier) to try to resolve the problem. Being without a phone for calls and texts is sooooooooo 80’s! With little imagination one can conjure up my rudimentary conversation trying to describe the issue with the phone (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, it shuts itself off…yeh, must be reflexive….). But thankfully I happened on a young delightful patient woman who took my challenge in stride and sorted out my issue. Well, actually the phone shut itself off and I think that did it. I left with a new phone, but not until I had done some browsing. I have heard that everything comes back into style but really?:

Next up was the purchase of a dustbuster. The apartment that I enjoy has wooden floors. They are easy to keep clean except of course for the dust bunnies (yes, they are everywhere!). I was not surprised to see such a large selection. The French are nothing if not anal about their housekeeping. The commercials on the TV are a scream:

And finally a stop at the grocery store. There are two small Carrefours (one of the big four chains) near me, each in a neighboring town (nope, no groceries in Maury). This is a new supermarche and stocked with every wonderful delicious French food imaginable. Just the square footage alone devoted to pig meat is enough to make one worship at the French table.
And the cheese…..bigger and better than our best except perhaps Murray’s, and the wine, oh la la!

I thought this a good time to update the blog as there is some odd weather here. For three days the skies have been gray with a thick layer of clouds and fog drifting along the base of the mountains.

Of course it has been a wonderful respite from the back breaking work of picking grapes.

I have done my best to keep up with the crew but as expected they are all twenty something, mostly from Spain (serious unemployment as we know) and a handful of hardy adventurous French. As I scamper like a billy goat up and down the hillsides with thighs throbbing I try to imagine the muscles that are developing along with the burning pain. By noontime I am beat. So, not really hard to imagine that one day when the wind was whipping the vines that insolently slap you in the face and I had entered some zone of delirium punctuated with the Spanish and French banter, that the one very loud American voice yelling, Oh shit, stopped the kids in their tracks. Yep, I had mistaken my index finger for a vine! I am just sorry that I did not have my camera to take a shot of the pulsating, spouting fingertip. Although, I must admit that the taste of ripe, warm grenache juice and blood was an intriguing combination. Maybe a new wine concept somewhere in there!

It only took five months of licensing, contacting freight forwarders, interviewing customs brokers, and of course money for five cases of the 2010 Côtes Catalanes Old Vine Grenache Project Grenache to show up in Portland.  I am sure that sounds like a lot of time and work for five simple cases of wine to fly across the pond…and it was.  From the pickup at the warehouse in Rivesaltes it took two days to land in Vancouver BC.  Simple, no?  Then five days to find a truck to Portland, not quite as simple but finally on Wednesday the 22nd of August I was told that the wine was at Summit NW and ready for pickup…well, almost.

Naturally I was very excited to hear that the wine had finally arrived.  I had a lunch date that day and knew that it had to be a short one as I still had to drive to the airport (an hour away) and process the paperwork through customs which is just blocks from the warehouse.  I was told that I could do it myself as it was very straight forward.

Around 11:30 as I was getting ready to head to lunch David called.  He was in Portland for an appointment and when I bubbled over with the news he, as any decent loving partner would do, offered to grab the wine as he was about fifteen minutes away.  What a doll!

Of course I was not really surprised when the first call came about ten minutes into lunch.  And not really surprised at the second call, but the third, fourth, fifth…you get the idea.  Although I had been told that this was a very simple exercise in walking the paperwork over to customs to be signed off and then back to the warehouse for the wine this little exercise took over four hours!

And it included a trip to the OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission)!!  This was never discussed at any time.  But there were taxes to pay, or not.  Thankfully it was David who went there as he is very well known and they took care of him right away.  I would still be sitting there waiting for my letter of approval.

The warehouse closes at 4:30 so imagine the relief at 4:20 when David arrived, with all the proper paperwork and the proper signatures and paid receipts to finally pickup the wine.  As he headed back to the dock he immediately noticed a smell that he knows and loves….yep, the sweet scent of grenache!

Seems that the warehouse guy was not the best on a forklift.

One bottle broken, eleven bottles with wine stained labels and four cases of samples to launch the search for a distribution network for OVGP.

Precious Packets of Docs

First Stop

Mug Shot Worthy of the Exercise

Hmmmmm, What Have We Here?????

First Glimpse of the Mess

More Damning Evidence

The Final Evidence!!

After 54 1/2 hours door to door (Sardinia to Newberg) I was thrilled to wash the travel grit off my tired self and flop into my own bed.  Nine hours later I was refreshed and ready to get back to work.  And although I had been “at work” while researching cannonau in Sardinia it was framed by the majestic Mediterranean.

I was reminded a couple of years ago about cannonau and the history of the Crown of Aragon who at one time was “given” the isle of Sardinia. We are told that they brought garnacha with them, although many Sardinians would beg to differ.  What there is agreement on however is that what is called cannonau in Sardinia is the same grape known as garnacha in Spain and grenache in France.  Hence, my need to explore and research.

We took the overnight ferry from Civitavecchia to Olbia, arriving in the very early morning, around 6:30.  It was a Sunday and the place was as expected very quiet.  The brilliant blue sky was a stunning wake up call, the silence almost eerie.  We meandered along the coast enjoying the beautiful Porto Cervo and were soon rewarded with a cappuccino and a brioche fresh from the oven.  It took a bit to find towels and the perfect beach but we did.  We rented an umbrella to keep the fair skinned fair and picked up a bit of sleep denied us on the boat (lack of time, not lack of sleeping quarters).  By 1:00 we were famished and found the quintessential shack on the beach…ah, but with an immaculate kitchen and a grill sizzling with the catch of the day.  We each picked a different fish, ordered a green salad, a dry vermentino, fries, and lingered over an impeccable repast.

David Boning Our Luncheon Fish

Lining Up for the Ferry to Sardinia

Darkness Descends

And the People Pile In Along with the Cars

Packed in Like Sardines!

Majestic Morning

Along the Porto Cervo 

Finding the Perfect Beach

Corsica in the Distance

SAVED from Our Tires!

Aragonese Watch Tower

Sunday in Sardinia

Since it was early in the “season” we decided to head over without the benefit of hotel reservations wanting complete freedom to explore.  We did have however some serious maps and instructions on finding Sardinia’s best wineries and vineyards.

Treasure Map handed to David in Hong Kong by Sardinian Winemaker

View from Our Hotel, Night One

Preparing Dinner

Always the Grill, Always Fresh Fish

An Ancient Nuraghe

 

Inside Cantina del Vermentino di Monti

Cork Trees Recently Harvested

Cork on Its Way to the Factory

Azienda Vitivinicola Giuseppe Gabbas

Cagliari, Capital of Sardinia

Yep, Old Vine Cannonau

Back on the Ferry

Fields of Girasole on the Road Back to Rome for the Flight Home

We were treated to a perfect week of sunshine (OK, hot…over 100 degrees) but softened by the coastal breezes.  We ate fish each day, most of it within hours of the catch.  The people were….well, Italian, and therefore friendly, helpful, and happy.

Will there be an Old Vine Grenache Project cannonau?  You can count on it!