Hvad byder man uventede gæster i Champagne?

Her har I et billede fra en gåtur, jeg er på flere gange om ugen.

Over at købe ind... så meget jeg gider slæbe... og så lige en runde ned omkring kanalen, før jeg bærer indkøbene ind.

For et par dage siden spærrede jeg alligevel øjnene op, da kanalbåden hed Aslaug. Og lige lidt mere, da flaget var dansk :-)

Kanalliv
Jeg smuttede over på den anden side og bankede på, og blev inviteret indenfor af et dansk pensionstpar, der sejler rundt på kanalerne en god del af året.

Lige den dag havde jeg faktisk ikke en flaske på køl, og jeg havde også rigeligt af andre gøremål, men jeg satser da på at høre fra parret næste gang de runder Reims, så vi kan nyde en flaske sammen på kanalen.

Dagstur eller B&B
Nu er de på vej nordpå til området ved Somme, hvor de sejler rundt på kanalerne.

Du kan også få en tur. Man kan nemlig boooke dem i byen Amiens en dags tid. De har også Bed & Breakfast på vej i båden.

Læs mere på parrets hjemmeside her.

After the ploughing

Finally.

The first plots have been ploughed.

Not just between rows but between plants as well.

Only minor damage. One old branch broken.


What's all the fuzz about, you may think.

Money and time
Well, you know, it's not that easy to plough a plot that has not seen this tool for 50 years.

The tools are expensive. The tractor is old. A new one very expensive.

On top of that, it takes time to plough. Your days may already be full of work so where do you find the time?

Anyway, now it's done.

We're quite pleased with it. Actually very very pleased.

To grow clover or to grow clover not

I passed this plot the other day.

Was impressed with all this green lush clover.

We did some trials ourselves with clover a couple of years ago. It never got to look this good though.

And now it never will.

We have decided to stop the clover trials.

Fight for water
It turned out that it sucks a lot of water in the ground. In warm summers, the vines compete with the clover about access to the water.

In 2016 our plot of Crochettes suffered due to the July heatwave. Clover - even poor - certainly did not help.

So we are done. Been there. Out again.

The weeds that grow naturally will take over.


Sewing the clover

The clover is alive

Goodbye green pastures

Oak or steel

Which is better to make a great wine for a great champagne?

Oak as well as steel has its followers in Champagne. Both obtain great resultats.

Read Jefford of Decanter: "A debate from Champagne’s sensual parliament".

And then, taste for yourself, Jefford's very nice and also quite expensive champagnes or less pricy ones that may still provide you the differences of style, be it oak or steel.

 

 

Getting ready to try out tools

A while ago we finally got new tools for the tractor. This is what they look like on the tractor.

They are tools we need to plough under the wires, between the plants.

Two sets of tools
We already have what is needed to plough between the lines of plants.

To plough between the plants as well, will be another first time for us.


We expect to do trials this week.

Trials, because it is not obvious how the job may be performed. As our tractor does not have hydraulic features, these tools cannot be lifted up and down according to the position of the plants.

Nice job to deal with for the engineer of the company.

Iron agains damage
So far we have spend a day to manually distribute and "plant" these iron protections around all small plants.

This shold protect them from being damaged by the ploughing tools.

The big deal of all this - we have been working on it for several years now - is to stop using herbicides. We have reduced the amounts these last years but want to finish completely the sooner the better. Hopefully these new tools will do the jobs.

Påskeferie?

Nogle af os går på påskeferie i dag.

Andre går på arbejde.

Men når bare himlen har taget plads over vinen, sådan at skyerne er der men ikke over det hele, og i øvrigt gerne alternerer med en sol, der sender stråler ned over os vinterblegede personer, er det egentlig ok.

Det betyder også, at vi er hjemme, hvis du, der er på ferie, kommer forbi.

Men skriv gerne på mail. Ellers er vi nemlig ikke hjemme.

Rigtig god ferie :-)

Binding Belles Feuilles

The spring may be here. The sun is certainly here.

But we have norendez-vous with summerly temperatures. It's rather chilly in the morning, in fact in the afternoon as well.

Perfect to bind.

No sign of pleurs in our plots. It suits us fine, as it is prefereable to finish binding to avoid breaking the buds.

Skilled work
To bind is to attach the branches to the wires to help the vines carry the considerable weight that will develop later.

 

 

The work is a lot faster with the machine. Vineyardworkers with years of experience work as fast with the manual tool. Matter of practise and the skills.

The more kilometers you have done, the better your chance to go a bit faster.

Alain binds the branches of the low plot of Pinot Meunier in Loisy-en-Brie.

 

Same job different plot: This is the Pinot of Belles Feuilles with a view of our village of Soulieres in the distance.

Last bottle standing

A little bit of this followed by a little bit of that.

Eventually they all get a bit blurred.

Here's a mix of Blanc de Blancs champagnes from bigger and smaller houses. Which confirmed what we know: Never never never get your bottle in a supermarket. Especially not transparent bottles that may see too much light, which may add a taste of cabbage to your wine. Not so nice, agree?

Liquids and solids
These great Blanc de Blancs champagnes closed the final tastings of vin clairs 2015.

And then you need something solid:

Here's the menu of the day at les Avizés, contemporary restaurant and hotêl, run by the Selosse family in Avize.



This bottle brought the day to a glorious end.

Try the Chardonnays
However, amongst all these legendary Blanc de Blancs bottles from Ruinart, Taittinger, Feuillatte and others, we believe our yellow label to stand the competition very well. As well as the brown one.

Don't take my word for it.

Try it yourself.

Looking for the tears of vines

A while a go a collegue reported that he had spotted les pleurs. Sign of the awakening of the vines.

As we were still some weeks away from the final cut during la taille, we got a bit anxious.

Les pleurs also means buds growing, and you are not in a hurry for that as long as you have not finished your binding.

Well, no worries were necessary. The weather has been rather cold most of the time ever since.

And so far les pleurs has not arrived visibly in neither the plot of les Crochettes (above) nor that of les Belles Feuilles.


But maybe next week. The cuts of the low part of les Crochettes seems to be less dry, more coloured.

And we are moving closer with the binding of first the Chardonnays and then followed by the Pinots.

Fini la taille

We finished pruning yesterday.

The biggest job of the year, timewise as we began in November. is through.

The next task is allowes to come up. But not until monday if you please :-)

Skål på næsten færdig

Denne eftermiddag kan vi blive færdige med beskæringen for denne sæson.

Vi mangler 1,5 række samt at brænde en hel del afklippede grene.

En forudsætning er, at morgenens regn stopper.

Ellers må vi kaste os over en indendørs opgave: Vinen.

Beskæringen begyndte for så længe siden, at vi næsten har glemt det. Men bloggen husker: Sidst i november var vi også derude.

Det har været en spændende sæson.

Vinteren blev aldrig rigtig kold, men heldigvis heller ikke rigtig varm. Selvom jeg tænker tilbage på vinteren som en varm følge af det meget varme 2015, kan vi konstatere, at det stadig er koldt derude, og vi ser ikke skyggen af les pleurs, den opstigende plantesaft, der er tegn på fornyet liv.

Det er fint. Vi foretrækker at være færdig med både beskæring og opbinding, inden der kommer alt for meget aktivitet af hensyn til knopperne. Når de først begynder at vokse, kommer vi let til at ødelægge dem, hvis vi arbejder ved vinstokken på samme tid.

Nu er vi næsten igennem med beskæringen. Skål på det.

New wines new tastings

Another tasting of new wines is up this morning.

The rosés are more or less done - colour is always part of the discussions - everybody likes a colourful glass. But if it means the necessity of adding more Pinot to the Chardonnay-based rosé, the discussions take off.

What is more important: Colour or taste? And should the taste be kept more or less constant or can we allow it to change a bit with the years?

There is no correct answer. So this is where the debates begin. And negociations.

And new tastings next week.

Snapshot from the vines

Up and down.

Walking through the rows grinding fertilizer pills of birdshit.

Very bio.

And believe me, three days later it continues to stink despite a lot of wind from the North.

We have spread this for several years now. The idea of it is, that the nitrogen of it is mainly destined to feed what is alive underground rather than the plants.

One step of many towards sustainability.

Who cares if it stinks then?