"Week in the Life" by Comrade Brezeme

[Jeff Grossman]

I produce a total of 7000 cases. 4500 cases are Cotes du Rhone and Vaison la Romaine.
That leaves 2500 cases for 17 cuvées : a mean of a little less than 6 barrels of each wine.

We harvested Macon Bussières on Friday 21st. We (12 of us) harvested the 2.5 tons of grapes within 3 hours between 7 and 10 am. We brought the grapes back to Charnay (southern beaujolais) which took us 50 mn. The old Coquard vertical press was filled up at 11:45. We began the pressing and at 12:00 all the fruit cases were clean and we went for an appéritif waiting for the first "rebêche".

At 4:00 pm the pressing was over and the press was unloaded and clean.

I took the rest of the afternoon off, and went back to Brezeme on the next morning to take care of my vats. I filled up the barrels with the juice on the following sunday morning, and now wait for the fermentation to end.

We went to Chateauneuf (300 km more south, probably less than Napa-Foothills) to harvest Clairettes and Bourboulencs on the next wednesday and it tooks us about the same time to harvest and press these (head-pruned vines are more tricky to harvest...)

I produce 9 barrels of Bussières. 6 barrels of Chateauneufs blanc, 10 of red. 2-3 barrels of Cote Rotie (harvesting and filling the demi muids took us 1:45 hour this year), 4 of St Joseph and Condrieu. 12 of Brezeme Pergaud and 20 of St Julien St alban Pergaud (we harvested them in 1.5 days and sorted them and filled the tanks the following afternoon).
This is a total of something like 10 days of harvest, pressing, sorting and filling tanks.
I usually spend 8 weeks harvesting and working at the cellar during harvest time.

As you can see, winemaking is peanuts, when you don't use RO, cultured yeasts, enzymes, powdered tannins and al. 95% of a wine is already in the grapes. Coming for the care the grower gave them during the growing season, the terroir, the climate of the vintage.

This report is salvaged from a train wreck in that other place; I hated to see good writing go to waste.

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

Good capture.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

About the syrah-based wines:

Following the old syrah masters (gentaz, trollat, juge, verset, pouchoulin), I stopped destemming in 2003. And due to this, I also quit doing any extraction (no punching, pumping over,...) and went for submerged cap.

Then following Jules Chauvet, his brilliant disciple Jean CLaude Chanudet (domaine Chamonard in Morgon), and in a way Marcel Juge from Cornas, I shortened my maceration in order to end alcoholic fermentation in a clear juice (en milieu limpide would say J. Chauvet) and without skin or stem contact.

So if there is any variable in my winemaking for syrah (I said winemaking, not vinegrowing or élevage), it would be temperature and length of fermentation which I don't control at all.

The last third or so of the fermentation is done after pressing and without the gross lees, to avoid extraction by the alcohol and to get precision in future aromas along with a rather tense structure. More like a rosé or a white wine.

This not uncommon in Burgundy or in Beaujolais but rather rare these days in the Rhone. Definitely an old school way of making red wines.

About the Macon wine:

Yes this is 100% Chardonnay from 90+ years old vines (no clones of course), south facing in the rather cool "combe" of Bussières/Pierreclos.
Soil is limestone (bathonnien) and clay. These head pruned vines on poles (échalas) are worked and harvested 100% by hand. We till under the rows and plant specific blend of seeds twice a year.

My choice for the harvest date is always done on phenolic ripeness + acidity and pH for stability since the wine is made and aged without any additive.
We can get some botrytis (what is called levroutage over here) from time to time. Less these days than we used to 10 years ago. 2012 was totally botrytis free.

Again the winemaking intervention here is close to zero. Mostly pressing and filling up the very old barrels (over 15 years old the same than when I begun in 1999). I would love to switch to a more neutral material, probably concrete as soon as I can afford the horribly expensive horizontal vats that Nomblot makes. Or maybe spanish clay tinajas if I find a way to close them efficiently.
Usually an addition of 25-30 ppm of SO2 at bottling, after 15-18 months on lees without batonnage or racking.

We harvest verjus in july (there is a thread somewhere about this here or on disorder)and make a very high malic acid juice than we dry and could add later to the fermenting must to balance acidity or/and avoid "piqure lactique" which could occur very often since malos start on residual sugar 4 times out of 5 on these grapes.

A natural version of lyzosyme...