Having done all the picking, we now need to start the winemaking which requires many hours of pumping juice over the skins each day.

This allows the wine to absorb oxygen which the yeast hunger after in order to survive and perform their task of converting the sugars into alcohol. Daily readings of density & temperature will indicate if the juice/wine needs some “food” or cooling down as it the temperatures rise beyond 35°C the yeast will die and you will be faced with a stuck fermentation.

One of the wooden tanks started off very quickly because we inoculated this one with yeast to start everything off. Within 2 days we had already lost half the sugars and the yeasts appeared to be working overtime. The temperature of the juice rose to 32°C so it needed cooling down to 26°C before being returned to the tank. Space is tight in the winery and with only one spare tank, pumping over each tank takes a long time. Luckily the cooling worked and we were able to control the juice temperatures throughout the first critical week of fermentation. More importantly, it allowed us to control the rosé fermentation so that the juice never rose above 17°C for any length of time. This means that the lively fresh fruit flavours are retained in the wine and makes it more attractive to the consumer.

Having no one on hand to help me with the pump overs, I used the spare tank for racking the juice off each fermenting tank thus aerating the juice more and in some cases made my life easier as well as it allowed me to “multi-task” in between the winery and the office! It also allowed me to gauge how much juice and therefore resultant wine we would end up having and be able to calculate if our targeted yields of 30-35hl/ha had actually been achieved this year.

The “fagots” we made worked like a dream and for once I had not problem extracting the juice from the tank. In previous years, the valves have been clogged up with skins & pips making it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to extract enough juice from each tank. If you are unable to extract the juice, you create problems in the wine with smelly off odours and flavours penetrating and masking the fruit.

It is too early to tell yet how much wine we have made, but early indications are that we are close to our targeted yields, which is great news as we desperately need more volume and wine to sell. It is also likely that our quantity of “vin de presse” will be higher this year also, which again is good news as this helps to soften / strengthen the character of our wines when it comes to the final blending. I intend to put all the “vin de presse” into older barrels to soften the tannins hopefully.

Despite the long days, I had a lot of fun listening & dancing to music and singing along to some tunes and caused a little surprise now and again when someone turned up in the winery! I could be singing along quite happily to some song or other, perched on a ladder, spraying the juice back over the skins and someone would turn up wondering what all the racket was, and I would be completely oblivious to their presence until they actually came up to me! However, I am certain that there is some scientific evidence to say that “music has a calming influence on wine” and that better wines are made as a result. We shall see in due course if this is true or not.

The fermentations usually last 5-10 days depending on the conditions of the tanks (temperature of the juice, amount of “food” available for the yeasts and so on). At the start of the fermentation, you wait until the density has dropped by around 30 points before adding some extra nutrients to the juice on which the yeasts can feed off. At this time, you can also give the juice an injection of oxygen which again is necessary for the yeasts to survive. Having invested in this new “toy” called a “cliquer”; I was keen to try it out. Bruno put it all together for me and attached it to the bottle of oxygen so that I could start using it. It is really quite simple, there is a basic calculation on how much oxygen to give and then you place a ceramic tube into the juice which is attached to the tube connected to the oxygen bottle. Still following me?? You then set the timer and press the button. If you look into the tank of juice, you can see a lot of bubbling around the ceramic tube as the oxygen is pumped into the juice. It is all very quick. Once the required dose has been given, you remove the ceramic tube and clean it making sure your fingers don’t come into contact with the tube. The difference in the juice is amazing. We have a slight problem at the very early stages with Syrah and reduction (stinky egg smell). Using this method of micro-oxygenation helps to remove the reduction quickly, without too much fuss and saving a lot of time and avoiding “overworking” the juice or wine. Without this, I would have to pump over more than once a day and there are simply not enough hours in the day for me to do this to each and every tank. Although this is a technical aspect of winemaking, it serves its purpose and does not compromise our ethics regarding natural fermentations. Our core objective is, as ever, to make the best quality wine possible.

I love this time of year despite all the hard work as you have the opportunity of tasting the new juice as it arrives and each day during fermentation, observing the evolution of aromas and flavours that will ultimately determine the style of the wine. At this time, you also start to think of blends and which wines to age in wood (new/old). This year, the acidity is particularly high and we are keen for the malo-lactic fermentation to take place whilst it is still warm & sunny during the day. Once the cold weather sets in, it will be harder to encourage this without heating each tank. Although acidity is great for ageing wines, you still need to have the balance of flavours and structure. The fruit is very attractive this year and the tannins at present soft but not flabby.

It is now almost 2 weeks since we finished harvesting and we are now at the stage where we shall be racking the wines off the skins and thinking about which tank to put into barrel in December & January.