In the midst of a global financial melt down, we started our harvest with excitment and anticipation. Being our third full year here at Combebelle, we now getting to understand the "style" components of each vineyard plot and also have the courage to wait for the grapes to be fully mature before picking.

In the midst of a global financial melt down, we started our harvest with excitment and anticipation. Being our third full year here at Combebelle, we now getting to understand the "style" components of each vineyard plot and also have the courage to wait for the grapes to be fully mature before picking.

Although we know that our harvest will start on average two weeks later than most in the region, this year we were particularly late in starting the harvest. By the time we started picking most of the other producers had finished - the cave cooperative was even closed! Those who have Carignan & Mourvèdre in their vineyard were still waiting or just starting to pick these grapes which are notoriously late wherever they grow.

September had been glorious in terms of weather with beautiful, warm sunny days leading right up to the harvest. There was a day of rain early on but nothing to cause any concern. The only problem with being high is that the grapes will take that bit longer to mature and ripen sufficiently. The longer you leave the grapes on the vine, the higher the risk. The weather can turn at any moment and heavy rainfall can destroy much of the crop - the bunches can tumble off the vines as they are heavy with ripe fruit or rot can set in where the skins are less thick & resistant. Also, towards the end of September (which is technically the end of Summer), nights become cooler and the ripening therefore slows down. The weekly maturity testing will gauge how much sugar has been gained and conversely how much malic acid as been lost, which is important in terms of balance of the final wine.

With the prospect of changing weather, the possibility of rain in early October and the cooling nights, we decided to pick on 1st October. There was nothing to ge gained now in the vineyard and the grapes were looking very good. Some plots were slightly less ripe than we would have liked and we feared the juice/wine would be too "green", but thankfully this is not the case! The wines are very much focused on the fruit this year with slightly higher acids than in previous years, which can be a good thing in terms of longevity. However, until the wines have undergone their malo-lactic fermentations, it will be too early to say what the eventual acidity will be in each wine.

We filled all tanks again this year, which in itself is a problem as you ideally need two spare tanks (one for racking purposes, the other for the rosé). Each tank was filled to the brim (you should only fill each tank to 80% of its capacity) so we had to be careful about keeping the skins moist enough and with sufficient CO2 cover to protect it from oxidation (the risk is that the skins could become volatile and turn into vinegar). Some tanks spilled over but otherwise they all behaved themselves beautifully. We racked the tanks each day, drawing off as much of the fermenting juice as possible into the spare tank and then pumping it back over the skins (in some cases the juice needed cooling first). This process can take up to 2 hours per tank and with 6 tanks to do, the days were long! We prepared a "fagot" in each tank from fresh vine cuttings bound together and placed in front of the main valve on the inside of the tank. This acts as a natural filter (preventing the skins & pips from blocking the valves) and allows the juice to flow unhibited into the receiving container before being pumped into the spare tank. We managed to get 90-100% of the juice each day, with the odd hiccup in one or two cases where there appeared to be too much suspended "matter" preventing the juice from being extracted. When you only have a trickle of juice coming from the tank, it can take up to 3 hours to get enough juice to pump back over the skins. As the tanks were so full, we had no alternative but to do this and be patient!

We decided against producing from the remaining plot of Cabernet Sauvignon this year as there was no capacity in the winery, so the grapes were sold off to the local cave.

The new tanks have been great. They are so much easier to work with and clean, saving a lot of time at the end of the day. Being alone in the winery for most of the time, we decided to invest in tanks which were easy to use and manipulate. Their size also corresponds with the size of our plots allowing us to continue to vinify each of them separately, which is really interesting in terms of discovering the style of each grape variety and soil type.

Our "pièce de la resistance" this year has to be the rosé! Thankfully, nothing broke down this year - the press behaved itself and the cooling worked when we needed it to. We managed to increase volume this year and have produced around 5000 blles (a 350% increase on last year!). The rosé is a blend of "free run" and press juice extracted from Syrah & Grenache. The wine is left to settle over 48 hours at 8-10°C before being racked off its deposit, innoculated with yeast and given a burst of 02 to kick-start the yeasts into action. The fermentation has been slow this year due to cooling down the juice each day back to around 15-16°C. The colour is a shade lighter than last year's wine, with higher acidity and lovely red fruit aromas & flavours. We are very pleased with this result and look forward to presenting it at Millésime Bio in January 2009.

Despite the "staff" problems again this year, the harvest has been better managed and organised from start to finish. There has been a lot of work to do in the winery for myself but Frédéric has been on hand to help me out, which is great. Patrick was here during the harvest which was fantastic as he could experience first hand each stage and even get his hands "dirty"! As a "Harvest Virgin" he should have been initiated with the "Grape Shower" but I ended up getting this instead - perhaps next year?!

The fermentations lasted around 10 days for each of the reds and 12 days for the rosé (mainly because I kept temperatures low during fermentation). A week after the wines finished, we racked each tank off the skins and pressed the skins to extract more juice which is put into a separate tank and will be transferred into barrel in December. Low yields are the norm here at Combebelle (21hl/ha in 2006 and 25hl/ha) we were hoping for a more average yield of around 30-35hl/ha this year, however we have ended up with an average yield of around 25hl/ha.

For those of you who know Combebelle, you will know that we are somewhat isolated from the "world" including the internet as we have to use a telephone line to access it (although I have been promised by the Mayor of Villespassans that we should have Broadband by the end of the year!). Therefore, we are not directly affected by the global economic crisis, in fact, I was completely oblivious to this until Patrick told me from Japan that I should start looking at the news on the BBC! With nothing but the harvest on my brain, I had let the crisis completely pass me by. Thankfully, we (France) have not experienced the "panic" or distress that appears to have affected the UK and other countries. The first sign at Combebelle was a delay in shipping some orders which is a blow to our sales figures as we were on target to achieve a 40% sales increase on last years figures (aarrgghh!). However, I would rather not ship/sell wine if we then have a problem being paid for it. The wine is our main asset and we cannot afford to "lose" it. We are confident that things will pick up again in the New Year and although 2009 will be tough for everyone, we hope Combebelle will still be demand and continue to sell well!

We are now looking at alternative markets including the US & Singapore, both of which are of interest in terms of volume. We are still in discussions with an importer in Holland and hope to finally get started next year. We shall also be targetting the German market again, looking for small-medium sized importers interested in organic & biodynamic wines.

Finally, I have taken a break from Combebelle to spend some quality time with Patrick in Japan during November! This is the best time of year in Japan as the maple leaves turn into an array of fabulous red/golden/amber colours - a true sight for sore eyes!