Much has gone on here in the last several months. The Small family joined the Nicault family for an amazing trip through France. We have been bottling throughout the summer. One large run on the bottling truck is finished and another awaits. We have also been bottling smaller lots ourselves. With a recent vineyard tour, it appears that veraision is starting and it will soon be time for harvest. And in the Woody vineyard the workers are trying their hardest to throw down excess fruit before crush.

FRANCE
In early June we -Rick, Darcey and children Jordan and Sager- and co-winemaker Gilles Nicault traveled to Europe to enjoy just over two weeks in France. As we arrived in Andernos, a small village on the Bay of Arcachon, we began to realize that after numerous hours in the air and a night in a Gatwick hotel we had finally reached France. Later that evening we met with Gilles, who had left for France earlier in the week and was already with his family, his mother Christian, father Alain and aunt. The first meal is definitely one of the most memorable. We traveled a short distance to a “locals only” type of restaurant, which Alain and Christian know about. Nearly everything we ate came from the bay not more than 100 yards away. Mussels, sole, snapper, oysters and salmon were all amazing. We ate the best fries on the whole trip that night. The next day several of us spent the good part of the day at Vinexpo, the huge wine exposition in Bordeaux, which is why we were really in France in the first place. All day we sipped, swished and spat wines from all over France. It was quite an experience. Luckily, Gilles’ aunt had prepared an utterly delightful meal. The fois gras was outstanding. On the third day in Andernos, we and Gilles made a trip to St. Emilion where they visited former Experience International trainee Vincent Lingac’s and his family’s winery Gadet St. Julian. This was the first time we discovered sirop menthe, or mint syrup to those English speakers out there. This is an amazing concoction. There are many different flavors like cassis and grenadine. The syrup can be added to champagne, pastis, beer or just plain old water. Unfortunately, there is nothing like it in the US, trust me, we’ve looked.

click image to enlarge

We all said farewell to Andernos, and Gilles left with his parents for their home, and we headed to Toulouse. Once in Toulouse we met with three former trainees- Pierre-Louis, Domi and Yann- from Purpan University and one new trainee- Fabien- who has just arrived. It was nice to see our old friends and meet a new one. The morning before we left Toulouse, Pierre brought us to a wonderful fromagerie, a cheese store. The owner, Xavier, is a graduate of Purpan. Pierre explained to him who we are and that he had worked with us several years ago. To our joy and surprise, Xavier took us into the cave where the goat cheese is aged. He told us, in French of course, what the temperature and the humidity in the cave are. He showed us cheeses of different ages, and he showed us the various molds at the different ages. It was all very interesting. Needless to say we left with several delicious cheeses.

The following day we stopped at the Pont du Gard for a picnic on our way to Gilles’ parents home in Ardêche. We were there joined by Gloria Cummins, a friend of Gilles’, on a portion of our trip. Ardêche is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Alain and Christian’s home is breathtaking. From here on out, at least in our family, Ardêche is synonymous with heaven. Everything we ate was indescribably delicious. We tried wild boar for the first time, highly recommended. The duck confit was the best ever. Sager even liked it! The chocolate chestnut cake was to die for. Each night as we sat on the patio finishing dinner, we could hear the wild boar eating the fallen cherries. Finally we got a glimpse of them. It was great. It was so comfortable there. Rick even had the pleasure of baking bread and pizza in the Nicault’s 15^th century wood fired oven. We went swimming in the river, we watched Gilles and his father chase the donkeys as they escaped into the forest; we ate, drank and were more than merry.

The day we left Ardêche would have been devastating had we not been heading to the Mediterranean. In Marseilles we met Gilles’ brother Antoine, Antoine’s wife Stephanie and their son. In Marseilles we toured an old fort with many artifacts from ancient ships sunk in the Med. It was quite fascinating, and our tour guide was totally eccentric and amusing. That night we ate at a fabulous restaurant in Cassis known for it’s bouillabaisse. The food, of course, was awesome. We arrived in our hotel in Sanary, a town right on the Med, at almost midnight. The next morning we visited Domaine de Souviou in Bandol AOC. Afterwards, we met back at Gilles’ grandmother’s home for lunch. Before lunch, we all donned our swimming togs and went for a swim in the monstrous salty beast called the Mediterranean. Lunch was basically a picnic, but delicious in its simplicity. After lunch we visited Domaine Pibarnon also in Bandol. We returned and went swimming once more before dinner. Drink, swim, eat, repeat. Dinner was great, and Gilles’ is grandmother is quite charming.

The next day we started out with a visit to Chateaux Revelette in Coteaux d’Aix en Provence. Winemaker Peter Fisher gave us a tour and was nice enough to join us for lunch. After lunch we headed to Chateaux La Nerthe of Chateauxneuf de Pape. We toured their facility and tasted. Next we spent some time tasting at Domaine de Vieux Telegraph, also of Chateauxneuf de Pape. That night we stayed in a beautiful hotel and ate a wonderful meal, listening to jazz under the trees. Everything was perfect.

After a quick stop in Beaujolais, Burgundy was our next destination. We spent a day with Pierre Naigeon in Gevrey Chambertin. First we tasted and then had a nice lunch with Pierre. After lunch we took a horse drawn carriage tour with Pierre of his vineyards. That evening we stayed in Puligny Montrachet. The two families had their last dinner all together. The food was great, although Sager thought the coq au vin would have been better without the vin!

The next morning the families said their good-byes and departed. Gilles and the Smalls continued on North. While taking our time driving to Les Riceys in Champagne, we took a little off road to visit the source of the river Seine. At this point the river is still clear, beautiful and many miles from the filthy Seine that passes through Paris. We arrived in Les Riceys to visit former Experience International trainees Marie Thuman and Olivier Horiot. Olivier’s family has a champagne house named Serge Horiot. We spent several days with them hiking through the vineyards, eating good food, drinking champagne and learning about French comics. Les Riceys is the southern most part of Champagne and unlike the northern portion; the vineyards are on incredibly steep hills. Here is the catch, they are not terraced. The rows run up and down the hills instead of across. This makes work hard and sometimes quite dangerous.

Ah, Paris. We left Les Riceys early as to not have traffic problems as all the Parisians returned home at the end of the weekend. We were fine and with the help of Gilles located our hotel with no problems. Gilles left the day we arrived in Paris and returned home to the US the next day. The Smalls stayed in Paris and visited the Louvre, the Eiffel Tour and the Champs-Elysées. We tried hard not to look like tourists, but it’s hard in Paris. Except for the first night, the food was very good. One night we ate at a wonderful restaurant recommended by Gilles’ uncle. Our last night is Paris we ate at a nice little Italian restaurant. It was very good.

The next morning we took a cab to Charles de Gaulle International Airport and departed for home.

The trip was more than wonderful, and we would like to thank everyone who made our trip so splendid, especially Alain and Christian, who showed us outstanding hospitality that we are still trying to figure out how to repay.

WINERY

After returning from vacation, it was time to prepare for bottling. Everybody was very busy with racking, filtration and lab work. The bottling truck arrived in late July and stayed with us for three days. All we could here for three days straight was the clink-clink clink-clink clink-clink. Your heartbeat is reset to correspond with the rhythm of the truck. It’s hard work, but in three days we bottled 2000 Nelms merlot, ’99 Old Vines cabernet and a great number of other wines. We also bottled several small lots ourselves like the Estate Red and barberra. In mid August we again began to prepare for a late August bottling.

VINEYARD

In the vineyard, veraision has just started, and we’re looking at an early September harvest. The workers have just finished cluster thinning the cabernet franc and a little bit of the merlot. Cluster thinning is the process of removing excess clusters from the plant. If the plant is small it will not be able to support many healthy clusters. We take off the secondary clusters or the ones that are not producing well, so the ones remaining can be better and healthier. A green harvest will take place mid to late August. A green harvest is done once the grapes have gone through veraision. The clusters that have not completely gone through veraision are cut off and thrown down. This gives the healthy grapes one last chance to grow, and it makes harvest easier.

click image to enlarge