Domaine de la Butte: Jacky Blot@mi-pente yesterday sporting shades and designer stubble
Jacky Blot: Domaine de la Butte, Bourgueil
We caught up with Jacky and Joëlle Blot at their Bourgueil domaine as they were well into the harvest. Having tasted with them last Saturday we knew they were moving a team of 30 pickers from Montlouis down to Bourgueil on Monday to pick the 15 hectares of Cabernet Franc as quickly as possible.
Joëlle was showing some visitors around their striking cellars, while Jacky was marshalling his picking team on Mi-Pente. The grapes looked so good I forgot to ask him the customary questions about potential alcohol and acidity. My guess is that they must have been around 13%. Although the grapes looked in very good condition, they get sorted twice before descending straight down a wide tube into the vat below. There is a sorting table in the vineyard where the good grapes are put into cagettes and transported to the destemmer. Once destemmed they are further sorted over by hand and by machine.
They expect to finish in Bourgueil today. In comparison to here, Jacky described Montlouis as catastrophic with the small team they have left behind there obliged to cut and leave large quantities of grapes on the ground. "C'est une demi-recolte là!"
Fred was pretty happy, although he thought the grapes had probably been a little diluted by the recent rain. They had started last Thursday but had had to stop with the rain on Monday – restarting on Tuesday afternoon. We tasted some juice, which was attractively fruity and clean.
Joëlle was showing some visitors around their striking cellars, while Jacky was marshalling his picking team on Mi-Pente. The grapes looked so good I forgot to ask him the customary questions about potential alcohol and acidity. My guess is that they must have been around 13%. Although the grapes looked in very good condition, they get sorted twice before descending straight down a wide tube into the vat below. There is a sorting table in the vineyard where the good grapes are put into cagettes and transported to the destemmer. Once destemmed they are further sorted over by hand and by machine.
They expect to finish in Bourgueil today. In comparison to here, Jacky described Montlouis as catastrophic with the small team they have left behind there obliged to cut and leave large quantities of grapes on the ground. "C'est une demi-recolte là!"
Second sorting process: emptying grapes onto belt to be destemmed
Grapes on conveyor belt
Destemmed grapes: further sorting by fan
Sorting by fan
Selected grapes dropping by gravity into the vat a number of feet below
Frédéric Mabileau, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil We got to the Mabileaus just as they were settling down to lunch, so it was a quick visit although we were invited to join them. It was very tempting as Odette Mabileau, Frédéric's mother is a very good cook, and it was a lovely sunny day ideal for a lunch outside. We had, however, made other arrangements – a table at Le Pot de Lapin in Saumur and then visits to Saumur producers in the afternoon.
Fred was pretty happy, although he thought the grapes had probably been a little diluted by the recent rain. They had started last Thursday but had had to stop with the rain on Monday – restarting on Tuesday afternoon. We tasted some juice, which was attractively fruity and clean.
Frédéric: "The Cabernet Franc is coming in at between 12% and 13% with an average of 4.5 acidity. Yields are around 40-45 hl/ha. We did our first sweep through the Chenin at Le Puy Notre Dame last Saturday (2nd October) with the picked grapes at 12.5%.
Frédéric Mabileau@Le Puy Notre Dame October 3rd 2009
