Côt or Cabernet Franc?
I'm hoping that someone is going to help me out here. Yesterday passing through the vines of Saint-Georges-sur-Cher it was clear that a big majority of the grapes have now been picked. There was a block that still had some unpicked black grapes, so I stopped to take some photos. These are with Côt or Cabernet Franc. Initially I thought they were Côt (Malbec) from the colour of the leaves but then I noticed that some leaves were indented indicating that they might be Cabernet. Now looking again at the photos I'm inclined to go back to my first guess – that these are Côt. Your thoughts please.
The leaves
Then on to the Clos du Porteau in La Vallée Pitrou (part of Saint-Georges-sur-Cher) where I caught up with Aynard de Clermont Tonnerre and Henri Chapon. Aynard has again been busy this year during the harvest with his thermo-vinification system helped in 2011 by Henri as they rush around the Loire vineyards heating up their customers' must with the thermo machine.
Aynard: "We have been very busy, especially as there is quite a lot of rot about, mainly in weed killered vineyards, and one of the advantages of thermo-vinification is that it removes the taste of rot. There is much less rot in grassed over vineyards."
Aynard's 2011 Sauvignon (made by Isabelle, la vigneronne du Clos du Porteau) tasted promising. We tried vats from a number of different parcels. The fruit was picked around 12%-12.5% alc and has some weight and good clean flavours. They are increasing relying on the natural yeasts.
Aynard's 2011 Sauvignon (made by Isabelle, la vigneronne du Clos du Porteau) tasted promising. We tried vats from a number of different parcels. The fruit was picked around 12%-12.5% alc and has some weight and good clean flavours. They are increasing relying on the natural yeasts.
