"You know, this is a wine that I am obviously liking right now, but I could see laying a few bottles of this down for 2 or 4 years, and see some interesting development on it. Good stuff!
"You know, this is a wine that I am obviously liking right now, but I could see laying a few bottles of this down for 2 or 4 years, and see some interesting development on it. Good stuff!
... at least for the yeasts. They are all trapped in the beginning, by the promises of the fresh grape juice, full of sugars and other nutrients: nitrogen, vitamins, minerals ... A true land of plenty! Drunken of joy they jump in, guzzling sugars and multiplying as if there was no tomorrow. Only to wake up with a nice hangover after some three quarters of fermentation are done. Nutrients become scarce at this stage, famine rages. Some probably try to reason, to ration, but it is already too late. Like oil, sugar is indeed a finite resource, at least in a wine vat. Then the period of dying starts. Some probably manage to escape through a pump during a final racking, but most of the natural or selected yeasts will undoubtedly end up on the bottom of the tank before the last molecule of glucose is consumed.
A boon for the winemaker because the dying mass forms the lees on which the wines will rest. When the dead yeasts decompose, they release indeed plenty of molecules that may enrich the taste and olfactory profile of the wine. The wines aged on lees thus become round and fat and gain aromatic complexity. In addition, the reducing nature of the lees (they trap oxygen) increases their resistance to air. Therefore, aging on lees, practiced primarily on white wines, can be of great benefit. At two conditions:
I. The lees have to be of good quality. This depends, among others, on the initial quality of the grapes and the course of the alcoholic fermentation. Thus, before aging on lees, we have to taste them. Otherwise, they will cause bad taste and odor.
II. The style of wine that we want to create requires fat and complexity. In other words, if the wine requires lightness and freshness, needless to fatten it like a goose.
YEASTS UNDER A MICROSCOPE
All the great AOPs of France are self-assured to have terroirs being classified as Premier Cru and Grand Cru. This is not the case at Cahors. That’s why? Is it because Cahors is an appellation without self-confidence; or don’t exist great terroirs in Cahors? We have asked these questions to Pascal Verhaeghe.
Interview with English subtitles and French sign language. The video was produced by Parler vin avec les mains (Talking about wine by hands), a project started in 2012 on the initiative of Vinparleur. The aim of the project is to facilitate access to the world of wine for deaf people. The interview is translated into French sign language, but might be partly understood by people speaking different sign languages.
Every year, just before harvest, the village of Cairanne situated in the southern Rhône Valley, celebrates wine and art through a “painted trailer contest”...
No need go travel through time and get back to the eighties to join the universe of MAD MAX with its strange machines. Just go to Cahors and ask for Jean-Marc Verhaeghe. A passionate winegrower and mechanic, he has transformed several old harvesting machines into precision ploughing tools, highly adapted to the vineyards of Château du Cèdre. Watch by yourself in this video…
Enjoy yummy food, truffle and Cahors Malbec wines with chef Alexis Pelissou.
Cahors Malbec is available in several upscale wine stores in Manhattan. Their owners tell us why they offer this exclusive wine to their customers.
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