La Colline

La Colline 2008 Vintage Report

noreply@blogger.com (Charles) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:10:00 +0000

We have a stellar vintage, the purity of fruit is amazing

We were once again the first to harvest in the region. With the local TV and radio crews getting to know us well with these repeated performances and Charles making the most of the media.

Ripening for most varieties was slow so we started harvest on the 16 of September with the Sauvignon Blanc which has been a highlight with the majority of fruit picked with high acid, lovely mineral elements and fresh fruit characters.

Followed by the Semillon a week later once again in the fresh style with no signs of any botrytis or imperfect grapes producing wines with quite fine purity and poise, good acidity and fruit

Due to lower yields, most of the Cabernet Sauvignon crop went into our Rosé. We picked these at optimum ripeness and yes we did the same trick as previous years by pressing through the skins of some “odd white grape” to keep it light coloured fairy like and funky. Even though the colour looks synthetic it is not. The lifted varietal flavour with intensity is amazing.

The strategy with the Merlot was in one part to take in the small berried clones early with the freshness and soft sweet fruit characters. Then we waited an extra two weeks to take in the older vines of Merlot on the much more rich ripe flavour profile.

These grapes exuded very attractive plum, berry flavours and a gingery laced belgium chocolate undertone albeit with higher alcohols than normally expected.

Our final harvest was on the October 27 just before the heavy rains started.

Each tank of juice is named after is intrinsic character on arrival in the winery here are some of the tank names from this year Gooseberry pie, X-Extra Virgin, Red Hot Chilly Peppers, Sherbert, Alpine, Maverick and Gringo.

Many thanks to La Colline’s passionet vintage team that worked many long hours.

Time to leave the AOC system?

noreply@blogger.com (Charles) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Good afternoon.

The Brand Bergerac is defunct, is it time to rebrand? Why did the rules and regulations not protect the brand to the point that Vin de Table sells more expensivly than AOC Begrerac today. The wines are not bad it is the image that is bad. I will write a paper on this but in the meantime there is a little on line poll on the subject please vote and let me know your thoughts.

Did you like our wines? Comments Please

noreply@blogger.com (Charles) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:40:00 +0000

G'day

This is just to ask what you thought of our wines that you have recently tasted. Enjoyed, disliked, spat out, the most magic moment in you life? Your feed back would be great living up on the hill in the depths of the dordogne reality is a long way removed.

Bio or not to Bio?

noreply@blogger.com (Charles) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:12:00 +0000

Bio or not to Bio?

We have posted a paper on the pros and cons of Bio-Dynamic wine and organic or reasond viticulture at the link bellow. Please let me know what you think on this subject or vote with our on line poll, it is of great intrest to me.

Charles