Domaine Gayda's Vineyard Diary

And now I must say "au revoir", good-bye to those personalities who have formed my happiness for the past ten weeks. And yet we all experience loss at this time of year.....Vincent, Romain and Celine lose the distraction of a vintage's work and its visitors, and visitors such as myself return to quotidien life, awaiting the passion of another vintage.

A bientot, Gayda. A bientot.

Girlfriends and boyfriends of vignerons are known as "harvest widows"; during each vintage, winemakers turn into shells of themselves, sapped of energy and personality, their entire being devoted to the day's work. Post-harvest, relationships revive, both partners once again breathing all areas of life.

As machines enter into hibernation and work lists shorten, our international crew disassembles, member after member departing for his/her international destination. Richard was first, returning to South Africa after a year and a half sojourn of self-searching by means of wine making. A man of merely twenty years, he is one to watch, to observe his success surprise himself more than others.

Processing merely a few tons of late-harvested Chenin Blanc and Grenache, our final day of triage was a perfect ending to the 2007 Vintage; as the last bunches of Grenache tumbled into tank, corks popped and salutations flew amongst the team. Amazing how poolside barbecues started our vintage and fireside evenings are wrapping it up.

While picking the last batches of Chenin Blanc and Grenache at the Domaine and in La Liviniere respectively, the two vineyards' sharply contrasting weather was symbolic; Gayda's morning chill halted the speed of our fingers, yet sunshine in the mountains of La Liviniere invigorated our crew for the final vines. The last day picking symbolized Gayda's expansive vineyard properties, varietals, their respective terroirs, and the multi-dimensionality of the wines we create.

Only winemakers would think to turn mold into gold, rot into decadence. Ever since vintage started, we have watched the Chenin Blanc botrycize and gradually dry, sunshine and wind converting into nobility what months of rain tried to spoil. Crates of grapes will yield merely a single barrel, a treat both for the consumer palate and the winemaker's craft.

As barrels and tanks evolve from grapes and juice to a mere hint of their future, winemakers pause to evaluate the current status of all wines, fermenting and dry. Sampling through this year's whites, rosés, and reds was uplifting as we could sensually observe the product of all our work. And Vince could not hide the smile on his face.....undoubtedly a good sign for the 2007 vintage.

Two more days. Our last grapes hang tauntingly on the vine as our admittedly exhausted crew churns forward, the end just out of reach. While spirits are strained due to long hours and absent weekends, the grapes are invigorating in quality and potential; a visual reminder of why we do this year after year.

The invigorating triumph of France over New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup created an underlying sense of glee in the cellar today. Pressing our tank of Grenache that had fermented under carbonic maceration was truly the highlight of the day. Post fermentation, the grapes are still full of life, bursting with fruit and only hinting at what will develop with time spent in oak.

While working Gayda's 2007 harvest, I will provide you with a true insider's perspective into the stress, exhilaration, technicality and creativity of our daily grind. Joining the harvest crew from my current residence in Sarasota, Florida, USA, I am a mere example of the type of help commonly recruited for the harvest season. Working within the wine industry for two years, I am completing graduate applications for oenology school while working hemispere to hemisphere as the grapes require. Although our crew mixes age, gender, experience and nationality, we are all similar in our sleepless devotion to the art of wine-making. Each day here at Gayda introduces new techniques to learn, equipment to operate, grapes to nurture and neuroses to adopt. And thanks to this on-line journal, you too may experience the sordid life of a wine maker during the freneticism of "Vintage".

We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Robinson will now be providing us with an exciting account of her daily events whist joining the team at Domaine Gayda during our busy harvest time.

Thank you Rebecca and over to you......

The 30^th August marked the beginning of this year's harvest.

The weather has been kind to us and we have escaped the fearsome hail season. Thanks to our organic methods and warm south facing slopes on black "schiste" (oily, blueish shale that absorbs the heat of the day, but cools rapidly during the night) we are producing beautifully ripe fruit on our vines in the Roussillon. The grapes are arriving in perfect condition promising us a vintage of great quality with beautiful aromas and complex structures whilst retaining good freshness.
Those grapes abrased by the wind have been easily graded out by our hand sorting table proving again the benefits of hand sorting, berry by berry.
La Livinière Grenache is now harvested and the grapes are magnificent with rich aromas and ripe tannins.
Back in the chai we have brought in the Grenache Blanc and the Viognier from the Roussillon and Roussanne and Marsanne from the Corbières. Of the reds we have our first Syrah and Carignan. The Syrahs from the Roussillon have finished their natural fermentation process whilst the Carignan is being fermented in our 400 litre barrels.
Pressing of the whites and moving to barrels for fermentation is ongoing. The perfect condition of this year's white grapes have allowed us to apply cold skin maceration prior to pressing to extract maximum flavours from the fruit.
This year gives us the opportunity to have wonderful Maccabeo grapes from Domaine Eric Laguerre at St Martin de Fenouillet, high altitude vines on granitic soil. The combination of Eric's work, the fabulous "terroir" and the altitude give this Maccabeo a remarkable freshness and complexity.
The vines of Mourvédre, Carignan, Cinsault and Syrah at La Livinière continue to ripen and are expected to be ready very soon. If the weather continues to be good to us, keeping the grapes in such perfect conditions, this year stands to be a very successful vintage.

After lots of warm sunshine the weather has finally turned wintery. We have had several hard frosts and some snow. Roman, Celine and Benoit are busy prunning the vines both in at Gayda and in La Liviniere.

In the cellar Vincent has been topping barrels and preparing wine for bottling.

Back in full swing after the Christmas break, the team has recommenced with the pruning. Vincent is busy preparing the next bottling for the USA. In the cellar he has started tasting last years wines, and has started to think about the next L'Archet bottling. 

The team have been busy preparing for the Christmas break.  All of the barrels have been topped, the tanks all checked.

The pruning of the Syrah at Gayda is over half way, and in La Liviniere Roman is progressing well.  It's much easier this year to prune as we have electric sheers.

All at Domaine Gayda would like to wish you a very prosperous 2007.

The pruning both in La Liviniere and at our vineyards here is well under way.  The beautiful autumn sunshine has made the job much easier and more pleasant.

Vincent and his team have also been busy in the cellar topping barrels and keeping a close eye on the developments of this year's harvest.

This year's vintage is maturing nicely in the cellar, Vincent is really pleased with the product. We have had a busy week bottling. Wednesday we spent the day at Cellier Jean d'Alibet bottling the new L'Archet Cuvee Occitanne Red, yesterday we had a bottling lorry come to the Domaine to bottle the L'Archet Cuvee Occitanne White and our new brand Chemin de Moscou, (please see gallery for bottling photos). All of these will be available for purchase in the UK early in the New Year.

In the cellar with the exception of 5 all of the tanks have been pressed. We are leaving these 5 on their skins to try and extract some extra flavours and tannis. Everything else has finished fermenting and is now maturing nicely. The first frost came last night, killing any remaining leaves on the vines.

Been very busy in the cellar with pump-over during the day. We have also been spending time filling barrels and turning them. This years product is looking really good, Vincent can not wait to start blending and tasting all of the fermented wines.

Having finished all of the grading we are able to spend all our time in the cellar. We have been busy with pump-over as all the tanks are now in the fermentation process. We are also taking this opportunity to clean thoroughly all of the cagettes and shrink wrap them so they can be stored ready for next years harvest!!

The 2006 vendange has finished. We have graded the last of our Cabernet Franc grapes from Gayda. Anthony has provided us with a celebratory lunch and wine (must remember we have to go back to work!!!!)

After yesterdays bad weather it is good to see some sunshine. Having finished the Syrah we will be picking the last small parcel of Cabernet Franc today.

The weather here today is awful. It is raining hard and quite cold. We are persisting with picking and hope to finish the Syrah today. In the cellar we are making some space for the Syrah from yesterday and today's grapes. We hope to start grading around 14.00. Let's hope the weather improves!!

Picking of the Syrah has begun today, we are hoping to have around 10 tonne of grapes this year. They are looking really good, lots of ripe berries. We will store half in the cold unit for tonight and grade tomorrow when they have all been harvested and we have some space in the cellar.

We hope to finish picking the Cabernet Franc in the top field today. We will then start grading in the cellar what has been picked over the last 3 days. The grapes look great and the weather is holding out, although the evenings have turned chilly.

Having finished picking the parcel of Cabernet Franc closest to the village we have today started on the other side of the field. We hope to have this finished by Wednesday so we can start the Syrah before the forecasted rain arrives.

We are spending the day grading the Cabernet Franc that was picked yesterday, the yield was so high we are running out of cold storage!!!!!!! We will also need to transfer some wine to barrels as the tanks in the cellar are all full.

The picking at Gayda has begun today, we will start with the Cabernet Franc. In the cellar we will be pressing some tanks.

We will finish picking in La Liviniere today, the Mauvedre looks great and we have twice the yield we expected. Tomorrow we will start picking at Gayda.

Having no grapes arriving in the cellar the last two days we have been able to catch up with pressing and transferring of fermented wine to barrels. We are busy every 5 hours with pump over in the tanks that are fermenting. We are also checking regularly all of the barrels in the barrel cellar.

After spending the morning grading Grenache from Maury, we have a decided to go and help our team of pickers working in La Liviniere finish early so we are able to grade this evening for our Rose wines. This enables Vincent to press tonight so tomorrow he will not be quite so busy in the cellar.

A quiet day for all today, we have no grapes to grade and are spending the day catching up in the cellar. We have lots of pump-overs to do and all of the barrels need to be checked.

We have spent the day today grading 5 tonne of Grenache from Opaul. The weather has warmed up again.

Another busy day grading, a selection today of grapes have been sorted for both Rose and Red wines. Vincent is planning on picking in La Liviniere on Friday the last of our small parcels of Grenache and Carignan.

We have graded this morning grapes from "Maury" which have been stored in our refrigerated container over the weekend. We will be collecting our large parcel of Grenache from La Liviniere as well as the last of our Aroman and Cinsault. These will be graded and pressed to go in our Rose.

The start of a very busy week, we will be receiving in the cellar "Grenache" grapes from "Maury" today. As soon as they arrive they will be graded and can go straight in to the tanks.

After yesterdays rain everyone is feeling a bit disheartened. We have graded what grapes we were able to pick and are going to relax over the weekend and start again Monday. Vincent is busy in the cellar with the fermenting of the both the red and white grapes, he constantly ensures that all the tanks are at the right temperature.

Today we started picking our own grapes in La Liviniere. All was going well with the 2nd small parcel of "Cinsault" and the heavens opened. After about 10 minutes of torrential rain and thunder we decided to call it a day and return to the cellar.

Another 4 tonne of Grenache arrived today in the cellar.  The weather here is still warm, and perfect for the grapes.

The first of the red grapes arrived today in the cellar, we are starting with some "Grenache". We are grading by the bunch and then by the berry before whole berries are transferred to the tanks.

Our low yielding vines from La Liviniere proved a bit to low.........only 12 cagettes of Grenache Gris from 3000m² of vines, less than 1 tonne per hectare!! We have finished harvesting the whites and have a quiet end to the week before the reds begin on Monday.

3 tonnes of Marsanne harvested. We have done a "cold soak" with skin contact for 24 hours at 8C before pressing, we hope to extract more flavours from the skins. We will vinify this press apart and see if it works.

3 tonnes of Roussanne harvested today, again no problems with quality, superb flavours.

We harvested 4 tonne of Grenache Blanc from "Opal". Vincent and his team are busy in the cellar. The weather continues to be perfect for harvesting.

Today we harvested 3 tonne from "Opoul" and 4 tonne from "Tresser" again we have some beautiful fruit to work with.

The weather is perfect, lots of warm sunshine and clear blue skies.

The First harvest has started after a quiet August taking holidays before the "Silly Season"

We started with the Macabeo from "Maury", we harvested about 4 tonnes and have some really great fruit, ripe and in perfect condition, golden in colour with lovely aroms.

"Verraison" (the french word used to describe the colour change of the grapes, the first touches of red on the bunches) has started everywhere. It seems we are about 6 or 7 days earlier than last year, this can be a good thing providing we get some decent rain now. We think we need about another 25 mm and that will be enough for this vintage. The vines are still totally deasease free and, if anything, too vigorous!
Romain is getting a great tan!! It touched 40 degrees centigrade yesterday! Hailing and storms all around but we have been lucky. Last night there were the most amazing storms over the Pyrennes, we had a birds eye view.

Hot and dry... desperate for rain. The wind is drying everything out. We really feel the "marin", the winds from the Mediterranean. This wind has been blowing for three weeks and driving us crazy!! In La Liviniere we are getting some broken branches which is quite sad, the yields are so low anyway that this will only reduce yeilds further. At least with the dry we don't have a weed problem!!
Work in the cellar continues with "topping" the barrels. The angels have been really greedy this month and evaportation means we have added sometimes over 5 liters a barrel!

Today we had hail! Luckily enough it was very light and did not do any damage. A few of our neighbours had damage which is sad. It is intresting to note the great improvement in the Grenache at La Liviniere now we have trellised it. The bunches are so well spaced along the cordon we will get a better yield without a drop in quality.

Bottling of our L'Archet Syrah Reserve and Maccebeo finished. We went for screw caps to protect the wine from corking and to capture all the freshness of these clean wines.
In the vineyards we have started trimming the vines and removing some leaves from around the bunches to allow good ventilation and ripening. We only remove the leaves on the north side as on the south we would risk burn.
Wild Boar have started digging around the roots in La Liviniere but they will not start eating the grapes until they are fully ripe!

We are all involved in the barrel blending for our Maccebeo (Maccebeu) We have decided to add a small amount of Grenache Gris to add strucure, length and body but also helping with the clean acidity to add freshness. We are very proud of this wine and proud to promote an indigenous cepage that is fast disappearing in the Languedoc.

Much wanted rain today. The flowers have dropped and the tiny grapes are forming which gives us a reminder that harvest is only 3 months away! Romain was also very pleased with the rain in La Liviniere.
We are hand weeding which is back-breaking work but needs doing!

The vines are growing rapidly and have all got flowers on them, these like most trees will become the grape. The team have started closing the 1st set of trellising wire, the trellising is used to support the vine and stop wind damage. In La Liviniere Roman has been busy spraying and de-budding, flowering here has already begun.

The team here are busy in the vineyard removing all of the lower shoots from the vine. Vincent has started spraying, using only organic products he is spraying for mildew. He is also experimenting with a new product, this is an extract from the plant 'fenugrec' it is a vaccine that stimulates the immune system in the vines against fungal disease.

The weather here at the moment is perfect. The April showers along with the warm sun results in lots of growth to the vines. We have started to de-bud, the eyes that we left when pruning sometimes double resulting in two shoots growing, we remove one of these leaving only the strongest to grow and produce this years grape yield.

The new L'Archet Rose has been bottled and will shortly be for sale in the UK

The buds on the vines have started opening. We have finished all of the attaching both here at Gayda and in La Liviniere.

Vincent has started fertilizing the soil with organic produce, he is also cutting the grass and ploughing last year's cover crop.

Spring is finally here, the weather is beautiful and the sun has been shining. The vines are starting to show signs of growth. The buds are swelling and the sap is moving rapidly through the vine.

We have taken advantage of the warm moist conditions and spent a lot of time sowing grass and planting Lavender and shrubs around the chai.

In the cellar the wines are progressing, Vincent is making decisions for this year’s release of the L’Archet range, choosing capsules, designing labels and tasting wines.

Things in the vineyards are fairly quiet at the moment. We had our 1st snow fall for 2006 at the weekend, about 20cm which is a large amount for this area.

This has now gone, taking advantage of the moist soil conditions we have started landscaping around the Chai (winery), planting over 200 lavender plants and a large selection of trees.

Vincent is preparing for our USA distribution partners the wine and dry material for bottling at the end of this month. He is still tasting wines and blending for this years L'Archet bottling.

The wines in the barrels have nearly finished fermenting. Vincent has begun tasting, he takes small samples from each of the barrels and blends them so he can begin the selection process for this years vintage.

Everything here at Gayda is back in full swing after the Christmas break. The pruning of the Syrah is finished and the team are progressing well with the Cabernet Franc. We have also started pruning the Shenin Blanc. These vines are in their third year of growth but are still quite weak, Vincent has decided to prune them back to just two eyes (this will be were this years growth will come from) by doing this it will allow the roots to conserve the vital energy from the soil they need to ensure that next year we have good strong healthy vines that will yield their first crop.

In La Liviniere Roman and Celine are finishing off the last of the pruning and preparing for the new trellising of the Syrah.

We have spent the day today topping all of the barrels and tanks in the cellar in preparation for the Christmas break. The pruning of the syrah at Gayda is nearly finished, we will have to pass after and attach each vine to the cordon wire. The weather is still cold, but the sun is shining.

The Gayda France team would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas and prosperous New Year.

Have nearly finished the pruning in La Liviniere, only the Carignan left, we can then start the trellising. The weather here has turned very cold!!!

Today we are topping our Grenache Blanc 2005. We add to the barrels Grenache Blanc from our stainless steel tanks so that there is no air left in the barrel. If we did not do this the wine would oxidise and lose flavours, if a large amount of air is left in the barrel we could end up with vinegar!!! Barrel cellar temperature is still being maintained at 18deg C as the red wines are still undergoing malolactic fermentation.

Visited today the Sitevi exhibition in Montpellier, the annual show of all vineyard and winemaking equipment.

Started pruning the Syrah at Gayda today, only finished three rows due to heavy rains. We are taking two of last years shoots and bending them to form a 'Cordon' this will form the frame work for next years production.

Finished pruning the Syrah in La Liviniere today, we have removed old trellising and will re do with 2.2m high wooden trellising to increase leaf area as we feel the present low trellising system did not allow us to exploit the full potential of the vines.

Analysed wine in cellar today, Malolactic fermentation is well on its way. Barrel store is maintained at 18deg C to assist this bacterial fermentation.

Bottled 30,000 bottles of T'air d'Oc, this light, crisp, fresh, fruity Sauvignon Blanc 2005 was bottled early to get the essence of the grape in a glass.

Started pruning in La Liviniere, we've done a traditional goblet pruning on the Carignan, pruning as hard as possible to maintain quality and reduce the yield.

Transferred most of the tanks into barrels now. Only had two barrels blow, mustn't put the bung in too hard!

Today we did the last press! Now all the grapes are off the skins.

The Grenache is back on track! Fermentation nearly complete.

Our great low yielding Grenache is in trouble! The fermentation has slowed right down and there is still plenty of sugar! We have decided to rack it off the skins and give it a re-inoculation of yeast. We allowed this to carry out a natural fermentation with the yeast naturally occurring on the skins. With the high sugar content producing a high alcohol level, this was not enough.

Climate:
Between 150 - 300mm of rain fell in 3 days just before the vendange began, as a result the potential alcohol was diluted and this delayed the harvesting schedule by a further 5 or 6 days. The swollen grapes caused some mould problems and extra sorting was required. The weather remained perfect for the whole of the vendange except for the last few days where drizzle made harvesting difficult and sorting even harder. But we survived! The end product was excellent.

Grenache Noir:
High sugar content with nice fruit flavours, lots of tannins

Carignan:
Field and chai graded due to high levels of rot, the grapes are well structured with beautiful fruit aromas

Maccabeu:
Healthy grapes, well balanced between sugar and acidity

Syrah:
Harvested early due to the early rains, beautiful grapes with lots of fruit and peppery flavours

Grenache Blanc:
Perfectly ripened grapes full of flavours with a good structure and spice

Roussane:
Due to early rains harvested before full maturity, nice fresh flavours, with good acidity

Marsanne:
Healthy and ripe grapes with beautiful flavours and a perfect balance

Cinsault:
Pleasant red berry flavours, smooth and balanced, yield on the high side

Mouverdre:
lots of pepper and spices, ripe tannins

The online magazine of Domaine Gayda is live. Enjoy our diary!

The weather is slowly improving. Work in the vineyard is in full swing. We are still attaching the vines to the cordon to form the frame work for the next 20 or more years.

In La Liviniere Roman has been busy with the new trellising, the vines are all pruned, and most of the attaching complete.