Champagne Chartogne Taillet à Merfy

When the wind comes from the east ...

My grandmother told me yesterday that the biggest risk for the vine, is the wind that comes from the East. It’s really rare in our country side, but sometimes, it happens. She told me that because of the big rain period that received some villages near Reims.

And today, just after the work, we saw the wind turning, and coming from Saint Thierry … from the East. The wind came first with Hail, that didn’t causes damage in our vineyard … It was a real surprise, because at home, we were imagine the worst situation for the plants.

After a 30 minutes period of hail and water, then came the sun. So I decided to take my car in order to see the damages in our vines. Good surprise, no troubles for the plant. And suddenly, the sky begins to fall in a very big rage. From its nice blue colors, with some grey notes on the back, he turned dark black. The lightning came in less than 1 minute, and flashed the sky, like if someone were turning the lights on and off.

I took some pictures of this evil period, and succeed to take some pictures of the lightings. Just near the church of our village, Merfy.

   

The blottling

For the wine, there is a new sensation now. It’s time for us to put him into bottle to let him grow in its new environment. A very important step for the life of the wine, and also for us ! The bottling Is the beginning of the second fermentation in the bottle. The yeasts will make their job in the bottle, and die after some month to form a deposit. This deposit is the friend of the wine during its ageing. The process is the same than a vinification on the lies, but now, it’s in bottle that the wine and the lies will grow.

About 10 people were there to help us for this hard work. Hard days, but really exciting for a winegrower. Now the wine is in bottle, and I wish him the best for the years he will spend in our cellar.

Some pictures of the bottling:

"L'ébourgeonnage" of the vines

L’ébourgeonnage is one of the most important step during the life of the plant.

We prune the vines, and now that the vegetation appeared, it’s time for us to look at each plant, and to select the best vegetation that will support the grapes. We make it by hand, with one finger, we cut of one of the arms of the plant that support the grapes (picture n°2).

The more work there will be for the plant, the less she will produce something with a high quality. In time, it’s the same, a plant that will support a low number of grapes, will age better than another one. We cant ask for a vine, to age with a high quantity of grapes on it. The quality and the ageing of the wines are exactly the same, a wine that comes from a high production plant, will not age as much as if it comes from a vine that worked less for the quantity than for some few fruits.  All comes from the vines, and from the quality of its environment in the nature.

We also wants to give air to the plant. The air is something very important; it reduces the rot in the vines, and also let the plant breathe in perfect conditions.

You can see some pictures of this work here :

   

The Dog and the Lion

Yes ! Now it’s time for us to find a remedy to the one who destroys our vines with its claws ! We saw a cat destroying some plants in our vineyard! You can read more descriptions on our note : “ The Lion of Merfy”. So today, we chose to adopt a big tiger, with bloody eyes and a evil need to eat everything that have hair on the back.

More seriously, the life in the vineyard is everyday different. Each plant demands a lot of attention and all the environment changes every day. More that the climate, there are many external situations that are often really pleasant. Today, it was a dog’s experience J We found a dog, which was always following us during our work. Like the cat, he don’t want to learn more about our job, (he didn’t want to make the same work than us, even with a long explanation of the ebourgeonnage during the day …). But that’s not the main problem.

The problem for us is now to try to find the owner of this dog. Unfortunately, it’s certainly an abandoned animal, but for him and for the owner, we make all our best to find the man that looses his dog. If in your country you know whose dog it is … ;)

I think it’ll be a Chartogne’s dog if nobody answers to our research. Maybe a new member of our family J