Champagne Chartogne Taillet à 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

 

The first disgorgment of the 2007 year !

 

A nice day for us. The sun was there with a little wind ... It would have been a nice day to prune the vines, but the disgorment is the priority ...

 

We worked all the day from 7 AM to 6 PM to sublime the wine, and to prepare it for our customers. 6600 bottles were disgorged, and now are sleeping for minimum 3 month in our cellar, to link the wine to the liquor, and finally to be mature enough to be drink.

Some pictures of the disgorgment :

The Lion of Merfy !

Like every day since the beginning of this year, we are pruning in our vineyards. This morning, we were working on an old lady, a 40 years old Pinot Noir vine. The sun was there, with a little wind, and some bird sings. Suddenly, a big deer approached us. He was enormous, with very long claws and a black glance. Everybody was scared, but not me! I walk to him, and succeed to catch him in my big hands. He tried to crunch me, but like an crocodile

Dundee

winegrower, I tamed it.

Hum … I think you aren’t to naïve, I’ve got to say the truth now … No I’m not a hero, and no, it wasn’t really a big tiger, or Lion … Only a small cat, who lives in the house near the vines. A very nice cat, who always follow us when we are working in this vine. It’s always a pleasure to work with him, even if he takes a special pleasure to sharp its claws on the vines!

Here are some pictures of this big Lion …

New press evaluation (Fiacre Cuvee)

Le guide hachette, reference in France for the degustation of wine, wrote a good note about our Fiacre Champagne, and gave us one star.

We are happy to see that our champagne is appreciate.

It’s The Saint Vincent day !

Every year, and in each villages, the winegrowers celebrate their “Saint” : Saint Vincent.

Our ancesters used to do it, and pray for having a nice year and nice grapes for the next grape harvest.

Now, we are trying to keep this celebration, dont to forget the habits of our profession and to respect the traditions. 

It’s a nice time to be together, to speak about our work and our wineyard. (And also to dring a glass of champagne ...)

We were wearing some traditionnal costumes and walked in the villages (Really, it’s not the best costume to find a girl friend, dont try it, really ...)

Happy Saint Vincent to everybody !

Some pictures of the celebration :

   

Champagne and the statue of liberty

I just learned that Moët et Chandon had illuminated the statue of liberty for its 120 years birthday. 600 Moët’s important customers were invited to this event. It was certainly a very impressing spectacle !

I’m really sorry and present our excuses to all of our customers. Moët had the idea before us ! We dont want to copy Moët style, so we’ll not illuminate the Statue of freedom, but next time you’ll come at home, we could certainly prepare a small fire in our garden ?!?

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

For the 2007 year, we wish you all the best, health, happiness ....

In Champagne, this morning begun with a nice sun and some wind. I took a moment to celebrate the new year with the vines. A very pleasant moment, resting and calm.

 

It’s time to sow !

The vines and the soils need it ! This year we will sow some grass, and some vegetables on the vines. The advantages of the vegetables is that it takes the nitrogen of the air to give it to the soil. The nitrogen isn’t animal nitrogen but mineral. The vines need every years nitrogen, that’s why we are trying to find some for it naturally. The second advantage of the vegetables and of the grass is that they allow the roots of the vines to go deeper and deeper to give them energy, life and water at higher “ratios”. That’s only a winter work, after we’ll destroy what we sow to avoid the concurrence between the grass and the vines.

Some pictures of the sow: