VINE LINES SEPTEMBER 2015

H for Harvest, H for Happiness                                  Please click here if this email doesn't show properly
 

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THE HARVEST IS OVER!!

Every year presents its challenges, and this year certainly did that.   Here we are, having our traditional end-of-harvest lunch with the team,  weeks before it had even begun last year.  Or the year before that. Or ever, for that matter.  And why,  we ask ourselves? Nature smiles back enigmatically. Why indeed? Don't ask silly questions: remember I don't do the 'give and take' thing: I just take.

 And give. At whim.

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Stuffed guinea fowl, cheese board, selection of fruit pies
and last year's wine to toast this year's harvest..

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VINE LINES

SEPTEMBER 2015

You would be right to say every harvest is quite unlike any other.  But one thing you can say about 2015 in particular is that it has been a year of record-breaking statistics. France has had  had the wettest March, the 3rd hottest July since 1900, and the earliest harvest since 1950 - quite a lot to take on the chin if you are a vine.

And we are very happy with what we have been given.  Happiness is perfectly picked and pressed grapes.  Happiness is acres of vines not caring if rain or hail is forecast for tomorrow. Happiness is obediently fermenting grape juice, promising beautifully balanced wines.  Happiness is the quality and the quantity we had hoped for. And above all, happiness is the relief that we escaped the dreadful storms that hampered, hindered, or downright obliterated so much of the region over the past, crucial weeks. Unnerved, yes, to be all  done and dusted already ,,, but happy!

 

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Happiness can also be a pat on the back now and then, or a kind word of encouragement.  

A whole rash of new wine guides has hit the shelves, and the eminent Jancis Robinson MW has also added her considered opinion to the discussion. She is well worth listening to: "The Languedoc offers some of the finest value in the wine world", she says, "but the real treasures is in the more artisanally-produced wines".  Please read her Purple Pages review of ours (below)                                                      

And this month, the authoritative Guide Hachette 2016 gives a *star to our 'seductive' and 'charming' blend,  La Trilogie.  The bumper book of all 2016 wine guides, an enormous door-stopper published by the famous French wine  duo Bettane & Desseauve, calls us "refined and endowed with great freshness" (the wines, that is).  And our own favourite, the 2016 Guide to the Best Wines of France (the "Guide Vert") says that the Rives-Blanques chardonnay, chenin blanc and mauzac wines are "a beautiful example of white Limoux's that combine generosity, zestiness and the distinct flavours of these grape varieties."
 

 

So what more could we ask for?  Nothing: just that you enjoy our wines as much as we enjoy making them.  This is a beautiful - and exciting - time of year to visit Rives-Blanques .... and why wouldn't you ?
 
With our best wishes,

The Panman Family


Cépie, September 26

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