24 July, 2001

British bubbles win again

British bubbly has beaten sparkling wines from all over the world - just like last year - in the big blindtasting called International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC).

It is the Nyetimber Classic Cuvée 1998 from the village of West Chiltington in West Sussex in Southern England, which has been named to be the best sparkler produced according to the traditional method, that is also used in Champagne.

The Nyetimber winner wine contains the classic champagne-grapes: Chardonnay, Meunier and Pinot Noir. It is the second time that Classic Cuvée from Nyetimber wins this category. The first time was in 1998 for the vintage 1993.

However, I feel it appropriate to mention that these sparkling wines do not compete against true champagnes. Who said professional jealousy?

The number one fizz costs between 22 and 24 pounds.

På dansk

Copyright: The copyright for text and photos at bobler.blogspot.com belongs to Solveig Tange. You may use my articles, photos or parts of them for non-commercial use and if I am credited as the author. Feel free to link to this site but not in your own frameset please.

23 July, 2001

Great growth in the heatwave


The heatwave of July is great for the grapes.

We have had a heatwave since late June, the grapes have grown a lot. If it continues like this, we may very well have an early grapeharvest. We will see.

So far the berries grow sizewize. The maturation will start only in August.

Alain has finished the green pruning. The paternity leave thus came in a very good time for us to finish this task.

Our second child was born about a week ago - a little lady was sent from above - and we have celebrated with pink champagne almost every night since I got back from hospital with this pretty, little babygirl named Eva.

På dansk

Copyright: The copyright for text and photos at bobler.blogspot.com belongs to Solveig Tange. You may use my articles, photos or parts of them for non-commercial use and if I am credited as the author. Feel free to link to this site but not in your own frameset please.

10 July, 2001

Green cleaning


The stem that shoots on the side (to the right) takes off only after the apex has been cut off.

Alain has spend part of Sunday in Loisy-en-Brie to smarten up the vineyard. It is the feet, that has to be cleaned for unnecessary stems in order to prevent too inviting conditions for fungus.

On top of that the entre-coeurs have really begun to set off after the summer pruning - the rognage - is on. As they typically produce very little or no fruits, it is more suitable to remove them completely rather than keeping them. This enables the vine to concentrate its forces on important matters.


The grapes so far look fine and big.

The entre-coeurs grow in the corners at the leaves, but only after the tractor has cut the apex in the far end of the one-year-old and fertile stems during the rognage.

In this time of the summer that vines are all set to just grow, grow, grow. And when the main stem is not allowed so, the vine shall certainly demonstrate its objective and just grow, grow, grow from other angles.

The work is done, while you bend and armed with the big scissors slowly walk your way up and down the rows cutting stems sometimes on one sometimes on the other side. The back asks for a break after three hours. Just enough to finish half.


Chardonnay-grapes in Loisy-en-Brie July 9th 2006.

So far we have had no problems with the storms of last week. None of the evil hailstorms, that has really ravaged som vines, have found their way to our plot. Pray, it will remain so.

På dansk

Copyright: The copyright for text and photos at bobler.blogspot.com belongs to Solveig Tange. You may use my articles, photos or parts of them for non-commercial use and if I am credited as the author. Feel free to link to this site but not in your own frameset please.

08 July, 2001

Hail killed the crop


Vines at the village Thil, Massif Saint-Thierry. Everything is lost in hailstorms.

At lest 2400 hectares of vines have been destroyed by hailstorms in the last week.

Today we drove to the Massif Saint-Thierry, which is placed more or less opposite us on the range of hills, that as a broken horseshoe is squattered around Reims. This is where the vineyards are.

We find some of the destroyed vines outside the villages Thil and Saint-Thierry, and they sure are convincing. Just compare the picture above with the one below. Until the night between July 4th and 5th there were as many and green leaves and grapes on the vines above as on the ones below.

We still hope and expect that our vines look like this. The most violent storms seem to have stayed away from our area.

Where the destruction is as bad as this, there is no hope to save anything to harvest this year. The grapeharvest is called off. The only thing you can do is to spray chemicals to prevent fungus. In this way at least the proper tree - all that has been left here - will be in a condition fit to be pruned next winter.

In the vineyard we checked just before Saint-Thierry the owner did not spread the chemicals - too depressed maybe - and the fungus is already developing fast. It has the perfect conditions, first lots of water and now warm weather. You see the fungus as white marks on what is left of leaves and stems.

What is left of the little grapes has begun to rot.





The owners will probably get money back from the insurance, so they should not suffer economically. Also it does not so far seem that there will be any lack of grapes. It is just a very sad sight and another reminder how fragile the balance is and how dependent you as a farmer are on the caprices of naturer.

På dansk

Copyright: The copyright for text and photos at bobler.blogspot.com belongs to Solveig Tange. You may use my articles, photos or parts of them for non-commercial use and if I am credited as the author. Feel free to link to this site but not in your own frameset please.

07 July, 2001

Destruction after heavy hail

The thunderstorms of this last week accompagnied by very violent showers has destroyed a number of vineyards in Champagne. Hopefully ours is not amongst them.

According to the CIVC (Comité Interprofesionnel du Vin de la Champagne) at least 2.400 hectares in 35 communes are destroyed completely or partially. It is hailstorms especially in the night between July 4th and 5th that has caused damages of between 20 and 100 procent of the vines themselves and their leaves and grapes as well.

Floodings and mudslides
The summerstorms have caused floodings several places as well. Up to 100 mm of rain has fallen in a very short time - count minutes, not hours - normally you get 20 mm in one month.

We hope - of course - that our vineyards on the other side of Loisy-en-Brie is not damaged. But as late as yesterday we had reports from my mother-in-law about no warm water in the house caused by thunderstorms, so we can no longer be content knowing that the thunderstorms always seem to follow the river Marne. It has reached our part of the country as well.

In Verzy we have seen lots of stones and mud on the road downhill to the big national road. The mud and the stones - and I do not talk about gravels, the calibre is more like the one you find in beaches - is whipped up from the paths between the vineyards and poured by the water, as it rushes downhill as the great Flood itself. The green men are busy cleaning up the mess. At the moment they may have some spare time as they can skip watering the flowers of the commune.

Damages caused by hail however are somewhat rare. It has not been reported as a major problem sinde the year 2000, where destructions were found in 11.000 hectares in more than 100 communes, says La Journée Viticole.

På dansk

Copyright: The copyright for text and photos at bobler.blogspot.com belongs to Solveig Tange. You may use my articles, photos or parts of them for non-commercial use and if I am credited as the author. Feel free to link to this site but not in your own frameset please.

Champagnes Chinese dream

In Champagne the biggest houses have begun to orientate themselves even more towards the Chinese market.

Pernod-Ricard said some time ago, that the objective of the group is to move upwards from its current place as number three to a number two in the top 10 of top sellers. That is in money, not bottles, it is not difficult to sell cheap champagne. It seems that the conquering of the Chinese market is what is expected to come up with the necessary extra sales to fulfill the dream.

Recently Mumm, that with Perrier-Jouët is among the big, old houses in the Pernod-Ricard portfolio, welcomed almost 350 newly hired Chinese sellers, whose task it is to teach their fellow Chinese to drink champagne. The number of bottles sold during these last years tell the story of a market with an exponential growth.

  • 1999: 16.000 bottles
  • 2002: 27.891 bottles
  • 2003: 74.549 bottles
  • 2004: 269.147 bottles
  • 2005: 335.962 bottles

    Numbers: Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de la Champagne.
Two issues will be important, says consultant Nathalie Viet according to the newspaper l'Union. One is to make the Chinese palates accustomed to the acidity of champagne, where so far beer has been more common. The other one to create a connection - sort of a natural association - between champagne and local rituals or customs. That is to make champagne a must-have and must-drink at for instance weddings.

Guided tours in mandarin at Moët's
Today the biggest group in Champagne - Möet & Chandon - dispatches one out of two bottles sold in China. The company also has longer traditions in China than anybody else, since they sold the first bottle of champagne in China ever back in 1874.

Moët & Chandon has 150 employees in China. They create events, educates sommeliers and makes sure that the bottles of the house - on top of Moët & Chandon it includes Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon and Krug - are to be found the right places. That is places, where you find the people that everybody else, who can afford it, wants to copy.

The Épernay-based company at the moment welcomes about 3.000 Chinese every year, says l'Union. They are treated with guided tours in the caves of the house in mandarin. Impressive to follow how the big houses step by step move forward in their efforts to open the traditionally difficult Chinese market - much courted and fabled it has always been, I suppose, in it's capacity of being so huge...

I just wonder if the smart hostesses of Moët manage better in mandarin than they did in English when I payed a visit, however 12 years ago. I did not understand a word of what they said. I suppose things are all different having crossed the line into the new Millenium, where lots of French talk about how important it is that their children learn the languages they never mastered themselves.

På dansk

Copyright: The copyright for text and photos at bobler.blogspot.com belongs to Solveig Tange. You may use my articles, photos or parts of them for non-commercial use and if I am credited as the author. Feel free to link to this site but not in your own frameset please.

06 July, 2001

First tidings: A long grapeharvest


Vineflowers from mid June.

As the flowering period has now ended, the first tidings of possible dates of the next grapeharvest, have been published in the local paper, l'Union.

Not very surprising - since the dates so far are allmost the same as in 2005 - the temporary estimate of the CIVC (Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne) so far is a start date around September 18th.

The flowering however has been so spread timewise in the area, that the dates for the different varieties of vines may be spread on several weeks. Somewhat of a nuisance since we hire people for about a week to do the harvest. This means that everything preferably has to be dealt with and done during the days the pickers are there.

Enough grapes of a good size
The overall picture is fine weather in the period of the pollination, in all areas and for all varieties. This all means that we so far can expect a good development of the grapes, both sizewize and when it comes to quantities.

This general estimate covers nicely what we have seen in our own fields as well.

Despite this years unbelievably cold spring the flowers have still come out around the same time as last year due to the very warm weather of June. The condition in the vines can really change within days all according to the behaviour of the weather. Which is why it is definitely too early to lament a possible and squattered grapeharvest. It can all change these next months.

På dansk

Copyright: The copyright for text and photos at bobler.blogspot.com belongs to Solveig Tange. You may use my articles, photos or parts of them for non-commercial use and if I am credited as the author. Feel free to link to this site but not in your own frameset please.

05 July, 2001

The lifting finally done


The vines after having their tops cut.

The palissage is finally through, the threads have been lifted to their final position. Our vines thus finally are ready, perfectly attached for the summer. The stems and the leaves have been separated and nicely arranged at the thread in order to make them able to catch a maximum amount of sun and enough air to hopefully avoid rot.

Reports from the plots talks about a sufficient amount of grapes that so far have a good size. Alain has been out there counting once again.

In the Montagne de Reims - as well as the heart of Côte des Blancs - it is already a couple of weeks ago that everybody seemed to be finished with their lifting. The tractors have driven through the rows to cut the top of the stems equally long ago.

Second heat of the rognage
Since then the stems that were not long enough to be within the reach of the knife, has grown longer. They are the ones, that now make the plots look wild and ungovernable once again with green stems, that irregularly bristles in all directions. When they soon will have their heads chopped off, the growth in the top will stop for this season. But the vine does not give in easily, it will begin to grow on the sides instead.

Today we saw quite a few with the big scissors out to remove the entre-coeurs which are green stems that grow on the sides - not fertile - and therefore not wanted. The most precise way to get rid of them is to walk up and down the rows to cut them off manually. We will have to find time for this task too, another half or maybe even full day of work.


The wild growth of the vine will be limited by the palissage and the rognage.

The machine company, that performs the tractor-work in our rows, did the first rognage last week. It should do since it is rather late. Probably all stems at this late stage have been long enough to have had their tops cut off. The vines will then have their sides trimmed regularly all summer in order to keep their summer apperance of nicely trimmed hedges. Only in August, the work will stop. This is the time when the priorities of the vine change.

The plant simply changes focus and begin to mature the grapes rather than just grow itself. The stems will change from soft, green shoots and turn into real and hard wood. This is called the veraison. Only after this time the berries will begin to change colour.

The bottom is not clean
Nobody does a piece of manual work better than he - or she - who is dependant on the result on the bottom line. It is a truth that goes for the work, that the young man, who helps us out, has done as well. Even it is "ok" according to Alain, the bottom is not clean.

This means that stems have been left at the feet of the plants, that ought to have been lifted with the others or removed completely. The risk - if they stay - is that they will collect humidity, that provides a great microclimate for all kinds of fungus, that we do not want the vines to host. Therefore they must be removed. The thing is to find an empty slot.


After the palissage: The appearance of the vines is the same as neatly cut hedges

Furthermore Alain has found an unpleasantly high amount of plants with yellow leaves in the bottom of the plot. This can be due to a lack of something, but unfortunately it can also be a sign of the disease esca. Even we have worked quite intensively in the autumn and spring to get rid of it, it is a bit of a challenge to get completely rid of it. So far it is too early to have an opinion.

Thunderstorms follow the Marne
No matter what now the rows are trimmed and ready for the summer. Nice to know. The thunderstorms of the last weeks seem to follow the river Marne. We have not really been too badly bothered. On the contrary they have supplied enough rain to skip watering the garden now and then...

But in Épernay there were floodings some weeks ago. In Chalons-en-Champagne my sister in law some days ago sat frightened in her office - so she says anyway - because hail as big as pigeons eggs hammered down above her head. Or she is just practising her womanhood, I mean, after all she was inside not outside. But this kind of hail are so violent that they can destroy the paint of your car completely if it is left outside so you have good reason to pay some sort of respect. This morning the local paper, l'Union, talks about floodings in the western part of Reims.

That is the leftovers of the thunderstorms that has entertained us all night. The weatherforecast on tv has promised more tonight. We had a great view of last night's show since we spent a while at the railwaycrossing between the villages Avize and Oiry. The level crossing gage and the flashlights seemed to be released by the thunderstorms and not a goods train but it took us a while to take the courage to believe it. The lightnings that zigzagged over the darkened sky above the Marne and the Montagne de Reims behind it, really were as dramatic as you would normally only see them in either Donald Duck or films of the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings-type


The vine has its head chopped off at the rognage

På dansk

Copyright: The copyright for text and photos at bobler.blogspot.com belongs to Solveig Tange. You may use my articles, photos or parts of them for non-commercial use and if I am credited as the author. Feel free to link to this site but not in your own frameset please.