29 April, 2002

Grapes grow in the heat

 
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Vine in Verzy, early development, as everywhere this year.

The tiny grapes are very advanced. The generel estimate is three-four weeks earlier than normally. We have been closer to 30 than 25 degrees Celsius, since I returned from Denmark one week ago. The fine weather - despite thunderstorm and rain this evening - seems unstoppable.

This general earliness has been the same more or less since New Year. While we pruned the vines in January, I noticed several signs of spring amidst what should normally be cold and hard winter. Already then three-four weeks in advance compared to the last three years. Longer than that I have not personally checked.

Early grapeharvest possible
Actually grapeharvest is something, we don't start to have opinions about until after the flowering, most years in mid June. But since custom this year seems to be three-four weeks early, it seems more and more realistic that we will begin to look for flowers from the middle of May.

The grapes usually are ready to pick when we reach September 20th. If this moment - as all other events regarding the vines so far - will be early, we can kiss our nice, booked, family-summer-holidays in family-summer-house in Northern Sealand goodbye. We won't be able to stay very many days in August.

By the way the weather has not been measured any better since 1949.

 
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A grape to be as it looked in the middle of this week in Verzy, Montagne de Reims in Champagne.

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.

26 April, 2002

FAQ: Fast Who What Where

What: My French family grow grapes for champagne in three hectares, about two thirds are planted with white Chardonnay-grapes and the last third with Meunier- and a bit of Pinot Noir-grapes. The oldest plants are almost 50 years old, the youngest about 30 years. Older than average in Champagne.

Where: We live and work in Champagne, about 150 kilometres east of Paris. Soon easy and fast reachable from Paris with the new TGV-train. Our three hectares of vines are in the outmost corner of the Côte des Blancs, one of the famous vine regions of Champagne. Our grapes grow in the communes of the villages of Soulières and Loisy-en-Brie on the other side of the Premier Cru-village, Vertus.

Who: The vines are planted by my husbands father and grandfather. I got in touch with the art of growing vines, when I moved to Champagne in 2004. Now I help my husband, Alain, to look after one hectare of Meunier-plants. The other two hectares are dealt with by my husbands cousin and his wife. The family is called Gérard, and our product is not found anywhere yet. At the moment we sell our grapes to a cooperative in Vertus as my husband is parttime winegrower and thus not yet entitled to his own labels. I am about to become registered as a parttime winegrower as well. Our plan is to establish our own brand.

Why: I write the blog, because I love champagne, to write and now growing vines, champagnisation and tasting as well. I write for all, who share these pleasures, in Danish, because it is my mother tongue, in English to make it accessible for more people, my husband included. I began blogging, because many family members, friends and earlier collegues back in 2004 asked for news about my first, active grapeharvest. The most simple solution was to publish pictures and text in a blog. Since then I have been convinced that it is also the most interesting solution, because a blog - or a site - on the net makes it possible to reach a group of readers who are specifically interested in champagne and probably France in an easy and fast way.

How: Well, the blog - my texts and pictures - ought to answer a good part of those questions. If not, please tell me here. I don't want to promise to change old stuff, but I can take good questions and comments into consideration when I write new texts in Bobler (= Bubbles in Danish, my native langugage).

When: I update the blog regularly, about three times per week, holidays in Denmark are the exception. Even I can work as easily from Copenhagen as from the Montagne de Reims, my time to work is more limited but worse, the concentration and motivation really lacks when I am back. It simply improves my performance to be close to vines and champagnehouses.

Other questions? Mail me here. Pictures here.

The content of this weblog is entirely - if nothing else is explicitly said - my own creation and responsability.

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.

25 April, 2002

While waiting for the new moon

My son will not get the opportunity to play with his little cousin this spring holiday either. The weather is too good, simply. We wait for the new moon, but not everybody works according to the ancient wisdom of farmers.

Anyway, only very few let themselves be annoyed by the truly great weather that just doesn't want to stop, it seems. No rain for a month, sun that advances everything. In the forest the leaves of the trees don't even have the slightest nuance of light green left any more. It sure does look like summer.

The vines are crazy, which is why the grandmother of the little cousin,must work eight hours per day in the vines in 25 degrees Celsius, instead of looking after her granddaughter. So no afternoon playing these days.

Removing the buds
She and her husband look after two thirds of the vines of Alain's family - the white Chardonnay and the red Pinot Noir - and they are now full time busy removing the surplus buds. Ébourgeonnage that is.

It may sound like a bit of a fine work, and it is. The main part of surplus buds - for instance those that will not be fertile anyway - has hopefully been removed already while pruning in the winter. But since it is not possible to identify all buds, the last are taken away in spring. Normally later than this year.

When the vines are as developped as now, the buds have developped into real small stems with leaves. If you know the parts of your vine, you can easily spot, which stems to leave and which to remove. At this time the stems are still very soft and easy to take off, even without tools. When the outer layer of the stem later in the season becomes hard, it is a lot more difficult.

Wait for the new moon
But in our one hectare we keep our buds another little while. One thing is that our red Pinot Meunier are about 10 days later than the Chardonnay, another that - according to Alain - it is still too early, too risky to remove the buds. 25 degrees Celsius or whatever.

We stick to the practice of the old ones. According to that the weather will stay for the rest of the moon. The next moon period is at the same time as the days where you - traditionally also - stop worrying about frost. So we prefer to wait and see what weather the new moon will bring, before we remove surplus buds. In this way we don't risk removing something we may need. But we will probably have harder and more work afterwards.

Story to be continued, of course. As for the little cousin, she will attend the coming-up four years birthday.

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.

18 April, 2002

Big leaves in Vertus

In the smalltown of Vertus the first leaves of the vines are big. It is almost an event in itself that they are there at all. Normally they just begin to unfold this time of year. Instead there are now several green leaves, that grows bigger and bigger every day.

"It is completely crazy", says he, who looks after two hectare of vines, owned by our family. The last hectare we deal with ourselves.

The general estimate is, that the growth is three-four weeks earlier than normal, and also that the risk of damaging frost is almost finished now.

Certain parameters, I noticed myself back in January - birds, plants, insects - gave the same hints, so I am not very surprised. It shall be interesting to see if this will mean early grapeharvest as well. The flowering will give the first real hint. That normally takes place in the middle of June. We shall see.

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.

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15 April, 2002

First phase of the grapes

Only three quarters of our little family spends a full Easter vacation in Denmark; Alain has thus had the necessary time to nurse the vineyards this weekend.

Several posts have been changed, many meters of wires placed, and one of the walks of the season, spreading herbicides from a tank you carry on your back like a back pack, up and down all the rows. When it is full, the tank weighs 20 kilos, so this is truly a heavy morning. The rest - apart from another of these walks - is done by the tractor, we hire for the job.

Great sunshine has really made the vines take off. The first leaves are out in Loisy-en-Brie, most in the Chardonnay-plots, less in the Meunier-plots. We can see what will develop into the grapes now, and also the first start of the stems, that will grow very long and wild during the next months.

One of the owners - or tenants - of a neighbour plot says, that we can stop worrying about spring frost. Why he says so, is not completely clear to us. As the leaves this year are very early, the danger is hardly over yet even it is hard to imagine frost, when you have the first hints of summer colour after a pretty sunshine weekend in Denmark.

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 April, 2002

New bells for young vines

 
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New protection bells to protect the two year old vines mainly against rabbits and bad weather.

We still fight to finish binding the branches. Rain follows flu, that follows rain, it seems.

Last weekend the energy did not pass a drive to Vertus to buy more plastic bells to protect the 400 little vines, we planted almost two years ago.

The plants are still not productive. The philosophy is to let the plants grow strong, before they are supposed to yield. Like most other little ones. Only after the third year of pruning, they can grow to full size with maximum number of buds: 18.

In the low field we follow the Vallée de la Marne-method. A short branch with three buds, then a young a long one of nine buds and finally the extention of the cordon with six buds. At the grapeharvest next year we should be able to pick the first grapes.

The original bells, put in place two years ago, have almost 100 percent proven, that they were in fact bio degradable. Very little remain of them.

The Meunier-plants are doing fine. Gods knows, they sure get the water supplies needed.

 
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Clement helps Alain to transport the protections bells. Usually he likes to join us in the vines, if there is tasks where he can actually help.

04 April, 2002

Express yourself in pink

 
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Summerkitch, maybe... but it still happens to be the first time, I tasted rosé champagne, and the excitement just wouldn't leave the house.

Pink champagne is so popular that not even conservative winegrowers can afford to ignore the success of it. The pink beverage now sells 12 percent of the total, which makes pink the second seller amongst champagnes.

Every one out of four bottles sold by an acquaintance in Bergères-les-Vertus now carries either a discret salmon or a more deep pink robe.

Traditionnally the pink has not been too much en vogue here. I remember the first box of pink, that Alain brought to Denmark to enjoy in a summer holiday. Let me just put it this way: It was not excactly his style or choice. But I insisted hard to have it, as soon as it got clear to me that such a thing exists. And the girls adored it. That was in 2001, as far as I remember.

Ever since the future has been on the pink side: 23 million bottles sold in 2007, 14,6 million bottles in 2004. Not double, but it does get close. In just three years.

The colour may mislead. Let me just tell you this: Pink brut is as dry as any other brut. This is anything but a sweet candy wine. On the contrary pink often has more body and power than its transparent collegue. Try it with sushi or with a spoon?

The classic rosé is the Billecart-Salmon, that dates back from the 19th century. Laurent Perrier reintroduced pink in the 1970'es. Today everyone with the slightest possibility has their choice of the kinky bubbles in their assortment.

02 April, 2002

The buds grow in Verzy

 
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Chardonnay-bud, that has begun to grow. The vineyards of Verzy consists of about 80 percent Pinot Noir- and 20 procent Chardonnay-grapes.

Not even 24 hours ago I wrote that the vines of Verzy so far show no visible sign of growth. Well, that was yesterday. Today they grow.

In the school - of course one of the crossroads of information in such a small society - I just heard, that the buds have reached the fase of growth, where they swell. As the weather should stay real nice a while, I presume, that the plants will be ready to show the first leaf pretty soon as well.

Why it is so special? I mean, it's just another leaf, and they come out just the same each year. Well, I guess it is for the same reasons, people keep reporting to newspapers when this or that kind of tree has the first leaf (In Denmark it is the beech that counts). Here the vine is the most important of the first signs of a winter truly gone. The buds growing and the first leaf coming out carries with it the promise of yet another yield but also the fears of bad weather, insects and disease that may destroy everything.

A bit of everything in the vineyards
Today we have the same pretty sunshine, and the vineyard workers use it to finish a bit of everything. As I today travelled through the Côte des Blancs I noticed several things.

  • Tre parceller er stadig ikke beskåret. De ligger fladt og lavt, det må være nogle af områdets allermest sårbare jorder, hvad frost angår, og det er derfor, de får lov at vente til allersidste øjeblik.

  • The little lamps that fight frost have been placed in several plots in the Côte des Blancs. This is the only protection, you can give the buds in case of the much feared spring frost. When the growth has begun, the time for intense studies of the weather forecasts and their predicted risks of frost begin accordingly. It may freeze well into the month of May, but the risk of real danger is much bigger when the buds and leaves are younger.

  • Many still bind the branches to the wires.

  • Some are repairing the wires, putting new posts. Like Alain has been doing during half a year now, though with enhanced activity these last three weeks.

  • The winetractors are spreading something. Against weeds is in the beginning of March, fertilizers in the second part of March. So now the tubes probably contain insecticides to kill those creatures, that eat the buds. Later others against other insects will join in as well as herbicides, if the occurrence passes a certain critical level. Vinetractors in a misty cloud of herbicides or something else is a frequent sight in the vineyards of Champagne all summer until one month before the grapeharvest. Vineyards driven after organic or even biodynamical principles exist. I will write more about this some other time, it interests me.

  • Even one or two fires fed by left branches from the pruning were lit. I doubt, that I will see this again this side of autumn. Some spread wooden chops in the routes between the plants. Since there are so many hours of manual work in the vineyards of Champagne, it is necessary that the walking is as easy as possible. Mud and tall weeds are thus to avoid.

    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.

  • 01 April, 2002

    First leave on its way

     
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    Chardonnay-bud, April 1st in Loisy-en-Brie.

    The first leaves of the year are just about to unfold in the plot of Chardonnay-vines of my mother-in-law in the village of Loisy-en-Brie in the far end of the Côte des Blancs in Champagne.

    So incredibly tender, so incredibly slender, so brittle and bright was one of the buds on this very sunny sunday in sixteen degrees Celsius. No April's Fool... it is a question of only time now, before the first leave will have fully unfolded, and the growth of the vine be fully visible once again.

    Technically a plot is regarded as unfolded, when half of the plants have their first leaf out. This puts the different timing when it comes to the development of the three different varieties of vines in focus once again.

     
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    Meunier-bud with the same exposure, April 1st in Loisy-en-Brie.

    Red grapes develops later
    Our Meunier-vines show no visible signs of awakening, as I two days ago checked some Pinot Noir-vines in the upper plots of Verzy they did not seem very developped either. However, Verzy has a northern exposure whereas Loisy-en-Brie is turned south.

    A few warm days can change everything. So we may very well see fast changes next week. It will be exciting to know the date of the first leaves here in Verzy. Last year, the same vines were out only in the last third of April: The green point is pink.

    Differences are normal anyway. Just check this table that contains the development of the last 10 years with the earliest and the latest date for burst, flowering and grape harvest:
    ChardonnayPinot NoirMeunier
    29.03.03-18.04.9605.04.97-21.04.9608.04.03-23.04.96
    07.06.03-19.06.0107.06.03-21.06.0108.06.03-22.06.96+01
    25.08.03-27.09.0425.08.03-27.09.0425.08.03-25.09.01+04
    This year with all its talking about warmer winter than ever, global warming, Al Gore and the climate of Montpellier in Champagne in 50 years, it actually is rather interesting to compare a thing as concrete as a date.

    So far we keep completely cool. Alain continues the work with the repairs of broken wires and change rusty iron posts. The less developped the plants, the bigger the chance not to destroy the fragile buds. He is moving towards the end of it now though.

    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.