la gramiere

Where to find La Gramière 2006 - Update

I usually hate it when wineries use their blog just to tell people where to find the wines, but I haven't done this in awhile, and we've been shipping to lots of different states, so I thought you might enjoy seeing where in the US our wine has gone!  I will post them in chronological order so as not to favor anyone!  If anyone who is reading this has pictures that we can add to the post, send them to me!  Unless otherwise indicated you'll need to call the distributor to find out where you can buy the wine retail.

Hawaii -  Southern W&S   318 Kamani Street Honolulu, HI 96813     (808) 591-8825

New York -  Thirst Wine Merchants  187 DeKalb Ave @ Carlton, Brooklyn (718) 596-7643 www.thirstwinemerchants.com  Our EXCLUSIVE NY retailer!  (First two photos courtesy of Thirst Wine Merchants)

Washington State - Cavatappi Distribuzione 5118 14th Avenue N.W. Seattle. WA 98107  (206) 282-5226 www.cavatappi.com

Maryland - Chesapeake Beverage Co.  3000 Waterview Avenue Baltimore.  MD 21230   (410) 576-7776
Chesapeake first ordered 15 cases and then re-ordered another 30!!  Thank you!

California - Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant 1605 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley, CA 94702  (510) 524-1524
www.kermitlynch.com

Louisiana - Purveyors of Fine Wines PO Box 30308 New Orleans, LA 70190  (504) 523-5230

Michigan - Veritas 32185 Hollingsworth Warren, MI 48092   (586) 977-5799

 Oregon - D’Vine Wine Inc. 3315 NW 26th Avenue Portland OR 97210 (503) 228-9450

Florida - Opici Wine Company P.O. Box 530275 Lake Park FL 33403 (561) 842-3113

Colorado - Baroness Distributing 2475 W. 2nd Avenue, #36 Denver CO 80223 (303) 934-1300

Tennesee - Best Brands Inc. P.O. Box 290155 Nashville TN 37229 (615) 350-8500

Kentucky - Heidelberg Distributing 101 W. 13th Street Covington KY 41011 (859) 261-5830

Vermont - g.housen - North -  100 First Street Rutland VT 05701 (802) 773-4707

There you have it!  That's where 2006 La Gramière has been shipped!  If you call one of the distributors, be patient as they often have hundreds of wines on their list, and though it may shock you, not everyone has heard of La Gramière.  Be sure to mention, Kermit Lynch as the importer, the region: Rhône, and then maybe the name : La Gramière (gra - mee - air)

Thank you so much to all of our wonderful distributors, retailers and restaurant accounts!!  We are so greatful for your support!

(Photos: Above: tasting with the Kermit Lynch staff, Second: Guillaume & Luc of Terroir - Natural Wine Bar& Merchant)

Pallets!

Ever thought much about them?  Me neither until we started shipping wine to the US.  We are required to ship each order on pallets that are specially treated according to a norm called NIMP15.  What? Yeah, that's what I said when I got the fax from the Kermit Lynch office.  Seems that it stems from an international treaty that was signed by most countries concerning untreated wood products.  Apparently some untreated wood products can harbor little bugs and beetles that are harmful to other species of plants in other countries.  There are two ways to get rid of these bugs, one by heating the wood to a high enough temperature to kill off any little critters that may be living inside the wood or the second using methyl bromide.  Kermit Lynch refuses to accept pallets treated with methyl bromide (good thing! I'm not sure exactly what methyl bromide is but it sounds nasty!) so we obviously use first kind.

So last year when we started shipping our wine,  we get this fax, and I think: geez, here's another thing I have to learn about, where the heck to I find these pallets?  Of course I had a stack of normal ones left over from the bottle delivery, but no, can't use those, must buy different ones!  So I asked our friends Bertrand and Claudie Cortellini at Rouge Garance, and they told me where to go. 

So that's how I spent my morning today, driving 45 minutes to a place up in the Cevennes mountains that makes pallets!  It's funny how you discover a whole new industry by accident, just because you make wine.  I have to borrow our friend Peter's pick-up truck every time,  because they won't fit into my super cool '78 Renault 4L.  Good thing we have a friend with a pick-up since they won't deliver unless you order at least 100!  Not sure we'll ever  need that many...

Like adding salt to a wound...

Okay, I know I've been doing my fair share of complaining these days, but it just keeps getting worse!!

Saturday we had a big thunderstorm, it rained hard for at least an hour and then continued to rain steadily for several more.  It's nice to have a bit of rain at this point, but of course I was worried about mildew... On Sunday at choir someone mentioned that it had hailed too.  Hmm I hadn't noticed, and usually I'm quite aware of such things...

Well yesterday morning at the crack of dawn I went down to spray another round of bouillie bordelaise and sulfur, the Grenache vineyard we call Lauzettes was fine, looked great.  Then I went to the Syrah, and suddenly I started seeing grapes that were brown and split open.  Geez, I was just down here Wednesday and there was no sign of trouble, then it dawned on me: Hail!!!  It's only on the western facing side of the rows, and there is a fair amount.  Yet a smaller crop for 2008!  Soon we'll just decide to go on vacation rather then harvesting our grapes, since there aren't going to be any more!

Happy Bastille Day!

  It's funny, but in some places in the US, Bastille Day is move festively celebrated than it is here!  Chez Panisse  always has a great fête.  This year its menu is based on "new garlic".  Well, here in Saint Quentin la Poterie we have "Le Diner de la Republique".  And for some reason it's always on the 13th...go figure.  It's sponsored by the Mairie and features a huge dinner.  Everyone in the village is invited, though, it costs something like 15 euros (for a 4 course meal with wine).  There is always music and dancing and the evening ends with fireworks. 

This year my choir was invited to sing during the early hours of the evening.  I know that for most  Americans choir=church, but in France it's not like that at all.  There are choirs everywhere, and I am lucky enough to belong to one of the coolest ones around. We are called the "Canards Sauvages" - wild ducks- so you can see how seriously we take ourselves! (a canard is also slang for a false note). We sing a great mix of songs, many of them wine related, from all over the world. Last night we sang in  French, English, German, Spanish, Romanian and Bulgarian, though I can't vouch for our pronunciation! 

Anyway, back to the big party...the town had set up long tables under the market hall.  Over 300 people came for the dinner, even more for the aperitif before hand and the music and fireworks afterwords.  Our new mayor and all of his council were there, along with people from all walks of life from the village.  The food was even half way decent, though I did run home to get some La Gramière so that we didn't have to drink the wine from our local co-op.  The evening ended with a great display of fireworks, and all the village came out to see it.

 I always want to make Bastille Day into the 4th of July.  It's one of the holidays I miss the most in the US, picnics, symphony in the park, jello salad... all of the fun things that happen on that day.  Here it's not quite the same.  Often it's just a day off and people turn out for the fireworks.  There doesn't seem to be that camaraderie and communal spirit that I remember when I was a kid.  There are fireworks in Uzès tonight, on the actual Bastille Day.  When I think back on last night, it occurs to me that in Saint Quentin the have their dinner on the night before so that they can spend the 14th recovering from the party! 

Sure makes me miss Chez Panisse and symphony in the park!

Ok, Ok, I'm back

For me, the number of posts on my blog are in direct correlation with my state of mind. If I'm happy, I blog a lot, if things aren't going so well, I tend to want to avoid it all together!  Since I'm a person that wears my heart on my sleeve and has a tendency to be very honest, too honest sometimes, and tell all, when I'm not at my best, I tend to shy away, to hide here in my little little corner of Provence.

Things here have been challenging lately to say the least.  It seems that at every turn something goes wrong, despite our best efforts to do the right thing.  First there was the mildew, then our tractor broke down, then the sprayer got all clogged up and it took forever to clean it!  We had to borrow a neighbor's tractor to spray, which was a new experience driving a different tractor!  I loved the power steering but the 4 wheel drive was a bit too powerful for my taste... The tractor repair man said that it would cost more to repair the tractor than it was worth, but that we could keep using it until it finally dies... My poor tractor!  I don't really want to get a new one, but I guess it's inevitable.  Since then the tractor seems to be running alright, so we're going to keep on keepin' on and it will hopefully last through the season.  We hadn't really budgeted for a tractor, so maybe I'll start a tractor fund!?  Anyone want to contribute?  (hahaha)

After all this, last week I was up at the crack of dawn to go spray, got everything there and ready, went to start filling the sprayer and was closing the drain valve when it came off in my hand.  Ugh.  How can we be so unlucky?  Now I have to drive an hour and a half to go get a replacement part because our sprayer is not just any run-of-the-mill locally made sprayer, but one Matt found that is made in Italy and the distributor is all the way up by Montelimar.  As if I had nothing better to do with my day.  Luckily they had the part and didn't have to call Italy to get it, so I was back in business that evening, ended up spraying until afterdark which is a challenge given that our tractor's headlights don't work!  What made it even worse was that Manu Chao was playing that night at the Pont du Gard, and I could hear it!! I had tried to get tickets but it was sold out, talk about rubbing salt in a wound! 

Anyway, things aren't all that bad, they're in full wheat harvest here, the blackberries are in bloom and when I came around the corner while walking Daisy the other morning this was the view I had.  I said to myself: oh, right, I live in Provence.

 I can't imagine anyone not smiling inside and out when standing in front field of sunflowers!

Bottles, bottles and more bottles!

We have officially made the decision to bottle our 2007 a bit later this year.  Well at least I think we have.  It seems that every time I make a declaration like this something changes and we end up doing the opposite of what I have just declared.  So, now that it's out there, we'll probably be bottling next month! 

If we do indeed decide to bottle, it's ok since we HAD to take our 13000 bottles now, or lose them.  There is a huge bottle shortage here in Europe, last year one of the glass furnaces shut down and every since bottles have been really hard to come by.  So I got a call from our supplier, she said that they wanted to deliver the bottles right away.  I explained to her that we were going to wait until after harvest to bottle this year and so if she had to cancel the order and then re-submit it then, that would be fine.  She called me back a few minutes later and basically said that if I didn't take them now, she couldn't guarantee that I would have them in November or even in January, so I had better take them.

So that was another thing we had to deal with last week, making room in the cellar to fit 11 pallets of bottles!  We got up at 6 am to start moving pallets around and were just finishing up when the truck pulled up.  Now we can barely move in there, but it's manageable.  At least we know we have our bottles, now I'd better order the corks just in case!

If it's not one thing, it's another...

Ugh, I have to say, the past few weeks have not been easy.  With more rain last Monday and Tuesday, the mildew had a field day.  I got calls from several friends saying that suddenly there was an explosion of mildew, and not just on the leaves, this time directly on the grapes.  Since then though, the weather has dried out and things have really started to heat up.  Heat is good, downy mildew doesn't like it one bit, but powdery mildew thinks it's ok.  For now though we only have the downy kind, and hopefully it will stay that way.

Tuesday night after the rain cleared out, Matt went down to the vineyards to spray.  Let me remind you here that we are a good 20 minute drive from our vineyards, which is getting harder and harder to manage.  For example, it can be pouring down rain here at the house, lightening, thunder, threatening to hail, and in Castillon du Gard, it isn't raining at all.  Of course the opposite can be true also, but more often than not we get more rain here at the house than we do at the vineyards, primarily due to the fact that the house is 20 minutes closer to the Cevennes mountains.  Anyway, back to Tuesday...

I had gone off to taste the wines of Domaine Gramenon, at the very last minute for the guide, and was on my way back at about 8:30 pm so I stopped by to see how Matt was doing.  Everything was going fine so we agreed that I would go home and get dinner started (a rare happening, since Matt does most of the cooking!)  As I was headed down the hill, my phone rang, it was Matt, there was white smoke coming out of the tractor and it was making a funny noise.  Ugh. 

This had happened to me the previous week, the radiator over heated and there was steam coming out of every orifice of the tractor.  I refilled the radiator and everything seemed fine.  But now this is the 2nd time it's happened, doesn't seem good.  Worried that we would push the tractor over the edge we decided to play it safe.  The only problem, the sprayer was about three-quarters full.  We tried to get the rinse tank to work to rinse out the jets, but it just emptied out into the sprayer itself and by this time it was getting dark and the headlights on the tractor don't work.  So against our better judgment, we left the sprayer full overnight. 

Big mistake!  We had to borrow a friend's tractor to finish spraying and once we got it all hooked up, we realized that everything was blocked, no liquid was coming out anywhere, even when we opened to valve that drains the whole thing.  Now, here's where not living close to your vineyards comes into play... we had a few tools with us, but not many. Matt proceeded to unhook all as many of the hoses as he could and try to get the sludge out.  I went to the garage where we keep the tractor,  which is located in the next village over to bring back any sort of long skinny tool or piece of plastic that I could find to stick into the hoses and try to dislodge the sludge that was now blocking everything.  Finally just when we were about to give up for the night, it started to slowly glurp out of the bottom value, glurp gloop gloop.  Yippee!  It was coming out!  By about 10:30 we finished cleaning it all up and put everything away so that I could finish spraying early the next morning...

So the next time you think we're living " the dream" think again... 

Battling the Mildew!

Wow, with all the rain we've had, suddenly it seems everyone has mildew (the downy kind. so far).  At first, we thought, we were the only ones, that we had royally screwed up. Having missed the first window to spray while we were off having fun in the US, but it seems that everyone has it, even the conventional farmers, the ones who have already applied  5 systemic "treatments" still have some mildew.  It seems it's unavoidable this year.  But it's still scary.  At first it attacks the leaves and makes little light yellow circles on the leaves, then it starts to spread and it can even eventually get to the grapes. That is bad, very bad.  It essentially makes the individual grapes and/or the entire bunch shrivel up and fall off.  Ugh !  This is the first time we have had to deal with this kind of situation, up until now, it's been fairly easy, dry hot summers not much rain, even not enough.  Now we have more than enough. 

Last week it was beautiful, sunny with a good Mistral blowing, but today it rained all afternoon, and we're supposed to have thunderstorms tonight.  There has been talk of hail.  Please, please, no hail, that would be the icing on the cake. 

As you can see, the vines have now flowered, these pictures were taken about a week ago, so we should be in the safe zone, but hail could ruin it all!  I'll keep you posted!

More Nice Words from Kermit Lynch!

The sun is back!

I never thought I would be so happy to see the sun again.  Living here we get our fill of it, I often wish it would rain like it has recently.  The only problem is, it lasted a whole MONTH!  Our roussanne vineyard (that we just rented this year)  has suffered an attack of downy mildew, so we've been scrambling to try to find some natural remedies since copper sulfate is preventative, not curative.  A horsetail infusion is one thing we sprayed on it mixed with some bentonite clay.  This afternoon I went out and sprayed whey on them with a backpack sprayer.  It looks like it's not spreading any further, so now we'll just have to see how many of the bunches were effected.  It basically makes the grapes shrivel up and fall off, and since they are just starting to flower, we won't know for awhile how bad it is.  It's not everywhere though, so at least we'll have some grapes to harvest.  Apparently roussanne, is very sensitive and susceptible to most diseases!  This is our first experience with a varietal like that, what bad timing as far as the weather is concerned!

The other thing the rain had done, is make the weeds grow out of control!  Matt had a few afternoons on the Weed Badger before it really got wet last week, so half of our biggest vineyard is really looking good.  The other half is being engulfed by the weeds.  The rows have been mowed but in between the vines, they are almost as high as the vines are, which really isn't good from a mildew perspective.  Just take a look at the difference, it was a good year to invest in mechanical weed control!