So, I’ve been pretty cagey about this but here’s the official announcement: Ryan O’Connell is moving to California for part of 2012.  The company I’m working with in California is looking for new wines and new business opportunities and they think I can help.  I think I can help too. I’m leaving tomorrow.  I’ll be [...]

I saw some birds of prey locked at the talons outside the winery and had the camera nearby.  It reminds you how O’Vineyards is pretty rural/wild.  Hawks just wander up and use our front deck when they feel like it. Now there’s a debate going on about whether these birds or fighting or mating.  My [...]

2011 Vintage Report People have been asking me about how the vintage is going to turn out since back in August.  I’m always hesitant to guess at quality that early in the game, and this year is a perfect example of why we shouldn’t be too confident in our speculation. All year, the vines were [...]

We started the machine harvest on September 15, 2011.  The weather’s been perfect and the grapes came in very cool as we started predawn (4h45AM).  A few surprises but lots of good things to report.  High hopes for the rest of harvest and the potential of this vintage for the entire Languedoc Roussillon! I don’t [...]

The grapes are getting ripe enough to start talking about harvest dates.  I’ve been tasting grapes in the Cabernet and Merlot multiple times a day with everybody who comes through on the winery tour.  I go out to the Syrah once every couple of days to taste there too.  And of course, the real expert [...]

I had to reorganize all the photos on our computer systems and I found some real pearls from the first few years at O’Vineyards (some of them are back when it was le Domaine du Thou! and not even called O’Vineyards yet). Nostalgia time The first year we were at O’Vineyards, there wasn’t a winery [...]

We were very proud to se that the Magazine l’Express released a special wine issue with a full page feature of O’Vineyards and several references to our websites (the issue had an extensive spread on wine blogging and wine websites). I’m including the article about us below, but I highly recommend picking up an issue [...]

Elin McCoy wrote her Bloomberg column about my UK importer Naked Wines, and her article uses a lot of my personal experiences with the company. It’s a bit strange referring to Naked Wines as a wine importer.  The more I work with them, the more I realize they have many many roles in the wine [...]

This is probably the last update about the Quarry Project in Villemoustaussou (at least for now). Even though I panicked last week when I received the email notification of the proposed quarry installation, this week has been full of research and helpful advice from friends. Here’s the long summary of the quarry project.  I still [...]

This is another quick update on the quarry project in Villemoustaussou. I’m trying to find the study about the project.  The DREAL office that conducted the preliminary studies is out of the office this week so I can’t get in touch with them until after the deadline for reading it.  There is a physical copy [...]