Jancis just did a write up on varietal days (eg Cabernet Day, Grenache Day, Champagne Day) and I’ll admit that it seems like every day of the year might soon have a varietal celebration associated with it. Like patron saints of wine-drinking.  Not just Saint Vincent anymore.

Jancis’ Article on Grape Days

In her article, I pick up on two very different messages.  On the one hand, Jancis acknowledges that the celebration of certain varietals seems a little commercially motivated.  For example, Cabernet Day was conceived and brought to fruition somewhat autocratically by Rick Bakas, the social media engineer at St Supery, and it’s a day devoted to a varietal that already has a lot of notoriety when it comes from the right side of the tracks (in this case the right side is the Left Bank).  People ask “Does Cabernet need a day?” and I kind of get that vibe from bits of Jancis’ writing.

On the other hand, she managed to use this day in a very personal way.  She opened a bottle of Figeac and toasted the passing of its winemaker who was so proud of his unique contribution to Cabernet Sauvignon on Bordeaux’s Right Bank.  And this is why Cabernet Day was good.  We found ways to personalize and celebrate delicious wines.

My Thoughts on Grape Days

And I think this mirrors my experience.  I’m going to reiterate how happy I am with the Cabernet Day celebration we had at O’Vineyards and around the world. We didn’t know how the day would turn out, but we ended up surrounded by neighbors and friends and enjoying some really delicious wines that showed off totally different expressions of Cabernet Sauvignon.

And people around the world cheered us on.  Americans trapped in the office in the early afternoon could see us sipping as the sun set in the south of France.  And as the French started to get sleepy, folks on the west coast of the United States popped corks in their time zone where the party was just starting.

I’m just so happy.  I want to say I’m proud, but it’s hard to be proud in the face of such a massive, humbling event.  Next to the work of all those winemakers (and don’t forget how much promotional work goes in on the part of Rick Bakas and all the event organizers around the world), what did I really do?  I just threw a little party and drank some good wine.

And next to my neighbors who have been working here for generations or names like Thierry Manoncourt who made Jancis’ Figeac, a newly arrived winemaker like me starts to feel pretty small and unimportant.

These days can be important

Anyway, I know it seems like the varietal days are piling up fast, one after the other.  And I personally have to question who decided to put them all right before the northern hemisphere’s harvest, a very busy time of year.  But I hope that varietal celebrations don’t become trivial.  I hope that people go beyond novelty.

Whether you use these days as an excuse to open a special bottle that you really cherish or you use them as an opportunity to explore a varietal you don’t know very well, the important thing is that you’re attaching real emotions to these wines.  Drinking wine is fun, but it’s also effortlessly profound.

Next up: Grenache Day

Anyway, enough waxing poetic.  Grenache Day is coming up on September 24th.  I don’t make any Grenache, but I love to drink it.  The Languedoc-Roussillon does a great job with it. I’ve been looking forward to the day ever since it was proposed at the Grenache Symposium held at Chene Bleu.  I’ve been told that some other folks in the region are already organizing stellar events.

I personally will strive to swing down to Domaine Gayda and check out their Grenache Day celebration.  A workshop with Vinecole followed by a cuve tasting at Gayda with the winemaker.  If I can’t go there, I’ll surely be celebrating at dinner with some of my favorite Grenaches.  After seeing all the energy and enthusiasm at the Grenache Symposium, I know just how important September 24th is to all the people involved with this grape.  From the growers to the winemakers to the writers and the sales people and NEVER FORGET the drinkers… And I hope you all find a way to make the day personal by opening a special bottle of Grenache or by raising your Grenache awareness.

Thanks again to everybody who makes these celebrations possible.  Amazing, tireless winemakers, promoters, and wine-lovers.

Well it’s past midnight so I can start reminiscing about Cabernet Day.  In part, that means sniffing empty bottles and thinking about opening more.  But the part of me that’s still sober is neurotically over-analyzing the event, and maybe I can bring you some fun conclusions about Cabernet Day and the Languedoc.

If you know me, you know I’m a fan of the Languedoc so I was really happy to use Cabernet Day as an opportunity to communicate on some of the wonderful Cabernet made in this region.  A lot of the time, we’re more known for our mass produced lowland Cab, which is a shame, because we have some stellar examples of Super Cabs.

I thought tonight would be a chance to get a few friends together to drink Cab and Internet-users would be able to tune in and see that folks in the Languedoc are drinking Cabernet and loving it.

I was overwhelmed by the support I got.  My neighbors from Chateau Jouclary and Pennautier and Auzias and Rivals and la Cave de Cavanac.  That’s a huge honor because these folks have been making wine longer than me.  A couple of them were even crucial in forming the AOC Cabardes.

Anyway, it was really great to see them because it’s tough to get locals motivated sometimes.  People often say “never a prophet in his own land” or something like that. I think it’s a biblical proverb.  Anyway, I feel like sometimes my neighbors don’t want to accept that there is a huge opportunity on the Internet.  Well tonight they proved me wrong by demonstrating an exemplary curiosity that can move this whole region forward.

Also, I think it should be noted somewhat humorously how far I missed the mark on planning this event.  I set up a big TV with a feed of all the tweets about Cabernet Day.  But this didn’t really mean anything to about 80% of the people who came because they had no idea what Twitter was.  So we talked a fair amount about social networks and real time media.  It made for fun conversations.  I was blowing their minds.

But probably the biggest mind blowing experience for me was encountering a journalist who told me he remembered the pre-war owners of this vineyard.  PRE WAR? Which war you ask?  The War of ’39.  He actually called it that.  This VERY interesting man told me all sorts of things about my vineyard.  It warrants its own post on a later date.  I thought the guy was going to interview me because he was a journalist.  But in fact, he knew so much about this property, I ended up interviewing him.  It was really great learning some of the back story on this very interesting piece of land.

Anyway, I’m rambling. Because I’m tired. And drunk. But the point is that there were some great exchanges.  I’m really happy with the wonderful night we had around some glasses of Cabernet.  A big thanks to Rick Bakas for organizing this whole thing.  A big thanks to everybody who came.  And the biggest thanks to all those brave souls out there who honestly make the best Cabernet they can.

Tasting notes and more serious stuff including the video of our live party cam can be found at Love That Languedoc’s Cabernet Day article.

For now, good night, good night, sweet Cabernet!

What do all these letters mean?

I recently wrote about Lilian Bauchet getting controlled.   Those of you who read French, check out Lilian’s whole post as he does a good job of explaining the rather convoluted delineation between the various organizations in the alphabet soup that legislates our vineyards. ODG, INAO, CIBAS, ETC.

For those of you who don’t really read French, here is my explanation:

Basically (hah!), to make AOP wines (AOC is now called AOP, stick with me), you have to belong to an ODG. The ODG has a constitution that states all the rules of your AOP. The ODG sends that constitution to the INAO which is a national organization that will approve your constitution or recommend modifications. Then, there are independent control groups which are tasked with the enforcement and management of certain bureaucratic procedures tied to the ODGs. These control groups vary by region but are always INAO-approved. And working with them is not optional. So essentially they are INAO-mandated, but if they do something wrong, the INAO can just say “oh well you have to complain to them not us”. In Lilian’s story, the control group is the CIBAS, but in my region it’s the OI (I think).

Also, the INAO encourages the ODG to perform regular and random auto-controls where we inspect each other’s vines. Then the control group like the CIBAS just has to control a portion of our controls to verify that we’re doing a good job on our own. This is probably why the dude checking Lilian’s vines out was a grape growing neighbor of his.

And you can’t just lump all the abbreviations and wine laws together.  Because while the majority of these letters belong to a similar group, some function independently or parrallel to the above acronyms.  The CIVL, CIVR, CIVB, etc. are interprofessional groups.  They are supposed to represent all growers.  They are technically separate from the AOPs even though most AOPs are adherents that pay to be represented by the region’s CIV.

Furthermore, the IGP system is a more centralized European classification that doesn’t necessarily have any correlation whatsoever to AOP, VDQS, VDP, or VDT classifications.

And then you have all the regional bodies that aren’t law makers but essentially marketing and events firms like Sud de France, InterRhone(?), Vins de Bordeaux(?), SOPEXA(?), etc.

What do the actual letters stand for?  Good question.. I think the following:

• INAO- Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (although their own website says it stands for “Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité” but INdlOedlQ was less catchy.)
• AOC- Appellation d’Origine Controlée
• AOP- Appellation d’Origine Protegée (exactly like AOCs but with ironically more Controls)
• ODG- Organisme de Défense et de Gestion
• OI-  ???? the inao-approved group that Cabrdes ODG uses to enforce our rules
• CIBAS- ??? the inao-approved group that Bourgogne sometimes uses
• IGP- Indication Géographique Protégée
• CIVL- Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Languedoc
• CIVR- Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Roussillon
• CIVB- Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Bordeaux
• BIVB- Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne
• VDQS- Vin de Qualité Superieur
• VDP- Vin de Pays
• VDT- Vin de Table, soon to become Vin de France(?)

So there. You don’t need to ask what does AOC stand for anymore.  Now you know.  And you also know that you’re supposed to be asking what AOP stands for.  Keep up with the times!

Jancis just wrote a very cleverly titled article “11 into 33 does go” (you have to subscribe to read the whole thing).  This is more than just a simple math question.  It’s a reference to French department numbers.  11 is Aude (Languedoc) and 33 is Gironde (Bordeaux).  And this article talks about the sad truth that nobody likes to discuss.

While tons of our region’s wine cooperatives flounder and go out of business, there are still some cooperatives and negociants with tankers pumping wine nearly 24/7.  It makes you think that there’s a lot of hustle and bustle.  But where is the wine going?  And at what cost?

Well, a short inspection of the license plates reveals a lot.  All the tankers filling up with Languedoc wine have license plates that read 33.  Gironde. Bordeaux. It’s nearly impossible to prove what happens once the wine gets into the winery since the French classification system is almost 100% enforced by paper trail alone.  But that’s where the wine is going.  Or at least, that’s where the trucks came from.

I’m really happy to see a writer of Jancis’ level talking about this issue because it’s a real wine story.  Not a lot of that in wine journalism today.

The CIVL (Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Languedoc — but I’m sure you knew that ;D) has declared a new system of classification in the Languedoc to separate and celebrate the “Grands vins du Languedoc” and “Grands Crus du Languedoc”.  Articles in Harpers and Drinks Business for the full story.

A lot of people have been asking me what I think about this and I guess I should take a moment to express my personal feelings about how the CIVL’s newly declared hierarchy.

On the one hand, the Languedoc is certainly entitled to having some Grands Crus or terroirs/wineries that have proven themselves over time to be emblematic champions of the region.  It might seem absurd or capricious today to arbitrarily say that certain places or people are better winemakers than others.  But hey, fake it til you make it.  In a hundred years, the Grands Crus du Languedoc might seem  just as legitimate as the Grands Crus de Bordeaux or Grands Crus de Bourgogne (determined by the laws from 1855, parcel drawings of Cistercian monks, and other really legit old stuff).

That said, it’s a pretty classic move for my dear region.  At a time when so much of the world mocks the complexity, capriciousness, and obsolesence of the Grands Crus system in other parts of France, we establish a long term plan to incorporate it into how we sell wine.  We’re about 200 years too late.  But hey, it can’t really hurt us.

At worst, a couple of people (generally folks who are “in the know” about wine) will ridicule the effort.  But at best, we can seriously raise self-esteem in the area.  We have to throw our old defeatist attitude in the rubbish bin.  The Languedoc is GREAT.  And we have Grands Crus too!  Power to us.

Now, what do we hope to gain from it?  Other than just being a positive mantra to sort of repeat to yourself as you wake up each morning?  I don’t know.

When Frederic Jeanjean, President of the CIVL and owner of Jeanjean (edit: large groupe viticole based out of Terrasses du Larzac) says the strategy will “transform the Languedoc into a profitable, quality wine?making region”, I think that’s a little ambitious.  Really?  Calling certain wines and crus Grand is going to transform the Languedoc into a profitable quality winemaking region?  That’s a tall order.  What exactly is the strategy being referred to?  Well, the Drinks Business article alludes to “a detailed action plan of technical, economic and marketing strategies, which will provide a framework for its activities over the coming years.”  Let me tell you, that I have not seen much of that detailed plan of action.

Short of checking the CIVL news site (which I really like), I don’t get much news from them at all.  You might assume this is some fault of mine, but let me clarify my relationship to the interprofession.  I am forced to pay dues to put AOC Cabardes on my wine bottles.  And a significant portion of those dues goes to the CIVL.  So I am a paying member of the Interprofession.  Then they also send you letters and try to get you to pay as an individual.  So they have my address.  But they don’t send me invitations to the assemblee generale.  Just more requests for me to make double payments on my wine production.

Here’s the only thing I have received regarding the new hierarchy plan, copied and pasted from an email sent within the AOC Cabardes ODG (our syndicat):

Premier niveau : LES VINS DU LANGUEDOC

ð Niveau d’objectif : entre 3 et 4 € par col (prix TTC consommateurs) et pour les marques de distributeurs : 2,50 € par col (prix TTC consommateurs).

ðPrix vrac d’objectif : 90 à 100 € l’hl avec un rendement de : 50 à 55 hl/ha

ðPrix plancher d’objectif : 80€ l’hl.

Deuxième Niveau : LES GRANDS VINS DU LANGUEDOC

ðNiveau d’objectif :entre 4 € et 7 € par col (prix TTC consommateurs).

ðRendement de 48 à 50 hl/ha

ðPossibilité de repli en AOC LANGUEDOC (a priori pour le Cabardès sous réserve d’identification par l’INAO des parcelles complantées en cépages méditerranéens)

Troisième Niveau : LES CRUS DU LANGUEDOC

ðNiveau d’objectif : au-delà de 7-10 €/cols (prix TTC consommateurs au caveau)

Les AOP du Languedoc seront réparties entre le deuxième niveau (les grands vins du Languedoc) et le troisième niveau (les crus du Languedoc) en fonction :

– du souhait de positionnement des ODG de chaque appellation

– de critères économiques précis garantissant l’homogénéité du segment de marché.

Les critères économiques retenus en première analyse pour accéder au segment « crus du Languedoc » :

– nombre de producteurs (entre 30 et 50 metteurs en marché),

– volume de production (entre 25.000 à 35.000 hectolitres commercialisés),

– rendement maximum (45 hl/ha : critères INAO 2008),

– prix vrac (>150 €/hl) ou pourcentage des ventes directes (>70%),

– prix consommateurs (caveau > 10 € TTC /  GD : > 7 € TTC ),

– mise en bouteille en région restreinte de production

And this is a CIVL powerpoint PROJET DE SEGMENTATION DE L’OFFRE DES AOC which ostensibly originates from that June assemblee referred to in the Drinks Business article.

So I guess the plan is just to limit each tier to a certain yield, certain price per bottle, total number of producers, certain size of plantation, and quantity of production (although this should really be a function of yield and size of plantations).

Anyway, this is a really long post just to say that I don’t really know what I think about this new strategy.  If the CIVL continues to operate in a way that even a winemaker like me who spends a great deal of effort trying to stay branché has no idea what they’re doing, I don’t see how this new system of classification can “transform the Languedoc into a profitable, quality wine?making region”.  A rose by any other name.

But at the same time, I’m glad to see they’re sending out positive press releases and that people are reading that stuff.  Because hey, we deserve grands crus just as much as Bordeaux if not more.

PS – One of the execs at the CIVL said that the new hierarchy will “mould the future of the Languedoc region for the next 15 years.” … Even that seems a little ambitious.  I feel like I’m probably going to have more impact on this region than some system of classification put forth by the CIVL (who has lost a lot of gumption in the Freche years) but I guess that’s a subject for another post.

Last week, I had a delegation from Naked Wines customers visit the vineyard. The “angels”, as they’re called on the website, tasted several wines from the region the day before. And they had expressed some curiosity about the term garrigue that comes up all the time when tasting wines from this area. Garrigue refers to the underbrush in the region, but it can include a lot of different plants.

I wrote a post about some of the plants around the vineyard and I took cuttings which the angels got to smell. Here is a video of the experience taken by one of the visitors.

I was tasting wine at the Salon d’Aniane recently with some friends from the Bourgogne, and they were teasing me because virtually ALL of the winemakers here talk about garrigue in their wines.  Now, garrigue is a word that means very little once you leave France, and apparently doesn’t even make the rounds in every part of France.  I get the sense that old science textbooks used to make sure every little boy and girl knew the various types of plant life that grew around their country.   And we’ve had to drop that section from textbooks to make space for genetics, plastics, OGMs, and weird debates about whether Pluto is a planet or not.

Anyway, I have a delegation of Angels coming from Naked Wines later today.  And they had also asked about this garrigue that we kept referring to.  Our winemaker host, Benjamin Darnault, did an excellent job of verbally describing the garrigue and even cooked with a couple fresh herbs from the shrubland.  It’s the shrubland common to the warm, rocky soils in the south of France.  You’ll find a lot of rosemary, thyme, and lavender.  These tend to be the three that people identify most commonly when you ask them to list what’s in garrigue.

Instead of trying to compete with this excellent description, I’ve taken the time to cut a few of the plants around the vineyard and I’ll be able to share some of the smells with the Naked delegation arriving in half an hour.

You can see what I’ve cut in the photo. From left to right, top to bottom:

• Fig leaf
• Rosemary
• Cypress (top right corner)
• Wild Carrot
• Fennel
• Blackberries
• Thyme

A freshly cut fig leaf is FULL of milky sap that smells just like the sap from a ripe fig.  The stems smell almost like sugar cane.  It’s not really thought of as garrigue because figs are clearly trees and they need a lot more water than the shrubland plants, but you will often find figs growing on the ruisseaus and small waterways AROUND garrigue.  I’ve got about five trees all around our vineyard.

Rosemary, like I said is a more classic garrigue plant.  Highly aromatic and sometimes a bit menthol-y or smokey.  This is a necessary part of the shrubland tour.

Cypress is VERY common in garrigue and is often left off the list.  That crisp evergreen scent is a quintessential note in some of the region’s wines though.

Queen Anne’s Lace, called Wild Carrot sometimes, is a relative of our domesticated carrots that looks a lot like Hemlock.  Crushed, it gives off a sort of medicinal smell and again ties into that menthol quality that clears out your nostrils.

Fennel is in the same family of smells as anais and licorice.  It’s very very aromatic.  If somebody mows a plant on the side of the road, you can smell it in a car with the windows rolled up for a hundred yards around.  My mom often cures fish with salt and fennel.

Blackberries aren’t in season yet, as you can tell from the photo, but I wanted to include at least one wild berry because I want to fight this sense that they aren’t a part of the garrigue.  When people smell berries, they list them seperately, but then they’ll lump a lot of other plants together in this umbrella garrigue.  But fruit like blackberries can grow all over the place here.  They are low, thorny vines that offer protection for the rabbits, hares, birds, and other small fauna native to the garrigue.

Thyme is thyme. Like rosemary, I’d be remiss to leave it off the tour.  It’s actually much subtler than most of the plants in this photo.  You have to really dry it or crush it to make it smell as strong as something like the fennel.

NOT PICTURED HERE:

Lavender.  I just don’t find much lavender on the estate.  Maybe it’s because I’m in the Atlantic corridor.  I see it on other vineyards closer to the Mediterranean.  Maybe there’s some other reason.  But I just don’t find much of it.

Cyste.  I don’t have much of this on the vineyard either but it’s a note that comes up often with locals.  A sort of sticky sweet floral note that sounds really farfetched but you’ll feel incredible the first time you identify it in a wine.  It’s totally there.  😀

“It’s like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to Languedoc-Roussillon – so much to choose from!”

Cork’d, an offbeat social network devoted to sharing stories about wine, has just published a nice interview with yours truly.

So they shared the O’Vineyards story with their 35,000+ mailing list.  That’s cool.

But more importantly, they’ve been sharing EVERYBODY in the Languedoc-Roussillon’s stories!

• State of the Union: Grenache in the Languedoc-Roussillon’s Maury AOC
• Languedoc-Roussillon: Big Production & Big Value
• Push It To The “Limit” with the Fitou AOC
• Recessionary Times Call For Recessionary Wines: Languedoc-Roussillon Tasting Proves High Value Available in France

I just want to say that I am super excited to see another website putting so much time into the Languedoc and Roussillon.  Remember, we’re one of the biggest wine producing region in the world, and we get relatively little ink in the USA publications.  So thanks, Cork”d.

This was probably published around ViniSud, but it only just popped onto my radar!  Sud de France Export keeps a database of all the products that use the Sud de France brand and participate in its events, and they added some very flattering editorial to our entry.

“Ils sont fiers d’être considérés parmi les meilleurs artisans du vin du Languedoc.  Leur programme bilingue languedocjetaime.com met en valeur notre belle région.”
–Sud de France Export

So needless to say, I’m flattered and honored.  It’s nice to know that one of the biggest powerhouses in promoting the Languedoc-Roussillon thinks that little old Ryan is doing a good job with Languedoc, je t’aime.  It’s like the crazy parallel universe where David and Goliath are buddies and work together for the good of the kingdom. ;-D

And they acknowledge that we’re amidst the best artisanal winemakers in the Languedoc!  Thanks!

We had a fun little vineyard party.  Sud de France sent us a kit of Languedoc-Roussillon wines so that we could host a Carcassonne wine tasing.   We drank and were merry.  We did a live stream which is really lo-fi, but fun and spontaneous.  The live stream of our synchronized worldwide tasting is available at Love That Langedoc.

This is just a brief update to say we had a good time and we’ll put together a better-edited version of the tasting soon.  Thanks for all the cool people who showed up like Emma and Matthew from Vinecole, Aude Campos (our marvelous wine selling dynamo), and Mallorie from the gorgeous Chateau Bouis.