Vin Des Amis | amarchinthevines

Vendange under a perfect sky

As my favourite band Elbow sang in their biggest hit, one day like this a year would see me right!

Saturday September 27th was the last day of vendanges chez Coutelou and, apparently, many other domaines in the region. After some iffy weather in the previous 10 days the sun had been out for the last 2 or 3 and today was no different. There was an autumnal, morning chill as Pat and I arrived in the vineyard to help collect the last of the Grenache Noir.

Grenache Noir

Pat picking

However, the sun soon became hot and the panama was soon donned to protect my head since hair no longer bothers to do so. The usual pickers had departed and Jeff called in his friends from the Béziers rugby club to help out. The ‘rugbymen’ proved to be hard working, fun and very welcoming towards novices such as ourselves even when I declared my lack of interest in their sport.

As ever harvesting grapes is only the first part of the job in the vineyard as it is the first step in the process of triage (sorting), any underripe, mildewy or poor quality grapes being cut out before being placed in buckets, then cases. The best way to check the health of a bunch that has been cut is to smell it. There should be the clean, fruity smell of grapes. If not, then search for the problem and eliminate it. Any grape left should be one that you would be happy to eat, and that we did too!

A grape with a hole created by a ver de la grappe (worm). The grape would soon be cut away

Healthy and delicious Grenache grapes

As the morning heated up it was time to casse croute. A drink of water I thought, wrong! Out came the picnic table, a collection of charcuterie (my pescatarian ways raising more rugbymen mirth!) and then some cheeses from La Fromagerie, a shop in Béziers. These were some of the best cheeses I have ever tasted, including a runny and perfect St Marcellin. Naturally, in every sense of the word, to accompany these treats were a couple of magnums of Vin Des Amis, the most appropriate of wines for today.

Tina, the ‘rugbymen’, Jeff, Michel and myself

Welcome shade

Michel does the honours

Icare checks that everything is up to scratch

12.30pm, grapes picked it was time to return to the cellars. The Grenache was put into tank to be fermented by carbonic maceration. This is where whole bunches of grapes are put in tank and the weight of the grapes gradually bursts the skins and starts fermenting the grapes at the bottom of the tank. Most of the grapes begin to ferment inside their skins. The result is usually more fruit and less tannin and adds a different layer of complexity when blended with other grapes fermented traditionally after being pressed

We came, we picked, we sorted

La force des rugbymen

Jeff shared some of the juice / wines from various tanks from the harvests of the last few weeks. These are, obviously, at different stages of development according to date of picking, speed of fermentation etc. There were a multitude of flavours, richness and acidity and so much promise for another excellent vintage despite the dry spring and summer. Low in quantity but high in quality.

The Mourvedre being checked for density, it was a delicious fruitbomb to taste

At work at the sorting table checking Mourvedre grapes which have a beautiful blood coloured juice

At work, the previous Tuesday, at the sorting table checking Mourvedre grapes which have a beautiful blood coloured juice

And that I thought was that. Wrong again! Back to Jeff’s house,

the celebrated 7, Rue De La Pompe (name of one of Jeff’s cuvées) and into the garden where, joined by families of the rugbymen, children and 17 adults sat down to a delicious meal of salads, a giant seafood pasta, more La Fromagerie cheeses, and several huge fruit tarts. Just fantastic, many thanks to the cooks, Michel for cooking the pasta through, and to Jeff for his generosity. Why so few pictures of the meal? Well I’d like to claim a technical hitch but it was probably more due to this…

Jeff and Balthazar

I don’t think I have ever seen a Balthazar bottle actually filled with wine. This was Vin Des Amis 2013, all 12 litres of it. As the afternoon wore on it was amazing to taste how the wine developed and opened up allowing the Grenache fruit to really express itself. And, to make a comparison, a magnum of 2010 Vin Des Amis which was beautiful. Fresh yet complex and long lasting. Thus it was after 6pm when we finally stood up from the table. Pat had been very abstemious as we had to get back to Margon and then to the theatre in Pézenas. I admit to being a little merry.

It had been a fantastic day, one I shall always cherish and remember. I have always wanted to pick grapes and take part in a wine harvest. Dream fulfilled in the company of some terrific people who were welcoming, friendly and tolerant of the two English incomers. What a treat to spend the day in the company of French people at work and at play, even if the speed of their French became way too fast for me at times. Work to do there. And, work aplenty still to do in the year ahead – the wines have still to be made, bottling to do, pruning and taillage in the vineyards. I can’t wait!

I must say a huge thank you to Jeff whose patience, friendship and generosity are the stuff of legend. I posted recently about the story of the Chaud Doudou and its moral of sharing everything good. The gathering of friends and colleagues in his vineyard, cellars and garden was living proof that he carries on that tradition of chaud doudou. He wants to share his work and his passion for nature and the wines he creates. This he achieved magnificently today.

Surrounded and sharing

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The scenes of trees in the video show some bat houses erected for them to shelter, part of the diversity encouraged at Mas Coutelou. The music is, of course, Elbow. And, for those who can’t get enough of him, Icare makes an appearance!

Jeff (Jean Francois if you want to be formal) Coutelou is passionate about nature, about plants and trees as well as vines. He sees his job very much as making the best from nature whilst doing as much as possible to protect and enhance it. Mas Coutelou has been organic since 1987, long before it became fashionable. Jeff has now gone further and has been making natural wines for a number of years, the first small tests in 2003. Natural wines are wines which have minimal chemical or mechanical intervention. To prevent or combat diseases only natural products are allowed to be used. Equally, in the cellar minimal intervention is required for example in using, for example, only natural yeasts. The wine which results is the natural result and product of the grapes. There are bad natural wines for sure but winemakers such as Jeff pour huge efforts into their vineyards to make sure that the grapes are as healthy as nature allows and, in cellar, hygiene and close supervision ensure that quality prevails and top quality wine is produced. Moreover, in recent years he has gone further and has used no added sulphur. This is usually used by vignerons to fight the risk of oxidation and help preserve the wine. Many people don’t like sulphur in wines, some are sensitive to its effects. It is a risk not to add it but Jeff has been able to avoid it for the last few years.

My first visit to Mas Coutelou many years ago included a tour of the vineyards in Jeff’s van with my wife sat on a concrete block in the back and Héro, Jeff’s previous dog, keeping her company. As we travelled around and stopped to look at vines and grapes what shone out was Jeff’s passion for the land, the vines and the olive and fig trees which he has planted to ensure polyculture and a varied landscape. At one point he stopped the van and pointed to two sets of vines. To the left was a neighbour’s vines, They looked beautiful; vivid brown soil with bright green vines in straight rows, all cut to the same shape and size, all neat and tidy. So beautiful that a film company was actually filming with them as a background. But Jeff asked us to look closer. There was no life in the vines or the soil, it was devoid of insects, butterflies, herbs, nothing. Next to these vines were Jeff’s. They looked, to my untrained eyes, much more messy – the vines weren’t regular, there was grass and herbs and flowers between the rows. But they were absolutely teeming with life, insects, butterflies and, as if on cue, partridges running through them. And it’s that life which emerges in the wines. As soon as I tasted them I was blown away by their vivacity. powerful fruit and flavour. These are not just in your face wines though. They have complexity and age very well. I have tasted some from 2001 which are still drinking well and show no sign of being tired. Jeff opened a Flambadou (100% Carignan) from 2007 at lunch last week which was still bright, lively but deep and with layers of flavour. I find it hard to not drink these wines young because they are so delicious young. Vin Des Amis I have usually drunk in the first few months after purchase. Yet a 2010 magnum tasted on Saturday was still full of that freshness but also with more complex flavours. A lesson for me that I must put some bottles away.

As part of his determination to look after his land and plants (of all kinds) Jeff is interested in preserving wine varieties. He is one of only two vignerons in the world to have a variety called Castets (Break your head, or skull crusher as I have liberally translated. In fact it is named after the man who developed and spread the variety). (The other is Chateau Simone in Palette neat Aix-en-Provence).