Les Welcome
Whether by intent or tragic mis-typing, you’ve landed on the home of Les Garagistes winery collective. If you’re new to our dark cabal, a rich and heady stew of bad French grammar and subterranean winemaking awaits. But where to start? Here are a few suggestions:
- First, you might take a quick stroll through last year’s vintage escapades, accumulated over the two critical months of September 2009 and October 2009 (remember that the posts are presented with the earliest at the bottom of the page).
- Then, who are these Garagistes and where do they get off? And didn’t I hear they were dead?
- We sully the fine pages of Fine Cooking Magazine
- Winehenge: the movie. If that’s not enough to get you to click…
- A French oak barrel primer
- Red, Rex Sox (Yankees fans, be forewarned)
- Plastic capsules and why we switched to paper
- Lastly, mourn with the Moody Blues as they appear to lament the end of a Les Garagistes harvest.
Thanks much for stopping by. We’ve got fruit lined up for 2010 — with new varietals ensuring we’ll be making even more up as we go along — so another exciting vintage is just ahead. Hope you can join us for it, and let us know what you think of what we’ve cobbled together.
Franc rises from the dead
Last Wednesday night, I finally had a chance to rack the Franc and add both some sulfite and some acid in an attempt to resuscitate our young friend. My targets were about 50ppm free SO2, and dropping the pH by a tenth.
On Saturday night, Garagiste James was by, so we tried it for the first time since I’d racked it. I’m happy to report it’s definitely better — more alive, better fragrance, crisp, delicious fruit. That said, it’s still a little closed, which isn’t surprising considering it was bludgeoned with SO2 only days ago.
My plan is to re-taste it mid-week to see if it’s any better after a week of recuperation. If not, we may need to push blending trials back. More soon.
1 comment1 Comment so far
fyi, tasted again Wednesday night, and the critter seems alive enough for blending. Restrained nose (but not without some fragrance), full and fruity in the mouth. A little zing, too, helps define the fruit, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we elect to up the acid even a bit more.