“Clos des Patris” 酒 莊 - 釀 酒 記
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Wine is created by mixing different energies in a big tank. A kind of caldron!
The left pic is taken inside the “Clos des Patris” cellar. You can see Xristof climbed up the tank with a hose full of juice.
Sweating under the heat of the roof, you can hardly stay longer than 30 minutes at the top of the tank, which is a carbon rich area. Temperature control (below 29C) and pigeage (pronounce : peejaj ) are definitively vital for wine process.
First we need machines, long hoses and a certain level of imagination; second, only arms and energy. Of course this becomes rarer because in big cellars everything is machinerized and computerized to produce more at lower cost. Then government, euro laws and the World market keep producers to this philosophy: more benefits, more quantity, more degrees, less people, etc. It’s also a new fashion to make strong wines. A decade ago wines at 13-14° are rare and most of them came from Burgundy or Côtes-du-Rhône. Now it’s everywhere!
But where is the Energy?
The worst things are the harvest machines!
Sure the speed is amazing but let’s take a closer look behind the big wheels: some grapes, then pieces of leaves, little branches, that’s normal, you’ll say, yes but look even closer… There! Oh there are some snails (who wants to drink the juice of snail?). Here, some insects — flies, bees and crickets… Sometimes the machines may even crush little animals, rabbits or birds hidden under the vines.
These machines are like huge hovers with brushes. When you look at a plant after the harvest, you see a lot of “nude grapes”, just greenish branches without grains, really horrible. Then you may see bigger branches broken, or, worst, plants crashed by the tires of the tractor.
A scene from hell!
Sure, one can avoid a dozen or more of workers with harvest machines, some can run 40km/h and others are piloted by satellites in huge properties (USA, South Africa, etc). What kind of liquid people drink there?
THEY’VE JUST BOUGHT A STICK ON A BOTTLE!
Think of the same bottles we can find in all the malls and the Dutyfree shops around the the planet. Just a mount of money for a sweet vinegar most of the time!
Oh, don’t think i’m opposite to business, but here we’re speaking about purity of a product, from soil to glass, from sunny grapes to dark bottles. In the cellar, the tanks shelter the sugar-alcohol transformation.
The juice is under control all the time in the cellar — sugar level, temperature, acidity, etc. A sample was sent every evening to a lab for more technical testing. Yves, who is also an engeneer, translates easily the datas into positive or negative news. This year we have no bad news at all! I remember one day we harvested a little vine, the alcohol degree was 17!! Of course this level is forbidden for commercialisation. That’s where the art of the “Chef” comes: in which tank this juice will go?
Other secrets, other senses.
When enzymes and all the little stuff living in the tank are working well, that means the fermentation goes, and temperature is getting higher, so cooling and pigeage must be at the maximum! But sometimes it’s not enough. Maybe you filled up the tank too much. or the enzymes worked too fast. During the your first night sleeping after working without rest for 2 days, the tank overflows!
If you dare to sleep again, you can lose thousands of liters! Or you must have a primitive instinct to wake you up in time to take care of the baby. Getting into the cellar, you take a glance on the top of the tank and scream in the house:
“WAKE UP ! WAKE UP YOU ALL ! IT OVERFLOWS !!”
That’s exactly what i did! a pure and loud scream.
Of course all the band and Yves arrived quickly, but there’s nothing to be afraid of… it was just the overflow of the “moût” , which is dense and dry, not the wine. We transferred a part to another tank, and went back to bed.
The juice takes days and days to be wine. Months to be drunk. And years for the pleasure and the energy it will give. I had THE PRIVILEGE to drink the first juice from the first tank, the purest one, and organic!! God, it is a glass of Ambrosia! What energy in it!
Yves’ art comes the “formula” he creates, with infinite possibilities, like specialists who creates perfumes. His orchestra comsists of different people — men or women, young or old, living nearby or afar, amateur or experts… But Yves is always the one who decides the tones of the wine.
Despite all the hard work, our energies came back easily with a small glass of wine. Yves’ wine is a medicine!
