Newsletter June 2001
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Newsletter June 2001
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Half-yearly newsletter issued by the Jérôme Quiot Vineyards, June 2001, n°9
EDITO Every
day the environment becomes more important. For some years Vignobles Jérôme
Quiot have been trying to protect the wonderful terroirs that are truly theirs. Jérôme-R. QUIOT
Contents ü
Quality of the 2000 vintage in Châteauneuf du Pape ü
Your contacts at Vignobles Jérôme Quiot
WILL THE VINTAGE 2000 FULFIL THE HOPES WE HAVE OF IT ? Par Jérôme QUIOT Many of your have tasted the trilogy of vintages 1998, 1999 and 2000. You are nearly all in agreement : You prefer the 1998 to the 1999 or the reverse. The debate revolves around preference and personal taste, preference for tannins or roundness, knowledge of customer preference or at the moment of tasting. Everyone is of the same opinion : these are very good wines. They notice a growth and development of quality reflecting the work and know-how in the Quiot vineyards and all their Domaines. When, in the course of tasting we pass to the 2000 vintage, everyone remarks on the exceptional quality of all these wines. The rosés : continuing improvement in quality thanks to rigorous selection. This year, we will produce less than 10000 cases. The colour is an attractive pink encouraging you to drink, with aromas of dried flowers and a structure in the mouth which collectively are the trump card for this wine which gets better and better. The Provence whites are equally up to their usual quality, with mineral flavours and fat in the mouth. The Châteauneuf-du-Pape whites live up to their reputation: finesse, concentration, and balance. 2000 will certainly be one of our great vintages. Advice to amateurs….. But it is above all of the reds that everyone is talking in this vintage. All that we predicted happened. During September we forecast a great vintage thanks to the analyses at the beginning of the campaign. The two qualities of Côtes de Provence, Cuvée Traditionelle and Réserve have lived up to their word. The Domaine Houchart has a nose of fresh grapes, characteristic of our Mediterranean wines, a deep colour and lots of freshness in the mouth. The Domaine Houchart Réserve is still in barrel but promises great things. The Côtes du Ventoux Domaine du Vieux Lazaret 2000 is probably the best of the decade. In a Syrah style (30% of the planting is in Syrah), it has a very deep colour and excellent length, reflecting the long vinification and the excellent quality of the harvest. The Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines are quite simply exceptional. The most wonderful vintage of the decade that I have ever seen. We have never seen such vivid colour, supple soft tannins and aromas so typical of our Rhôdanien blends. The Domaine du Vieux Lazaret and Combes d’Arnevel have never had such a perfect balance. This great 2000 vintage has allowed us to develop smaller more individual cuvées, but it is too early to announce these … The Domaine Duclaux seems more complex and structured than before with unique concentration. The quality of the vintage of the Millennium will probably become legendary, with wines that one remembers with fond memories. All the elements (colour, aroma and length in the mouth) can only be described in superlative terms. Everyone who has tasted at the Domaine has agreed with us. J. QUIOT
The quality of corks is one of the most significant questions today in our endeavour to maintain the character of our wines and one to which we are particularly sensitive at Vignobles Jérôme Quiot. In effect, the strong demand, which exists, has led the cork manufacturers to lower their quality and increase their prices. Putting a high price on a cork is no long a sufficient guarantee of satisfaction. We have carried out a rigorous selection from our cork suppliers, who supply us with very good quality corks for our red and white wines, our red and white Châteauneuf-du-Pape, our red Ventoux, red Provence and wines from our Jérôme Quiot Selection range. The cork closures for our wines are natural corks, which seem to us the best at guaranteeing in the most natural way the quality of our wines and also allowing the slow development and ageing of the wines. The rosé wines because of their CO2 content and the necessity to avoid oxidation and development are a case apart. For some years we have tried Altec corks for the roses and red Provence wines. These corks (the same price as the others) had the reputation of being able to maintain stability in the wine. Unfortunately, your reports have indicated the opposite from an analytical and gustatory point of view. We have decided to bring this experiment to a close. We are currently doing trials on our Provence roses with plastic corks of several types and qualities. We are testing gustatory stability, as well and analytical and aromatic stability; we are looking carefully at the appearance, the presentation, the colour and marketing potential. We are studying resistance levels at de-corking and technical feasibility of our bottling equipment. We are very open to your views and will be actively seeking them during Vinexpo or whenever you are able to let us have your opinion. For the moment we have returned to natural corks. But if your opinions and our experiment results are positive our Côtes de Provence rose 2001 will be prepared with new corks.
Cuvée Exceptionnelle 1999 Domaine du Vieux Lazaret, Châteauneuf-du-Pape Having seen the quality of the 1999 vintage, we are in the process of proposing for the second year running a « Cuvée Exceptionelle » from the Domaine du Vieux Lazaret. There will only be 110 hls available. It will be available in wooden cases of 12 bottles or 6 magnums from July 2001. As soon as this wine will be bottle, it will be present you on this website. Jérôme Quiot Gigondas 2000 We have been looking for some time for a Gigondas to complete our « Jérôme Quiot Selection » range: We have managed to find one from the superb 2000 vintage. This wine is currently maturing in our cellars « La Filature » at Châteauneuf-du-Pape. We will be showing it at Vinexpo and it will be released around next September October. Coming soon, a presentation of this wine on the web.
LAST MEDALS more distinctions here
Côtes du Ventoux Domaine du Vieux Lazaret This wine has had a new label since the new vintage Domaine Houchart Côtes de Provence White Is available in Bordeaux bottle (75c and 37.5cl) from the 2000 vintage. The small production in this wine does not allow us to offer two different bottles.
ANNUAL TASTING AT LA TOUR DE LHERS On 13th March 2001 thirty of you joined us at Châteauneuf-du-Pape for the extensive annual tasting of our wines: Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Ventoux, Côtes de Provence. This was also the chance to taste our new range « Jérôme Quiot » with the Côtes du Rhône Village Vinsobres and Cairanne. As in the last two years it was held at Jérôme Quiot’s home at la Tour de Lhers. We were able to taste the 1999 as well as the 2000 vintages, taken mostly from tank. A memorable « truffle » dinner prepared by the chef from La Beaugravière at Mondragon, Guy Jullien, followed it. We must mention that the more courageous of your arrived at the beginning of the afternoon to plant the ‘Vine of the third millennium’ in the parcel of the « Gallimardes ». This parcel in the Domaine du Vieux Lazaret, near the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, figures among the oldest parcels of the appellation. It is planted with Mourvèdre and vines are growing to produce Châteauneuf-du-Pape after year 2004.
WINES JEROME QUIOT SELECTION IN FRANCE Wines from the « Jérôme Quiot Selection » are available for sale in France. Until now reserved for export, we will begin in the coming weeks to sell in France wines from our range « Jérôme Quiot Selection ». For logistical and practical reasons there will be a minimum volume necessary for purchase. For more information please contact Isabelle Ogier.
PROTECTION OF THE VINEYARDS AT VIGNOBLES JEROME QUIOT After decades when old habits took precedence over real scientific developments, in most recent years ’new’ methods or ways of cultivation appeared. It is often maybe new terms, which unsettle the consumer more than significant advances in the world of the environment and protection of the vineyard. We first saw the arrival of integrated vineyard management. As numerous vignerons systematically treat their vines every fortnight or every week, integrated vineyard management advocated checking, before treating, the necessity of this operation. Numerous public agricultural bodies began to edit ‘warning bulletins’ to help vignerons make their decisions. The intentions were above all economic and aimed to conserve treatment products made expensive during the oil crisis in 1973. Then ecological ideals appeared with biological production. If this method of cultivation is good for large concerns it is necessary to trim its aims as far as the vine is concerned. In reality, the vine is a perennial plant and protection must take account of these parameters. The basis of biological protection is the use of products not originating from chemicals or synthetics and not of chemicals in general (as we are so often led to believe). These authorised products essentially include copper, which is found in the soil and is shown as one of the most noxious poisons for bacteria in the soil and the varietal aromas of certain grape varieties. Moreover, numerous parasites are only partially controlled by these products. Their development in the years following will only be made easier. Finally, the small number of products allowed makes us afraid of the problem of the resistance of these parasites : used to the treatments applied to it, the parasite population is adapting and becomes insensitive to treatment to control its development. Finally remember that : rotenone is authorised and happens to be a product as natural as curare, with the same effect … The synthesis of these two schools (biological / integrated) seemed to be realised a year ago with integrated protection. The methods of cultivation had to take account of biological methods and use them where possible. However, ‘biological’ products at times are not able to assure sufficient protection. Integrated protection recommends the use of synthetic products to save the vineyard, as the biological culture prefers to tolerate an inferior quality of grapes. Today this discussion has been replaced by ‘integrated vineyard management’, which details that the viticultural operation is not limited to production but also has a duty to the landscape and society and above all must be durable in the long-term. For the protection of the vineyard, it extends to the period before planting. To plant a vine susceptible to a particular disease in soil predisposed to this type of disease is one way without exception which leads to abuse of treatment products in order to be assured control of parasites. Certain treatment products are reputedly ‘neutral or barely toxic towards the environment’. But any impasse is discouraged by PI (while other modes of production do not concern themselves with this). The grape must be of the best quality possible and the wine the most natural. One technical reference document has been published by the Institute des Techniques Viticoles in order to harmonise the discussion on PI. This reference document is reassuring to Vignobles Jérôme Quiot in their choices of cultivation methods. In effect, without being aware of the contents of the text in advance, we found that all our practices at the moment are in line with the spirit and the letter of PI. Therefore we see today that the production of quality grapes is governed by control of their production. This control is (naturally) without danger to the consumer and is also able to respect nature and the people who work with nature. After this exposé of various cultivation techniques, we ask the important question : which method allows quality production whilst respecting the environment? Only the future will tell who is right from the commercial point of view, the practical and scientific point of view while taking into account the protection of the vineyard as an essential factor in the choices to be made. Integrated production seems to me to have numerous advantages. At Vignobles Jerome Quiot we prefer to produce the best quality possible. Moreover, my father, a wise man who wants to leave an inheritance and a terroir in the best condition will continue for a long time to give the best of himself for those who love him. Jean-Baptiste Quiot Agricultural Engineer
YOUR CONTACTS AT VIGNOBLES JEROME QUIOT
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