A winemaker's diary by Andy Cook

I work in the South West of France, in the Roussillon. It’s a wild country with strong sunshine, fierce winds and inhospitable landscapes. But the wines are great! I work the vines in Collioure, Banyuls and Côtes du Roussillon, and I help make wines in the respective wineries, as well as producing small quantities of my own wines.

Spring is already stirring in the vines here….buds are bursting and there are 4-5 leaves opening on some of these. This is a sure sign that we must finish any pruning there is to be done,, and get the vineyard tidied up so that budbreak continues steadily.
We already have temperatures of 27 centigrade so it looks like this year could be a hot one!

Pruning is a time-consuming process. The considerable growth of all but the core trunk is cut back. So last year’s growth is removed, apart from 2 buds at strategic locations on the vine which will produce this year’s canes, and therefore grapes. We leave between 6 and 10 buds per plant (which we will later thin out depending on how many actually take). The prunings must then be cleaned up and either burned or disposed of (the French have a verb for this specific action – ‘sarmenter’ – for such a vague language they can be very exacting sometimes). If the vines are trellised – which here we use to protect against the fierce wind and give more even canopy distribution – then this process alone can take days for a hectare.

As the vine starts to grow again, so do the other plants in the vineyard. Most of these are unwanted and we have spent a lot of time this last month getting rid of them. The steep Schistes slopes around here make mechanisation virtually impossible, so we cannot get a tractor into any of our vineyards around Collioure and Banyuls. This means ploughing in weeds is not an option, although there are some vineyards where we can use a horse and plough (and skilled ploughman!) to do this job. So we handweed, and also use some herbicides. Obviously we try to keep these to a minimum. This use of these sprays is really the only reason we are not fully organic.

Next month we will replant sections of some vineyards that have been neglected over the years. One large vineyard we acquired this year has had a bulldozer through it to deep rip and flatten the ground,….we will plant 2000 new Grenache vines here next week. The vines need a small hole, plenty of water, and sunshine. Then in 3 years they will give us our first crop…..it really is a game of patience growing grapes.

In the winery we are getting wines ready for bottling. This means tasting, assessing and assembling dozens of barrels into their respective lots. We really do try to keep any fining, filtering or general ‘messing about’ with our beloved wines to a minimum, so we try to get all this blending done well in advance. That way the wines can settle naturally in the tanks and be gently drawn off for bottling, leaving sediment at the bottom of the tank.

There’s a lot to keep on top of at the moment, and managing your time well is a most important skill when growing and making wine. There are never enough hours in the day to get everything done that you want to…..

Andy Cook spent the best part of a decade in the UK retail trade, before learning how to make wine in New Zealand. Now living and working in France where he started his wine career as a winemaker's assistant. He has agreed to contribute regular updates on what is going on in the vineyards he works in.

Cook Wines Website