It has started. He's here. Provence will not be the same after his passage. Neither will I. I'll try to write something more intelligible when I start recovering.
Seriously, yesterday we delved into Bandol land, sweeping through La Tour du Bon checking out the just picked grenache on the refractometer (mostly around 14 potential), tasting the mourvedre still hanging in there, down to 12-13 after the 160mm rainfall we had last week, and hopefully ready by end of month for a very good vintage. A few barrel samples (Mylord does not spit! I am the driver, so I spit...), a frugal lunch and then back to business visiting Dupéré Barrera, tasting come carignan, cabernet sauvignon, mourvedre, grenache, syrah, some rich ugni blanc with a nice oxydation and some experimental stuff that spent 3 years in contact with its skins. Again, no spitting.
Tonight I'll have to pick some nice things to drink with a dinner at home, guinea hen done in Maury wine with prunes from Agen and that sort of thing, and possibly an attempt to emulate Jacqui Hoare's tatin...
I have pictures, I'll put them up somewhere soon.
Cheers