Greetings wine world, from south france.

[bkisel]

Paris is another ballgame, hell its not even the same sport in terms of cost. generic figure is about 10,000 euros per hector in my region. What worked for me was the owner was selling just half a hector which was a good starting place for me.

Silicon valley is quite beautiful itself no? I need to spend more time in northern cali and hopefully I will this next year.

If my Googled calculators are accurate that's about US $13,400 for ~1.25 acres. The price seems reasonable but I would think (and what do I know) you'd need more land for a money making vineyard, no?

 

[ClayH]

Your logic sounds pretty accurate to me, but I am just figuring this out as I go. True, 1 hector its nothing...then again my winemaking neighbors surrounding me all started with 1 hector just 20 years ago and now they have over 30. To me this 1 hector is everything.

My plan is to go in with a low overhead and I am really relying on friends and community support, in exchange for wine of course. When I am working in the vines I see the land next to me and think "is that for sale?" Naturally I want to expand...but in reality we are the worlds smallest winery. Got to start somewhere right?

 

[ClayH]

Hello again Clay...

Just finished watching the two vids. I'm very impressed. I believe everyone here on WMT would particularly enjoy the second video.

Merci! Glad you enjoyed!

 

[ClayH]

So thought I would share a little behind the scenes into my tiny wine operation, or what i refer to as the worlds smallest winery.

Today was my last press of my grenache, and happy to say its tasting rather delicious. Very expressive, lot of fruit...

What your looking at here is me standing over my press, to the left are the pressed grapes and to the right, two 80 liter buckets...one of which is topped up!

Here I am standing in front of my press and my baby couve, which I call "Sarah" after my girlfriend.

Curious if any others are using old presses?

 

[ClayH]

Sorry I had a death in my family which pulled me away from the wine community for a while. I am back in france and working again on my vineyard...since I last started this thread I acquired a 50 year old carignan plot that I plan to blend in with my Syrah and Grenache.

Update on the wine, it was not stored very proper in terms of temperature this winter so the cold weather slowed my fermentation, I dont believe the 2nd fermentation started. The Syrah is good but not as big as I would hope, taste a little green to me and my winemaking mentor says its cause the fruit was not so mature when I bought the vineyard due to late trimming of the vines. The place was a mess when I got it so I just make the best with what I had. The grenache on the other hand is very tasty...spicey, medium body, much bigger and more interesting to me...fruity and acidic but the 2nd fermentation will take care of that. (I imagine).

In a few days I will put the Syrah in a 250L french oak barrel where it will age for the next 12 months. Apparently its a good thing if the 2nd fermentation happens in the barrel so thats a plus. The Barrel is 3 years old so I am looking forward to seeing how this will change the wine. The Grenache I plan to keep in the cuve cause I want the to keep the fruit...its quite nice the way it is.

I have work to do in the field, treatments and plowing. More to come on this soon. Cheers.