News from the Winemaker
The vintage 2012 is a year that we call a ‘Vigneron’s vintage’, not a ‘Winemaker’s vintage’. Nature wasn’t always on our side so we had to put in extra work to harvest our beautiful fruit at full ripeness, nevertheless having to sadly sacrifice some of it. We had to be patient too: harvest lasted from the 24th August to the 15th October. In the cellar the red wine maceration took up to 5 weeks and today the fermentation of the white wines are still fizzing in the barrel cellar. 2012 is also a changing year for us with new techniques: the birth of true ORGANIC WINES (new European legislation), fermentation of the Chenin Blanc in our 1600 litres concrete EGG and the ageing of a red wine in an oak Foudre of 2000 litres from the Austrian cooper Stockinger.
A vintage full of challenges which at the end promises to reveal some great surprises…a ‘Vigneron’s vintage’!
Domaine Gayda On The Road
The last month has been a busy travelling month for the team at Domaine Gayda.
Straight after harvest, Vincent visited our client Cambridge Wine Merchants for a wine dinner with the Cambscuisine team for the opening of the game season, then in Norwich on the same theme with William Mason Fine Wines. He then had an important tasting in Amsterdam hosted by our representative Erik Muller of Pasteuning. The event was well attended and afterwards Vincent enjoyed the hospitality of The Supper Club, Amsterdam!
David Chardron has been even busier… He started in Estonia then went on to Latvia. These small countries are increasing consumption and we need to be in these emerging economies!
Next he visited the Ukraine, which has an enormous potential and met many potential buyers. Last on the trip was Poland. This country has seen incredible growth but the wine business is fragmented. David will find a good importer for us and we anticipate a good future.
Tim and Barbara were in Bahrain where we have a very good market, selling over 36,000 bottles a year. The trip was finished off with a golf tournament, whereby we had a sneaky glass of Gayda wine before teeing off each hole. Every hole had a different wine so the golf got pretty ropey by the time the round was over! Thanks to Gulf Brands for hosting our trip.
As you can see we do not wait for the market to come to us, we go out and find it.