Hey Suzanne,
great speaking with you just now. I’ve always tried to be quick with emails but this time of year it can be a bit difficult. I have been flooded with emails and honestly have not been feeling too well. I have also been trying to spend more time with my family since during harvest I don’t see much of them. I understand that with my participation here it may seem like I should always be on the quick with responding but it is difficult at times.
For those awaiting 2011s, as I have mentioned on emails as well as on my blog, we have decided to hold our wines for a longer time in barrel. This is partially due to my thoughts on how our wines evolve though also something which was launched with consideration of this year’s weather. In short, the weather was dramatic. Times when I wanted to bottle arrived with rainy or snowy weather. If not for the cold, it was too hot. When tasting the wines and reflecting on releasing within a certain period of time I arrived at the thought that I was hurrying the wines just to make room in my tiny cave. A new vintage was coming so I needed to make room. Folks were rushing to have their wines so I moved quicker.
But here is the thing. At the end of the day, once a wine is taken from barrel and sent off to folks, it is the result of the vintage, the vineyard and my choices. I can’t help but think that rushing the wines out for the benefit of early drinking (or clients physically holding the bottles or making room) is doing a disservice to everyone’s wines. Some folks are in a rush, some don’t care when they arrive and some folks would prefer if I delivered at 10 years time.
The situation is further complicated due to my selling as futures. Folks have paid earlier and are more prone to want their wines as soon as possible…and rightly so, to some degree. I believe that if folks are paying for wines that are being taken care of, the timing of the bottling should be taken seriously.
It is with this thought that I have made the decision to lease more space (at the Abbaye de la Bussiere) to hold wines for a longer period of time. I do this not to keep wines away from my clients but to ensure that I am acting with the best intentions for my wines, their wines.
It is my belief, my understanding that wines of this level respond dramatically differently with more time to mature in barrel. It is of benefit to allow them this time. No one is necessarily rushing for their wines but I hope that my expressing this will help in explaining my point of view.
The 2011s will indeed be bottled shortly and shipped out to the US before the end of November. I make it a point to not speak about my views on my own wines but I can say that I believe they are what they should be and that the time has treated them well.
If anyone has further questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. I don’t have staff to answer emails, never have, so I thank you for your patience in my time responding.
Thank you
Ray Walker