corking the Magnums of the Amourvedre
Bottling line
Vintage is in full swing at “les Terres Promises” and with more and more grapes coming in we needed a little more tank space. It’s a good thing Jean-Christophe had booked the mobile bottling plant a while ago to bottle the last two wines he had in tank – Amourvedre and Abracadabrantesque 2010.
I was quite intrigued by the mobile bottling line as in NZ we used a bottling plant which was not on our property but instead the wine was trucked there in bulk and brought back in bottle. However here, the bottling line was assembled near the tanks so the wine gets bottled directly from the tank. At “les Terres Promises” every wine has a different cork as well as a different label – the cork has the name of the wine as well as the vintage. The mobile plant works pretty much in a similar way as the ones I have seen in the plants in NZ, however, the only difference is that it cannot bottle in Magnums. Hence we filled the Magnum’s manually before corking them with the old fashioned corker.
I have to admit that bottling under the Provençal sun (please note bottling line was in the shade) is quite romantic and beautiful:-)
Amourvedre is 100% Mourvedre and Abracadabrantesque is 50% Mourvedre and 50% Carignan. According to Jean-Chistophe Comor, the owner of les Terres Promises, both varieties are often seen as very masculine however he is convinced they are very capable of making tender wines – hence the name Amourvedre – which literally translated means “love Mouvedre” and Abracadrabrantesque, which can been seen as a magic potion resulting in a very elegant yet robust wine.
Amourvedre...
