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Monty Waldin
Monty's wines are here!
Monty's second vintage of red is made from old vine Carignan, with 5% Syrah and a touch of Grenache and Maccabeu. These were all harvested together, gathering in just 23 hectolitres per hectare and fermented in a refurbished, ancient concrete vat.
Monty's White is made from low yielding Maccabeu, fermented in old oak barrels with some malolactic fermentation. Greengages and a broad middle palate make this ideal as an accompaniment to freshwater fish.
Monty's first rosé vintage is made from Syrah. It's firm and characterful with delicious wild, red fruit aromas.
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2008 Château Monty harvest
Winter 2007-2008 was the third successive dry one in St Martin de Fenouillet.
The mayor authorised an emergency deep drilling plan to find the ground water upon which the villagers rely.
And dry soils meant wine yields risked being as low as 2007.
The only bonus would be if the 2008 wines turned out extra concentrated.
Spring 2008 was easier than 2007. Less humid conditions and fewer windy days meant it was easier to dust the vines with sulphur (used by all winegrowers, and allowed in organics/biodynamics) to prevent powdery mildew.
My two Carignan vineyards - I rented the one next door to my original vineyard this year - and a plot of Maccabeu (for white wine) flowered well; but a Syrah vineyard got hit by wind. This meant I got looser grape bunches as not all the Syrah flowers produced grapes. Again, good for quality.
Ripening was slow due to cool but sunny spells and around three weeks later than in 2007, but the grapes were actually riper. The dry white (Maccabeu) and dry pink (from Syrah) were fermented in old Burgundy barrels of various sizes (228-litre; 300-litre) because I didn't have enough juice to fill an entire fermentation tank.
Barrels allow the wines to stay in intimate contact with their fermentation yeast lees for extra-mouthfeel and softness, a big plus in a year of generally marked acidity.
And as the barrels were old the wines don't taste woody.
Monty's French White 2008 is quite Burgundian: crisp, mineral, bodied, saline, and you don't normally say that about Maccabeu, the grape that's considered the poor relation over the Pyrenées in Spanish fizz ('Cava').
Wine in barrels located farthest from cold outside cellar walls underwent a secondary (and entirely natural) acid-softening fermentation (called the malolactic) which adds a bit more complexity and texture.
I have a love-hate relationship with Monty's French Pink 2008 [sic]: I love tasting it, but hate the fact that I love tasting it as I have been a bit dismissive of pink wines in the past.
Perhaps old age is mellowing me.
Syrah has always done well in St-Martin, perhaps due to the altitude. My favourite Syrahs from Provence and the Languedoc generally come from north-facing vineyards, not baking south-facing ones. They taste too cheesy and stressed otherwise.
The Carignan for Monty's French Red 2008 fermented as whole bunches in the same cement tank as last year, except the tank was almost full this time. The aim of whole berry ferments is to get colour and flavour but not too much tannin. The tannins are softer than in 2007 anyway, but there is still that savoury character that ripe Carignan can give.
I've also got some experimental white from a tiny amount of old vine Grenache Blanc and Vermentino fermented in new 500-litre demi-muids, plus some Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah for red. I have to decide whether to blend the two varieties together into a Cab/Syrah before putting them in barrel, or barrel age each variety separately and then blend them. I also have to decide what mix of barrels to use: big ones, small ones, new ones, used ones.
Decisions, decisions...
Why Biodynamic?
Biodynamics has become fashionable for the simple reason that it seems to be a consistently useful tool in getting the best out of any given vineyard.
Sceptics argue that biodynamic wine growers get better results than 'chemical' wine growers only because they are are generally more attentive when doing nuts and bolts, day to day jobs like pruning, vine trimming and picking.
But surely that's the point, isn't it?
I mean, all wine growers are rightly worried about what is beneath their feet - the soil; but only biodynamic wine growers are also as concerned with what is going on above their heads - by that I mean following lunar and other astronomical cycles when pruning, ploughing, picking and even bottling the wine.
My sister in law is a hairdresser - about one of the most un-biodynamic professions out there - yet she regularly advises her clients on when to have their hair cut and nails trimmed according to when the next full moon is due, because it does make a difference.
We humans may have cut ourselves off from natural forces and rhythms with our 24-hour, non-stop, travel anywhere anytime, eat stuff from far away places flown in that day from the other side of the world culture - but vines and the insects that buzz around them haven't.
But plants are utterly dependent on the cycle of the seasons, and even the 24-hour cycle of night and day.
A good winegrower will be aware of this.
Biodynamic growers work with special composts seeded with medicinal plants too, like chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark to try to heal vines and soils damaged by modern farming.
How many worms have you seen in a packet of chemical fertilizers, made incidentally at great environmental cost by the petrochemical industry?
Biodynamic growers try to attract worms by reasoning that if you've ever used your foot to lift the crust off a nearly fresh cow pat in the cow pasture you'll usually see plenty of worms wriggling around underneath.
That's why biodynamic growers spray a specially prepared cow manure liquid on the soil - to attract worms and other soil organisms into the vineyard.
These organisms help keep the soil alive and friable enough for vine roots to be able to dig deep into the subsoil where all the best vine food is found.
Deep rooting vines are not only inherently better able to cope with bad weather too - like drought and heavy rain - so the wines neither taste baked nor dilute in bad years. But they produce wines with the most "terroir"-driven flavours, too.
It's this kind of prevention rather than cure philosophy that sets biodynamics apart.
Why go to war with your vineyard every day, treating every pest and disease as something to be combatted with chemicals that get you nowhere - example: chemical spider mite sprays that kill most of the spider mites eating your vines but which also wipe out all the ladybirds that eat the spider mites...
Biodynamic growers try to read their vineyard, to connect with it and work with it, not against it.
That's why it's not chance or coincidence that biodynamic wine growers tend to make the most interesting wines.
Monty Waldin, February 2009
Château Monty
Read all about the story behind Monty's French red in Monty's book, Château Monty, published by Anova Books. It's available to purchase on-line by clicking here.
And finally...
For more information on Monty and biodynamic winemaking, explore Monty's website at www.montywaldin.com