Awards and citations:


1997: Le Prix du Champagne Lanson Noble Cuvée Award for investigations into Champagne for the Millennium investment scams

2001: Le Prix Champagne Lanson Ivory Award for investdrinks.org

2011: Vindic d'Or MMXI – 'Meilleur blog anti-1855'

2011: Robert M. Parker, Jnr: ‘This blogger...’:

2012: Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award




Monday 15 October 2012

Loire 2012: Savennières: Ogereau@Moulin de Beaupréau


 Safely picked 

Last Tuesday we spent a couple of hours or so in Savennières and caught up with Catherine Ogereau and her team pf pickers in the Moulin de Beaupreau. We had been briefly through Savennières about ten days before when the grapes looked perfect, although not yet fully ripe. It was clear that with the recent unsettled weather signs of rot were beginning to appear. We were fortunate to catch Catherine before the weather really turned wet later on in the afternoon. 

Catherine (above and below)


A picker

Golden Chenin Blanc

Cutting (above and below)




 Emptying pail into larger container to be picked up by tractor (below)

 End of the row – time for a pause








2 comments:

Larry - Wine Club Guide said...

Jim, a great post with such beautiful photos! I'm always grateful to see vineyards during harvest time - so beautiful, so poetic, but also a reminder that wine making is primarily an agricultural act. It seems that even with the weather the grapes looked pretty good. Do you expect there to be any significant price affect due to the weather this past year?

Jim's Loire said...

Larry. Thanks. It is important to remember that until about the 5th/6th October the grapes were in great shape. Difficult to find a rotten grapes. Since then the Chenin started to become more delicate, while the Cabernet was holding up to around 10th. Not sure what it is like now as we left for London on 10th.

Will be difficult for many regions to push up the price without losing market share.