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




Tuesday 22 October 2013

2013 Chinon has good colour@Jourdan & Pichard + @Noblaie

2013 Chinon in creation

Yesterday we had a quick stop at Jourdan & Pichard (Cravant-les-Coteaux, Chinon) and were impressed by the colour of their 2013 Chinon, which is busy fermenting. It is a small vintage – they have made 30 hl/ha because of hail and problems during flowering resulting in losses through coulure and millerandange, but there should be some attractive wines made.   

Philippe Pichard checking a tank

New storage facility 

Domaine de la Noblaie, Ligré 

 Bunch of 2013 Cabernet Franc@Noblaie

At Domaine de la Noblaie we saw Jérôme and his father, François. Picking for the whites and rosés was on Thursday and Friday. They started to tackle the reds on Monday. They are now keen to get the grapes in as quickly as possible as rot is beginning to arrive. Normally everything is picked by hand but this year Jérôme has borrowed a picking machine to speed things up. The grapes are coming in at between 11˚ and 11.6˚ – the Cabernet picked that morning for the red. As elsewhere this will be a short vintage with a considerably reduced yield.

François Billard cleaning up in the new chai

Checking the top of a tank

Jérôme Billard – a busy few days in prospect

Logroño (Rioja)@night 

Now about to head south to Sauternes for a couple of nights before continuing to Logroño for the 2013 Digital Wine Communications Conference

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