Merry Christmas.

We wish you a Merry Christmas, bubbly and happy. For this special occasion, we are very happy to offer you the new label of our cuvée "Selection of plots".

Frost.

-5 to -6°C, this is the temperature of these recent mornings. To avaoid damaging the branchs and wood made fragile by rthe cold, we stoped pruning and can devote us to end-of-year shippment.

"Le Point" Magazine

Still a very good review and excellent feedback fo our vintage Carte Or 2006 and the Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut 2008 in the folder "Special Champagne" of the French national magazine "Le Point"

Deer in the snow.

The snow felt in large flakes when we had to go to validate the printing of our new labels for the "Selection of Plots" cuvée (a real scoop which we'll tell you more soon). On the way back, Marie-Noëlle was attracted by a brown shape in the middle of the vineyards. It was a deer that was also enjoying the beauty of the lanscapes.

Pruning.

Last monday we started the new season of pruning. It will last till late march.

Why starting so late ? Just because the sap of the vine is moving from the branch to the roots, where it will be stocked. If we prune too early, all the sap will not have time to move down and the vine should loose some pricious reserve. So, every year, we wait for the end of automn to start pruning, it help vine to support winter and to make the start easier in sping.

The goals of pruning are :

-Selecting the best branches to carry the grapes.

-Avoiding to have too much vegetation on the same area, by cutting branches and unfertile buds.

-Regulating the quantity of grapes and so the dilution of quality.

-Preparing the harvest of next year but also the only of the year after next year.

-Cuting old branches to have so young ones.

Ratafia

We talked to you about our ratafia a few months ago when we bottled it. It's now ready to be tasted.

The ratafia, it's must (grape juice) taken during pressing (at the end of the cuvée in our case) that is mutated with alcohol. This is to say that we stop the alcoholic fermentation (transformation of the contained sugars in the juice into alcohol) by addition of alcohol (secret) to reach 18 degrees. At this point, the sugars in the juice will not turn in alcohol and stay as "natural sugar taste".

During the 2009 harvest, we selected Pinot Noir and Chardonnay juice that we aged in wood barel for a half and the other half in glass canisters.

Now, we offer a blend of 50% Pinot Noir aged in glass canisters and 50% Chardonnay aged in oak barrels.

Have a nice tasting...

Tasting notes on an American and Belgium website.

The internet website named Champagnifique.be, who is made by a team of sommeliers and champagne lovers from Belgium and the United States just taste our cuvées carte Or vintage 2006, Grand Cru blend vintage 2006 and Rosé.


http://www.champagnifique.be/wordpress/?cat=665

The comments are good, we can say very good. Thank you Ed and Michiel to like our Champagne.