If only we could all speak the same language...

Don’t know about you, but every time I have a discussion with an American or a European or a Kiwi etc., I’m confronted to the conversions and to making sense to everyone… accent aside!

If you are like me, here are few conversions you'll be glad to have under the thumb:

Celcius to Fahrenheit
Tc=(5/9)x(Tf-32)
-17.22C = 1F

Hectares to Acres
1 hectare = 2.47 acres

Kilometres to Miles
1 kilometre = 0.62 miles

Hectolitres to Gallons
1 hectolitre = 100 litres = 26.418 US gallons = 22 Imperial gallons

Metres to Feet
1 metre = 3.28 feet

Millimetres to Inches
1 millimetre = 0.039 inches

Tonne to Tons
1 tonne = 1.10 tons

Now we could understand each other… that was if we were leaving in a perfect and easy world !
So no... some talk in hectolitres per hectare, others in tons per hectare or per acre, etc.

Yields
Europe and South America (which use the metric system), productions are usually expressed in hectolitres. As for yields, it is expressed in hectolitre per hectare.
NZ expresses the yield in tonne per hectare.
The US, which doesn’t use the metric system, expresses yields in tons per hectare.

1 hectolitre = 0.183 US tons = 0.166 tonne
100 hectolitre = 18.3 US tons = 16.64 tonne

40 hectolitres per hectare = 2. 96 tons per acre = 6.655 per hectare
2 tons per acre = 27 hectolitre per hectare = 4.49 hectolitre per hectare

Now you can happily understand the whole mathematic world of wine! Mind you, after few glasses everyone speaks the same language anyway…

Vertical Bel Echo

Here's the second part of that vertical tasting of the Clos Henri Vineyard wines.

Tasting notes of the Bel Echo wines, in two words:

Bel Echo Sauvignon Blanc

2008: Just bottled. Nice chalky minerality, white pepper on the nose. Round mouth balanced by a nice acidity and a fruit intense without being exhuberant.

2007: very similar notes of evolution than on the Clos Henri. Nice roundness, hint of chalky minerality, nice fruit.

2006: had smokey aromas, as if we ever had used oak barrels. Instead none of this wine saw ny oak. And the mouth had that slight smokiness as well, and nicely rounded.

2005: again, the smokey side shows, slightly less than 06. and the mouth was quite similar. Very subtle and elegant.

Generally, it appears that the Bel Echo which mainly is grown on clays, is rounder and has more weight and more fruit intensity. It is interesting to note these lovely smokey aromas comin after few years... to check in the next years!

Bel Echo Pinot Noir - only 2 vintages produced yet, so although they are interesting, I'd wait few more vintages to begin drawing conclusions on their evolutions.

Vertical of Clos Henri Vineyard

Two days ago we have done a vertical of the Clos Henri wines (Clos Henri and Bel Echo ranges)- first wines were made in 2003. So no crazy old bottles full of dust, but a very interesting line up of wines to enable us to learn about the evolution of our wines and understand better our terroir (yes, i work at Clos Henri Vineyard), and how to improve our work in the vineyard.
Who was part of that tasting? our winemaker, our viticulturist, the viticulturist from our french parent company (owners and winemakers in Sancerre - Domaine Henri Bourgeois), the viticulture consultant from France, and myself.

Tasting notes in two words (comments on the Clos Henri only for today):

Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc

2008: just bottled, has a great concentration (ripe fruit harvested before the heavy rains - no dilution for us!), great texture and minerality, floral. Objectively, a great drop! But patience, the release is in January/February.

2007: very good balance, again good minerality and nice freshness that holds it all. Nice textured sauvignon.

2006: less expressive than the others, more subtle, but again very nice minerality and very elegant.

2005: our little favourite (after the 08!), wonderful expression of sauvignon, generally good balance and minerality, with still nice freshness. Slight honey suckle starting to show.

2004: it's round, round round, complexe. The less mineral of all. Bit more honeysuckle showing.

2003: to our pleasure, still fantastic, showing incredible honey and roundness. To drink in the next year.

Globally, we achieved an elegant style of sauvignon with great texture and minerality, and they evolve nicely gaining in roundness and getting honeysuckle aromas.

Clos Henri Pinot Noir

2008: not part of the tasting as it is not yet bottled indeed! [But blend tastings recently done, were actually showing a great fruit. With blocks from the hillsite on clay showing particularly good concentration and complexity. And block from the stoney soils showing nice finesse, little red fruit, natural smokiness]

2007: our favourite. Great balance, vibrant, complex, nice freshness, supple tannins still that need a bit of time to soften a bit more. Very elegant. Release only in few months as well.

2006: dark fruit, spices, round and bit more volume. Supple tannins, well integrated.

2005: again a little favourite (after 07), fantastic to drink now, but has the structure to go on ageing. Great integration of the oak and tannins. more volume again. Savoury, spices, begining of truffle notes.

2004 and 2003: although they were showing beautifully in their first year or 2 and promising great future, well it is just too bad to say that they weren't up to our expectations anymore. Not much more fruit, the wines looked a bit tired. We attribute it to maybe the young age of the vines at the time. We did 2 barrels of 03, not much more of 04.

Globally, nice fruit, and apart from the 03 and 04, great structures and nice evolution of both the structure and the aromas and volumes in mouth. The part of wine in new oak has been decreasing year after year, good choice there as well.

We generally want to improve the alcohol content in the wines (experimentations in the vineyard) and keep elegance in the styles. But we were all very satisfied with what has been done so far, and the potential we see for the future.

Objectively again, lucky me to be working there!