Cave Cooperative - a new future

Like many Cave Cooperetives in the region, Aspiran's has been in decline. Wine hasn't been bottled for pushing a decade, no doubt because a massive investment in wine making equipment is required to make wine to modern standards. It hasn't always been like that. 1957 saw the first, at least for a Languedoc cooperative, Vaslin horizontal presses installed (replaced in 1975). As recently as 1988 was another first when a Bucher pneumatic press was acquired.

There are similar stories in the area. The cooperative at nearby Caux closed several years ago and is already a decaying building - the grapes go down the road to Les Caves Molière at Pézenas. Nizas has a similar tale.

The trend has been for cooperatives to combine to create even greater economies of scale, but there are notable local exceptions. Fontès and Cabrières seem to be doing well and certainly do better at marketing. Fontès boasts the best rosé in the area and a new customer reception salon has been constructed this year. Cabrières uses their reception space to host art exhibitions and has managed to maintain a reputation for its wine. Further south at Florensac a light and airy tasting and sales space has been created with an excellent and popular attached restaurant Bistro d'Alex serving their wine at near retail price. Neighbour Adissan has more land suited to growing Clairette and their bottles line the shelves of the regions supermarkets. Much will also be supplied to make Noilly Prat in Marseillan (my blog entry is here).

Nevertheless, things are looking up for the grape growers of Aspiran to obtain a higher price. Between 1963 and 2003 eight villages, including Nébian and Paulhan on the Aspiran side of the river Hérault, combined to produce wine under the Clochers et Terroirs branding. An enormous modern facility at Puilacher now makes all the wine and at last the Aspiran cooperative has joined them. The cooperative building survives for now as the harvested grapes are still received and have their stems removed before being tankered off to Puilacher.

To buy Clochers et Terroirs wines visit the marketing suites at Nebian and Paulhan.

Commune fires

I am aware of three fires in the commune this year, relatively small at less than a hectare and fortunately dealt with quickly and efficiently. This is the most recent and closest to the village at less than 100m from occupied property.

I fear there will be an increased fire risk in the coming years as the trend is for the surface area under vine to reduce. Vineyards don't easily catch fire and being large make excellent fire breaks. In 2004 50% of the surface area of the commune, amounting to just over 8 square kms, was vineyards. In the 5 years to 2009 this has reduced to just over 40% (source Observatoire viticole for the Hérault). The fire at this site, and at least one of the others, involved vines that had recently been pulled up and the field seemingly abandoned.

Pampas Grass

Until recently this field off the road to Paulhan was a vineyard. Grubbed up with the land earmarked for expansion of the village is one story. Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana native to southern South America) has appeared, presumably having spread from a domestic garden across the road.

The past two months has seen little more than a few drops of rain. While ideal for the vendanges, the land is parched and time is running out for a second "spring" where rain brings on a wave of autumn flowers and a splash of colour. For now, this Pampas grass is the most interesting obvious floral feature.

Cave Cooperative - end of vendanges

Notice on the office of the Cave Cooperative stating the last time for receiving wine - the 2011 harvest I presume, but with such sad decline over the years on never knows.

The list below states the grape varieties and parcels being accepted on each day, although the conflict with the notice above seems to indicate a determination to take Friday 24th off.

Vendange 2011

I spent my first day grape picking this year at Régis and Christine Pichon's Domaine Ribiera in my village Aspiran. 7 am start yes, but at least there was no commute involved. To my surprise it was going to be Grenache and the 22nd August was believed to be the earliest recorded day for a Grenache harvest the village had know. That said, the objective was to make a fresh and expressive wine for drinking young which is not too rich and not too alcoholic. To achieve this the Grenache was being picked "early" and the instructions were to discard all unripe bunches that, by my estimation, amounted to 30% of the crop. Once it starts to ripen Grenache apparently ripens quickly so waiting until those 30% of bunches were ripe would mean 70% were overripe.

It occurred to me that passing through the vineyard a second time at a later date was an option, but as the photo shows, healthy leaf growth makes it near impossible to see and assess the ripeness of an individual bunch without actually cutting it away from the vine. The discarded bunches will return their goodness to the soil and vines so no waste, just loss. At least ideal spring flowering conditions ensured a good crop.

The team were clearly experienced locals with the classy smooth action of hairdressers and speed of champion sheep shearers. 6 hours of picking had just one pause café when I managed to snatch this picture of the team (Christine had popped back to the cave).

No doubt I was expected to make my apologies but kept going and even helped with the destemming of the last batch before a very late lunch. Here the destemmed grapes will be pumped directly from the base of the machine into the cuve, a system that minimises exposure of the juice to the air.

Look what fell down the chimney

This cicada, locally called a Cigale Grise, ended it's days in our fireplace. They've been singing away in all the trees since mid-June this year, it all depends on how soon the soil warms up to 20ºC apparently. They have a curious life-cycle living deep underground for 10 months to several years and emerging on "their year" to metamorphosis into this 2.5cm long adult.

Know your crosses

These are the crosses I've found in the commune. My search was started by the excellent booklet Mémoire de pierres published in 2003 by the Aspiran Groupe Mémoire. This describes eight crosses with some clue as to their location in their name. I have yet to locate the Croix du chemin des Aspes. The Croix du St Georges has been destroyed, seeming when a vineyard was pulled up - I have used a photograph I took back in 2004. Others I have found on the IGN map (2643E Série Bleue) or simply spotted them on walks.