We’re just a little pleased, as we heard this week that we had won the coveted Coup de Coeur award in Bordeaux on Monday evening.

Alongside some of the great vineyards of Bordeaux at the Best of Wine Tourism event at Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux, Domaine du Grand Mayne were awarded the Coup de Coeur for their achievements in developing and encouraging Wine Tourism at this prestigious ceremony.

The award was given for a combination of the quality of the wines, visitor experience, successful crowd funding campaigns and the many ideas that bring wine to life at the estate for everyone. These include photography lessons, kids wine label design competitions and a very popular barbecue with music and wine tasting that ran throughout the summer.

General Manager Mathieu Crosnier said “It’s great for our vineyard in the little known Côtes de Duras to be recognised alongside such illustrious names from both Bordeaux and around the world, and this award is a real credit to the small dedicated team at Grand Mayne. We look forward to welcoming more and more visitors to our beautiful estate as a result”.

For more information see the following:
bestofwinetourism

greatwinecapitals

With all the wines in the cellar following the harvest, we asked Mathieu to give an insight in to the 2018 vintage at Domaine du Grand Mayne:-

Every time I have a baby, we have a difficult vintage! And from January to September, i was again sure of it. My first son, Baptiste was born in 2013 which was a vintage with lot of rain, and a strong hailstorm during the harvest. Despite that we made some good wines and especially the reserve white and I’ve kept some for his 18th birthday. My second son Camille came at the end of June.

So 2018 started with lot of rain from January to early July. It just didn’t seem to stop. Rain, rain and more rain. It was difficult to manage the pressure of disease in the vineyard (which resulted in a serious loss on Merlot), and difficult for the vineyard workers and the mind of all of us. It was a very hard few months. And then a day after the rain stopped, came hot and dry weather without a drop more rain from July to September which saved the vintage after the horrible start. But this too was very hard to manage.

Then came the harvest. I always change my mind several times during the harvest but never as much as this year. We started with a crazy rush with all the whites maturing at the same time. And then the waiting for the reds.

The level of sugar of the Merlot was going up strongly but the skins were not matured yet. Do we pick the grapes because the level of sugar is high or do we wait for matured skin?
As a huge part of the quality of a red is in the skin, we decided to wait. And as I always say the level of sugar and the level of acidity are just one part of the quality of a berry. The most important is the balance and the quality of the skin.

So without a lot of questions in our heads, we changed our mind several time, sometimes 3 or 4 times in the same day. But at the end, I think we took the right decision. The work in the cellar was done well to extract the best without extracting the hardest tannins and the result will be very good.

And it’s in this kind of vintage that we recognize the best terroirs because at the end, despite all these difficulties, the wines are fabulous.

The whites and rosé are very well balanced with a beautiful freshness. And the reds are reacting very well in the cellar. Even the Merlot that I felt earlier to be not sensational is looking good. In fact all the wines are a really good surprise, with beautiful balances and structure.

It was hard work all year for all the team here but worth it!

We have arranged a series of dinners where Mathieu has matched the food with the wines and we look forward to seeing you, but remember that space is limited so please book early to avoid disappointment!

Monday 12th November. Caledonian Club, London, 9 Halkin Street, London SW1X 7DR. This fabulous private members club adjacent to Hyde Park Corner in the heart of Belgravia is the starting point for the tour with a menu designed to show at it’s best the charm and elegance of the 2016 vintage. 7.00pm for 7.30pm. 3 course menu with all wines @ £75. Click here to book.

Tuesday 13th November. Kingswood Golf and Country Club, Sandy Lane, Kingswood, Tadworth, KT20 6NE. We’re delighted to be back at this ever popular venue in Surrey where we have a large number of long standing customers. 7.00 pm for 7.30pm. 3 course menu with all wines £49. Click here to book. Please note that there will be a pre dinner tasting at this event from 6.30pm. Why not book a stay in the Lodge at the special rate of just £109. Please quote Grand Mayne when booking rooms direct with Kingswood.

Wednesday 14th November. The Olive Tree Restaurant at The Qeensberry Hotel, Russel Street, Bath, BA1 2QF. Join us to celebrate the recently awarded Michelin star to sit alongside the 4 AA Rosettes, at what is one of the West of England’s finest restaurants where Chef Chris Cleghorn who trained with Heston Blumenthal and Michael Caines amongst others, will be creating a very special menu to go with the wines. 7.00pm for 7.30pm. £79 including all wines. Click here to book.

The Cabernet Franc is now safely in which only leaves the Cabernet Sauvignon to harvest. The rain at the beginning of the week was good for the maturation of this parcel, and Mathieu hopes to have this completed on Friday. Another year’s crop safely in and more to follow on the quality of this vintage.

The Merlot harvest started at the end of last weekend and it was exciting to spend the weekend working on the reds. The aroma of yeast and fermentation filled the winery. Its fantastic!

By Monday the Merlot was mostly in the cellar and we could start working on remontage or “pumping over” and Pigeage or “punching down”. Remontage is the process of pumping red wine up from the bottom of the tank and over the skins so that the carbon dioxide is pushed to the surface and released. In Pigeage we break up the skins that form at the surface and submerge them to extract colour, tannins, flavour and aromas from the grape solids.

Problem for this years Merlot are the thick skins which struggled to ripen while sugar levels rose but time will tell regarding quality.

Tuesday started very cold, with a sense of winter in the air and temperatures of just 1 degree but it was back to focusing on whites and we put the 2018 Reserve in barrel with high hopes of another great wine.