Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - A Reflection

View of the Pyrenees Ranges
from the winery

I decided that it’s time I went beyond tasting wine from barrels and bottles to actually see for myself what went on at a winery, to better understand the transformation from grapes to wine in real life (rather than what’s written in the textbooks!). A friendly contact (thank you, Graeme!) and some enquiries resulted in a “yes” from Taltarni Vineyards in the Pyrenees in Victoria, Australia. And I could even stay on the property – which was rather good news, given the size of the town of Moonambel where kangaroos most certainly outnumber human beings! It is winter in the Pyrenees, a rather wet and chilly one, according to the locals! When I arrived, I had just missed a torrential storm which tore down a number of trees along the country roads, having caused much chaos to road traffic and inconvenience for people getting to and out of the wineries. 2010 in Australia has so far seen a lot of rainfall. Lush landscape abounds, bloated lakes and gushing rivers – quite a change from the arid landscape a few years back. The heavy rainfall has brought good and bad news: good news being the assurance of availability of water for irrigation in the vine-growing season at Taltarni and the not so good news being the delay caused by the storms to pruning work in the vineyard and to deliveries to the winery!

Taltarni Vineyards

Established in 1969, Taltarni (http://www.taltarni.com.au/ ) has focused on making a success of its winemaking efforts in a number of emerging regions, starting in the Pyrenees, then Tasmania and later Heathcote. Taltarni’s reputation has largely been built on elegant sparkling wines made in the traditional method, as well as excellent quality reds and whites. Its pursuit of excellence, elegance and finesse for its wines can be attributed to a combination of French winemaking style, Australian regional characteristics and relentless efforts by its winemaking team, now led by COO and Chief Winemaker, Loïc Le Calvez (energy-charged Frenchman from Brittany who claimed he didn’t speak English so well when he first arrived in Australia more than 8 years ago! I am sure Simone, his most charming wife, would take a lot of the credit for Loïc’s only very lightly accented fluent English!). Taltarni’s range of wines include T-Series, Three Monks, Estate and Reserve. Clover Hill is a related winery in Tasmania, focusing mainly on vintage sparkling wine and aromatics, as well as Pinot Noir. Karina Dambergs, the Winemaker, who is very passionate about sparkling wine, now splits her time between Moonambel and Tasmania, across two homes and two sets of kitchen utensils! Robert Heywood joined the team in 2009 and is the Assistant Winemaker at Taltarni. Robert worked in the Barossa before he joined Taltarni. Like Loïc, he is also a red wine lover. Robert is getting married in September – congratulations!

Nothing quite prepared me for the bone-chilling cold and the physical strain that I was to experience during my 8 days there. I had packed in my suitcase a pair of industrial gloves (the thick type that workmen use in factories) and some thermal clothing that I bought last minute (as I do not ski regularly!). The gloves turned out to be rather redundant as a lot of the tasks were almost impossible with gloves on, such as the delicate task of tying back the cordon to the wire after pruning using a fiddly piece of zip-lock strip. So I decided to handle the secateurs with my bare hands – needless to say I felt a noticeable strain in my palm the following day! The fleece hat and the scarf were quite useful and I sported them every day, in addition to the bright orange over-sized Taltarni fleece that I had borrowed, which I would wear on top of two layers of wooly jumper. (Next time, I’ll know to prepare thermal leggings!) The temperature in the winery could quite often get lower than the temperature outside especially when cold stabilization activity was going on (which required -5 ℃ for an entire tank lasting 8 – 10 days!).

I took care of my meals for most days, except the evening when Loïc and Simone very kindly invited us to their home for dinner. Packet soup turned out to be the most useful food item, as it provided immediate nourishment and warmth! I would need to “warm up” a pot of yoghurt before enjoying it as it would just be too cold straight from the fridge and too much for my already chattering teeth! I religiously prepared fruit in the morning but the sensation of biting into a chunk of ice-cold acidic orange or crispy apple every morning turned out not to be such a pleasant experience. I bought some lettuce, with the intention of adding some green colour and nutritional value to my sandwiches, but I had not wanted to bother with it the whole time!

Coming from Hong Kong, the thought of being out of communication had not crossed my mind, but it happened at Moonambel! There was absolutely no mobile communication except for a few very selected spots at the winery and in the vineyard! Occasionally, there would be some data reception, allowing a few emails to come through and get sent….so that Richard would know that I was still alive! After a couple of days, I had learnt not to be bothered by it and the peace and quiet allowed me to speed through my book! (The second book in the Millennium triology by Stieg Larsson.)

Loïc very generously gave me a few bottles to bring back to Hong Kong to try: 2006 Clover Hill Blanc de Blancs, 1986 Taltarni French Syrah and 2004 Taltarni Reserve Shiraz Cabernet. I shall be writing with my tasting notes…….

My 8 days at Taltarni in the Pyrenees had been for me a most invaluable and enriching experience. I was able to make sense of some of the tasks in the winery and the vineyard, those tasks that I had previously learnt on WSET courses, such as pruning, topping up, racking, fining, filtration, sparging, additions, riddling, disgorging and bottling. I was able to appreciate that each task involved such skill, hard work and planning. Above all, there are very clear steps and guidelines (do’s and don’ts) for every procedure and strict compliance is observed everywhere by the staff in the winery. Quoting Karina, the Winemaker can be compared to the Chef of a restaurant where he/she is not actually the only person behind your meal. What you have is a team of co-workers in the kitchen, each carrying out his/her part of the duties to contribute to the final dish, while ensuring quality and consistency, with every dish. Effective planning of resources is paramount in the winery/vineyard, as are well-laid out procedures and instructions for each activity. An effective leader, a strong team, an ambiance that encourages teamwork and shared values, are all aspects of the “winning team”. In a complimentary way, the wheel continues to turn because all the cogs are aligned and functioning, knowing their integral role in the whole picture.

Kangaroo hopping across the vineyard

Thank you very much, everyone at Taltarni, you had made me feel so welcome and had taught me so much! My experience here has made me better appreciate the hard work that goes into the making of each bottle of wine and now I can even taste the bitter sweetness with each sip! I would very much like to return for the summer/harvest activities so that I could see more of this fascinating viticultural and winemaking cycle. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing more of the Taltarni wines on shelves at wine shops in Hong Kong and to hearing more of your awards and success stories.


To read my daily diary, please follow the blog series: "Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 1" through to "................Day 8"

Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 8

Day 8 (25 August 2010):


My last day at Taltarni. It’s a double shift day. The first shift started at 6 am and the second would start at 2 pm. I cheekily turned up at the winery at 7:30 am, relieved to find that it actually took them an hour to set up. So the bottling line for T-Series Sauvignon Blanc did not start till 7 pm and I had only missed out on a little bit of the action.

Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Dinner with Loïc and Simone

Dinner with Loïc and Simone (24 August 2010):


About 7 pm, Jacques (Taltarni’s Financial Controller, aka my housemate) came back to the cottage to fetch me to go to Loïc’s house for dinner. The house perches on the hillside and normally it would be a lovely walk amongst the vines, but not when it was 4.3 °C outside and blowing a gale force wind with lashing torrential rain. So Jacques drove. We passed by two enormous trucks, heavily laden with bottles. Thank goodness they made it to Moonambel in the storm! We needed the bottles for bottling the following morning! What a relief!

Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 7

Day 7 (24 August 2010):


I must have stood under the piping hot shower for close to 15 minutes and with a mug of hot tea in hand, I was feeling human again. Today I felt really cold – it must have been like 5 °C inside the winery and staying at this temperature from 7:45 am to 4:15 pm was quite tough on the system, even with my oversized bright orange Taltarni fleece on. I should have worn two pairs of trousers! I found my teeth chattering, my hands frozen to almost numbness, both my legs shivering vigorously inside my trousers to the point that I felt I was about to pull a muscle or something in one of my legs! As I am writing this in the warmth of my bedroom, I can still hear the wind howling outside but there seems to be a temporary respite from the torrential rain storm, until the next one comes along. The Taltarni chime has just stricken five……

Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 6

Day 6 (23 August 2010):


I returned to Taltarni this morning. I got a lift in the car with Loïc, the COO and Chief Winemaker, and his wife Simone. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive. We started at 7:45 am from my hotel and we reached the winery at about 10:30 am. We had a good chat on the way. I found out that Loïc studied oenology in Bordeaux, then came to Australia to do a harvest and then fell in love with the place (and Simone) and has been at Taltarni for 8.5 years! I told him my observation of the sense of ownership and pride amongst the employees at Taltarni – think he approved of my observation!

Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 5

Day 5 (20 August 2010):


I spent the morning at the winery and this time we did two rack-returns, namely emptying wine from barrels into a huge tank while removing the lees at the bottom of the barrels, before returning the wine from the tank into the barrels, followed by the necessary topping up and sulphur cleaning of the top of the barrels to prevent bacterial contamination. The transfer of wine from barrels to tank basically involved a mono-pump and a couple of rather long and robust hoses. Again muscle power came into this!

Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 4

Day 4 (19 August 2010):


At the winery, it works like this. Robert or Karina would issue the daily work sheets and the operational staff would execute these procedures. This morning we had 4 work sheets to complete. The first one was about earth filtration.

Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 3

Day 3 (18 August 2010):


I was assigned to the disgorging line. Today we disgorged Clover Hill Vintage Brut 2005.

Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 2

Day 2 (17 August 2010):


It was the only day during the whole week when the sun shone and one could even feel the pleasantly mild warmth of the wintry sun rays! I spent the day with Matthew, the vineyard manager. Taltarni means “red earth”. The estate covers 700 hectares, including 500 hectares of bushland and 200 hectares of vineyard area, of which only about half of the area is planted at the moment.

Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 1

Day 1 (16 August 2010)


Landed at Melbourne Airport at 5:56 am. After a coffee break (and a giant muffin!) at the airport coffee shop, I boarded the coach for Ballarat at 7:50 am. Arrived at Ballarat at about 9:40 am and got collected by Jackie, one of the accounts staff at Taltarni. Just over an hour later, we arrived at Taltarni. I noticed the somewhat schizophrenic weather during our drive, one minute pouring and the next bright and sunny.