What is the job of oenologist?
The etymology of the word oenologist dates back to the Greek oenos (= wine) and loguos (= science). The oenologist is the wine specialist. Graduated from a master in technical sciences of study and knowledge of wine, his functions range from the cultivation of grapes to the bottle of wine. Only 5 training centres deliver this degree in France.
What does a typical day look like for you?
There is no typical day for a oenologist. The master word is "adapt". Adapt to what happens in nature, winees and vats. At this very moment the harvest 2017 is ending, so I concentrate mainly on the analysis of the winees to select the most successful plots. And then there will be time to wine tasting and assembly. I also often accompany our customers to explain our terroirs, the characters of our wines and more broadly our philosophy of winegrower. In short these are very varied days, which do not have anything of a routine.
How is the 2017 grape harvest looking?
Each harvest is an eternal restarting guided by the forces of nature and leads each year to the elaboration of new wines. The year 2017 recorded a rather unfavourable weather: a heatwave in the spring, followed by a period of frost preceding a very dry summer. The harvest is certainly less voluminous but of a very good quality. The maturity of the grapes has also been changed and it will be necessary to adapt to this characteristic in the cellar to produce quality rosés dressed in a beautiful dress with pale tone.
What is the secret of a beautiful pink dress?
The color of the rosés in Provence is very important, it is the first thing a consumer judges. In Provence, the many shades are all referenced in the center of the wine of the Var. This pink color is defined by the natural pigments of the grape. These are pigments called anthocyanins, which comes from the Greek, "the blue color of the flowers" and the latter are concentrated in the grape film.
At the Château de Berne we harvest the grapes fresh in the middle of the night. Our teams meet at midnight in the heart of the wineeyard to start the harvest until 6 in the morning. In these conditions the colors are diffused more slowly in the juice and so we master the color of our rosé wines. Oxidation phenomena that could alter the color are also limited.
How would you define a quality rosé?
In general, a quality wine is, above all, a wine that pleases you, so it remains a very subjective data. In my opinion, a good wine is a surprising wine, because although after tasting the same wines year after year, I still like to be surprised. It is above all a wine that has elegance, power, wealth, without being too demonstrative, and it will mostly be pleasant to drink to accompany meals.
I hope I could answer your questions, and I will meet you at Berne Estate or find our rosé wines online.
Thank you
Alexis Cornu
