[E] Denis Dubourdieu, winemaker and consultant #2

http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm --- Interview (part 2) with Denis Dubourdieu. Denis Dubourdieu is a wine consultant and wine maker, as well as a professor in oenology at the University of Bordeaux.

We talk with Denis Dubourdieu about the trend towards organic wine, organic farming in the vineyards. Denis emphasises that one should not only talk about organic (biological) viticulture! And organic farming has to evolve. For example, it is still allowed to use much copper, copper sulphate, in the soil, and it is not at all organic. It is a metal, mineral, that stays in the soil. Such things have to change. It is also important to use less chemical poisons, for example by using so called sexual confusion in the vineyards to fight the grape worm (vers de la grappe). The sexual confusion with pheromones in capsules makes it possible to dispense with much poison.

Denis Dubourdieu also talks about his own philosophy of making wine, emphasising the fruit and the freshness. Dubourdieu explains that there are two stages of the grape: the green stage where the character is of the leaves. Then there is the ripe state, where fruit is fresh and ripe. And finally there is the risk of being over-ripe where the fruit becomes cooked and over-mature. The gap of opportunity to harvest at the right time is perhaps only one week. It's the grace period when you should harvest to produce a unique wine.

Denis also talks about his own properties in the Domaine Denis Dubourdieu: Chateau Reynon (where we are standing in the vineyards), Chateau Doisy-Daene, Clos Floridene, Chateau Haura, and Chateau Cantegril. They are in Entre-deux-Mers, in the Graves district and in Sauternes / Barsac, in the Bordeaux wine region in France. In total he has 130 hectares of vines. In the different properties he makes some excellent dry white wines (sauvignon blanc, semillon), red wines (cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc), and sweet white wine with noble rot (pourriture noble, with sauvignon blanc, semillon, and muscadelle).

For more information, visit Denis Dubourdieu Domaines: http://www.denisdubourdieu.com/

By BKWine, http://www.bkwine.com. Interviewer: Per Karlsson, BKWine. © Copyright BKWine, Per Karlsson.

Music: Johan Stertman & Patrik Lundin, with permission

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