7. How lovely to see you again! .... Winemaker diaries, by Neasa Corish-Miquel

Prowein, the world's largest wine fair, takes place in Düsseldorf in Germany every year and hosts up to 7000 visitors and exhibitors. Laurent Miquel had a stand at the event earlier this month and, like many wine growers, it was our first wine fair in over 2 years! It felt a little different this year - being mid-May, it was hot and humid, which was a new experience, as Prowein usually takes place in March, where there can be stiff breezes and rain. Rosé was in big demand owing to the warm temperatures - luckily, we had some ready-chilled!

Like many of you, we'd become used to hosting virtual tastings over Zoom and to the stop-start of conversation at a distance. The reality of greeting our clients and visitors, sitting and tasting with them and feeling the energy of an in-person connection was a reminder of how much we have missed as a wine community as a result of the pandemic. Although virtual meetings are now an established business and communication tool and will continue to offer us the opportunity to host tastings with our customers around the world, we were so energised by the interaction at the fair and look forward to more of the same in the coming 12 months.

New! Les Côtes

We had originally hoped to launch our Côte range at Prowein in 2020, so it was exciting to finally have the opportunity to tell the story behind these wines.

Over the years of intimately working our vineyards, we've discovered specific plots that consistently produce the highest quality, most concentrated grapes every year. We decided to vinify these plots separately, allowing the specific micro-terroir of their origin to sing. We named the range for the average altitude of the plot (the number on the label) and the word Côte means hillside or slope. "Pech" means little hill in the old Occitan language and is the actual name of the site on the ordinance survey map.

The Côte range includes:

Côte 128, Pech Sévignac Viognier

Côte 228 Pech Clamensou Chardonnay

Côte 238 Pech Gentille Albarino

Côte 136 Pech Cezarine Syrah.

We hope you enjoyed tasting them as much as we enjoyed sharing them with you!

See you again soon,

Neasa

The Laurent Miquel team at Prowein