Download our list here - Les Caves de Pyrene

THE VIRTUES OF SIMPLICITYWhen first my lines of heav’nly joyes made mentionSuch was their lustre, they did so excel,That I sought out quaint words, and trim invention;My thoughts began to burnish, sprout and swell,Curling with metaphors a plain intention,Decking the sense, as if it were to sell.Thousands of notions in my brain did runne,Off’ring their service, if I were not sped:I often blotted what I had begunne;This was not quick enough, and that was deadNothing could seem too rich to clothe the sunne,Much less those joyes which trample on his head.As flames do work and winde, when they ascend,So did I weave myself into the sense.But while I bustled, I might heare a friendWhisper, How wide is all this pretence!There is in love a sweetnesse readie penn’edCopie out only that, and save expense.George Herbert – Jordan (II)Herbert, writing about the act of glorifying the son of God, makes the point that the very grandiloquent language designed to exalt andcelebrate actually obscures the simple notion of devotional love. In just the same way winemakers may take something which is pure, addlustre and burnish to it and lose the connection with the wine. “Decking the sense, as if it were to sell” describes the impulse to “improve onnature” (plain intention). Style soon supersedes substance: more oak, more extraction, more flavour, and more alcohol, louder, bigger, better– nothing is too good or too much to show the wine in its best light. It is like putting gilded metaphor before meaning or gaudy clothes beforethe body. Ultimately, the choice is this: is winemaking a natural act, an intuitive and highly sensitive response to what nature provides or is itabout the greater glory of being the creator oneself (so did I weave myself into the sense). Our wine manifesto would echo those who arguefor “natural wine” or a natural balance: specifically, for no chemicals in the vineyard, neither correction nor amplification of flavour, for areduction of sulphur, additives and stabilizers and for natural fermentation (i.e. without artificial enzymes). As Herbert writes: “There is inlove a sweetness readie penned”. Commercialization has created a competitive wine culture where glossy wines are products created to winmedals. There is a fine line between art and artifice in winemaking.- 44 -