Wine Pictures from BKWine: February 2007

Domaine Tourade, Andre Richard, Gigondas

>> Wednesday, 28 February 2007

Sign in the vineyard pointing to the caveau the wine shop and tasting room. Domaine la Tourade, André Andre Richard, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Vaucluse, Provence, France, Europe

Could I have a shot from that bottle please?

>> Tuesday, 27 February 2007

Or rather, 'of'.

Or both.

Some discussion of bottle shots going on.

Well, here's one.

And here you can read more:
- http://www.spittoon.biz/how_to_photograph_wine_bottles.html
- http://thecrusa.blogspot.com/2007/02/debut-pics-from-cru-master.html

Prune - it's the season

A man working in the vineyard pruning and tying vines at Chateau Saint Cosme, Gigondas, Vaucluse, Rhone, Provence, France.

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A very good photo book

>> Sunday, 25 February 2007

But not really about picture taking. But all the more important:

The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers
By Peter Krogh
O'Reilly

If you do digital photography (to any extent) this is a book you should read.

And who does not work digitally today? The book deals with different aspects of digital asset management for photographers (or in other words, the digital workflow): explaining things like metadata, giving good advice on how to build your data infrastructure (your archive) and the more down-to-earth IT infrastructure, including backing up, going on to getting into quite a lot of detail on working with Adobe Bridge (in association with Photoshop and DNG), on how to work with a cataloguing software, and finishing up with discussing output files and migration strategies.

Sounds boring? It is not. And more importantly, if you don’t organise your digital asset management and workflow efficiently you will sooner or later face a data loss catastrophe or un unmanageable file mess.

This is one of the few books I have seen that deals with all these questions and it does it in a very good way. You might not agree with everything Peter Krogh says (e.g. the unquestioning bet he places on Adobe’s Digital Negative, the DNG file format, or the total affection to iView MediaPro). And you might find that some of the things he says are irrelevant for you (but not many) or that he’s missed out on some aspects (e.g. he very superficially deals with keywording, which is a big workflow and metadata issue if you do a lot of stock photography).

Before reading the book I had spent quite a lot of time thinking about “DAM” and had developed my own methodologies. Much of that is very similar to what Krogh describes, some is not. Some things I do would merit to be covered in the book and some things Krogh does would not work for me. But everything in the book was worth reading and will greatly improve my workflow and my confidence in it. Some of it just because it gives confirmation on that some things I do are done by someone who’s spent much more time on it than I and some things in the book can immediately improve what I do. Krogh perhaps focuses a bit too much for my taste on his two pet applications, Adobe Bridge and iView Media Pro, but I can live with that. It’s a bit too vendor specific but it not too difficult to generalise from those principles, if you work with other apps, and on the other hand it has the benefit of making the examples very concrete.

So, have you ever struggled with how to organise your files, how to find old images, how to make sure you don’t lose a year’s worth of images in a hard drive crash (make the calculation and you’ll see that that’s easily how much time you’ve invested in a single HD, that may (will!) one day fail) and other similar things you will find answers here. You might not find all the answers but it will certainly make you think through things more thoroughly and give you a lot of pointers on how to do things, in an admirably practical and down to earth way.

Buy this book. Read it. Think about it. And then design your own workflow, data infrastructure and digital asset management. If you don’t, at least you can’t say you were not warned.

There’s plenty of information on the book’s site, http://thedambook.com, including some sample chapters, but I definitely recommends buying the book anyway.

Buy the book: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | AdLibris | Bokus

Read more best book reviews here.

Inside a concrete fermentation tank

>> Monday, 19 February 2007

Perhaps not the most exciting headline you can imagine for a post, but neither is the picture very sexy. But the headline says it all (almost). A look inside the concrete fermentation tank: you can see the cooling curtain (to regulate the temperature of the must, heating or cooling) and the paint (or epoxy sometimes) that covers the insides. At Domaine Réméjeanne, Sabran (Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages, Rhone Valley, France) - Remy Klein (owner and wine maker) never ceases to experiment in his search for the ultimate expression of terroir in the wine. He has shown many times that southern Rhone and Cotes du Rhone Villages can produce outstanding wines.

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Mourvedre

>> Sunday, 18 February 2007

A mourvedre grape bunch in the vineyard. Left over from the harvest. Domaine Chateau Mourgues du Gres (Grès), Costieres de Nimes, Bouches du Rhone, Provence, France, Europe

The writing on the wall - or at least on the chalkboard

>> Saturday, 17 February 2007

A chalk board to keep track of data in the fermentation tanks, probably the must weight and the temperature. Domaine la Monardiere Monardière, Vacqueyras, Vaucluse, Provence, France, Europe.

Cool man

>> Friday, 16 February 2007

The frosty, icy door of a cold stabilisation (stabilization) tank at Domaine Fontavin, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Vaucluse, Rhone, Provence, France

Stones, but rolled rather than rolling

>> Thursday, 8 February 2007

The vineyard of Chateau des Fines Roches with Grenache vines and pebbly rocky galets roules soil and a view over the village Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Vaucluse, Rhone, Provence, France. The Chateauneuf soil is in some areas so stony that vineyard workers don't want to work there for fear of stumbling and damaging their feet. The Chateauneuf village with its ruined Pope's summer castle.

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Domaine de Cabasse, Cotes-du-Rhone Villages

>> Wednesday, 7 February 2007

Monsieur Alfred Haeni owner of Domaine Cabasse.

Domaine de Cabasse, Cotes-du-Rhone Villages. The best known wine producer in Seguret is Domaine de la Cabasse. It is owned by a Swiss couple, Alfred and Antoinette Haeni, since 1990. A few years ago they extended the activities to also include a small hotel and a restaurant. It is very tastefully done and the food and the wines are excellent. A very good place to stay when you want to visit vineyards or just relax by the pool. And of course, you will have plenty of opportunities to taste the wines from Cabasse itself.

Domaine de Beaurenard

Domaine de Beaurenard in Cheteauneuf-du-Pape in the southern Rhone valley is a 50 hectare wine estate run by the energetic Coulon family since 1695. A long wine tradition mixed with modern wine making. The Domaine de Beaurenard is located almost in the centre of the village and looks unassuming from the outside.

Perhaps with hardship supplement

This is certainly not the easiest place to plant vines, to grow them or to pick grapes...

Graphic geometric vineyard with vines trained in "en echalat" with supporting wooden stakes, winter pruned with no branches or leaves. Sign E Guigal in the background. Terraced vineyards in the Cote Rotie district around Ampuis in northern Rhone planted with the Syrah grape. Ampuis, Cote Rotie, Rhone, France, Europe

No longer a rocky road for Condrieu

>> Tuesday, 6 February 2007

Condrieu was an appellation that had almost disappeared a few decades ago. Today it is a very highly regarded "botique" appellation in the northern Rhone Valley making often quite expensive wines from the Viognier grape. Georges Vernay was at the time one of the few growers in the appellation and was one of the people who contributed greatly to making it survive and now prosper.

Paul Ansellem, husband of Christine Vernay, the daughter of Georges, holding in the hand a stone rock soil sample from the soil that is typical for Condrieu. Condrieu, Rhone, France, Europe Domaine Georges Vernay

A syrah vine trained in Cordon Royat

>> Monday, 5 February 2007

A syrah vine trained in Cordon Royat on the typical sandy pebbly soil in this part of Crozes Hermitage. Domaine Gilles Robin, Les Chassis, Mercurol, Drome, Drôme, France, Europe

The pipette

>> Thursday, 1 February 2007

The pipette and the barrel, stained with red wine. At Domaine André Perret, Chavanay. This 10 hectare property makes wine mainly from the appellations Condrieu and Saint Joseph and both the red wines and the white wines are very good. Very ripe grapes and some barrel aging is part of the secret for Perret's wines. Very sought after wines, often sold out even at the source.

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