It’s my Vineyard

In November the start of the pruning was finalised with the two Turkish gentlemen. They were extremely proud of the quality of their work last year, you remember we engaged several people last time, including the Monk and the Poles. This winter just the two Turks and some help from Fernand, the [...]

We had a fabulous party to celebrate the end of our vendange with family and friends. There were ten of us and ,of course we had the famous sausage cooked on a bed of grapes.

I stuffed fresh figs with goats cheese and ham for a starter and we finished with a [...]

The bottling took one long day, on our property but carried out by the company ‘2000 Embouteillage’, this allows us to put ‘Mis en bouteille au domane’ on our label.  We have always used this company who have an excellent reputation in this area.
In the morning the wine is fitered through degrees of fineness [...]

During the days leading up to the vendanges there was intense cleaning activity. When making wine everything from the huge concrete vats where the wine is made to every bucket and hose must be spotless. Nothing must be allowed to contaminate our wine. The vats or cuves are washed under high pressure, Fred with the [...]

So Sevarine and her colleague, who looked like a birdwatcher, both suitably clothed and sporting wellingtons arrived at 8.30 am to collect samples of our grapes. They showed us how it was to be done as, during the next week, we have to take two more lots of samples and deliver to the co-operative for [...]

The start time for the vendanges is getting close. Today G and Didier who have been helping us all along came this morning to examine our grapes to assess their maturity and quality.
We walked through each parcel of vines, looking, tasting and discussing each grape sample taken. We were extremely pleased that it seems, in [...]

You would be surprised but it is true that plastic containers for the grapes are, this year, like gold dust! Again we answered adverts and put up adverts everywhere but those found had already been quickly sold, and we had to be extra quick to respond. One early morning we set off for the pretty [...]

One of our bigest problems this year was to manage the vendanges, in previous years totally organised by the Grandjean family. We dont have outbuildings set up to receive the 20 to 30 people who we need to help pick our grapes. We had to find local people who would come for ‘ la grande [...]

Possibly my favourite and most unexpected visitors were pointed out to me this morning by one of our regular lorry drivers coming to pick up an order of wine for Brittany.
He noticed some baby Sparrow Hawks nesting in the dove cotes along the guttering of the outbuildings, long since abandoned by their usual owners. [...]

Where shall I begin? In the last few days we have been continuing to make arrangements for the vendanges. As I have said earlier, this year we are in charge of the management of our whole production whilst we continue to market the fine Beaujolais wine around the world, taking care of our loyal customers [...]