It’s my Vineyard

On the way over to the Auvergne for a change of scene and to reflect on what we have accomplished and what there is still to do, re the vendange, and to tend my vegetables there of course, we stop at the printers to see our new label set up on the machine. A rendezvous had been made, we were met by Francois who was in charge of our order and the technician who was aleady beginning to print the trial labels.

At this stage small adjustments could be made, the intensity of colour the the right amount of red, yellow or brown in the sepia drawing. And then after rather a lot of wastage at the beginning we were on a roll, so to speak, there will be about 750 labels on each roll.

It was exciting but nerve racking to see suddenly so many of this image that had been thought about so much over the last few months and to give the final go ahead! The touch of gold came from a luxuriously expensive roller situated above the print bed!

The whole run would be completed in about two hours, the Canadian label complying with the bilingual regulations, the European label, and the back label with the Roman coins depicting Reginus who first planted the vines in Regnie, and a little bit of romantic history for you all to read as you pour another glass of our delectable 2006 vintage!

We were cordially received by M. Monroe the owner, he had thought our label well balanced and with ‘class’, and yet suggesting a wine with character made in a traditional way.

Ideal to serve when tasting our wine with friends, or any president who might call by is my ‘cake aux olives’. Very easy to make and can leave out the olives if not your favourite things.

In the bowl of a food processor or in a large basin mix together the following ingredients:

250 gm of plain flour
1 sachet of easy bake yeast, found in all supermarkets where flour is sold
4 eggs
1 small glass of white wine, any will do, about 4 fluid oz.
1 small glass of vegetable oil, preferably sunflower, but olive oil is fine.
Some grated cheese, gruyere or any cheese at all [ about 100 plus gm.]
A handful of stoned green or black olives to your taste.
Some chopped cooked ham, a handful, [or little pieces of cooked bacon]

Mix all thoroughly except the last three ingredients. Then add the last three ingredients. If using a food processor take mixture out of bowl before adding the last three ingredients.

Pour into a lightly greased non stick loaf tin, that is big enough to hold 2 pints or 1 litre of liquid.

Bake in a medium to hot oven on middle shelf for about 40 mins, or when a skewer placed in the middle comes out clean.

Serve hot or cold in slices or in little squares, with, of course a glass of the fine ‘prince of Beaujolais’ wine, Regnie, and it will be fit for kings or queens or presidents!

Chefs suggestion: A bowl of home-made chutney may be served along side, or a fresh green salad for a super lunch dish. This evening I cooked some chutney made from the delicious little yellow plums called mirabelle that grow at the bottom of the garden. There were hundreds of them, it took ten minutes to pick a large basket full, let me know if you would like the recipe, any plums will do or in fact any fruit chutney!

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.

I thought at first that they were owls but the driver insisted they were hawks. They have been chirping and squawking all day, flexing their wings, crying out for their food hunting parents. Judging by their size, they can hardly fit in the arches of their rented home,the time has nearly come to leave, I was thrilled to see them!

Fred took their photos from afar but hope they might pose for a better one tomorrow! Maybe we will depict the sparrow hawk on future labels for our wine!

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 and courting new ones.

Responses have been coming thick and fast to our advertisements for grape pickers and for porters to fill the ‘bennes’, huge plastic containers that will be lifted by hopefully young, strong arms onto trailers, we interview people who can work in the cuvage to furnish the cuves or vats with grapes that will start their fermentation and then be carefully transferred to the pressoir to extract the juice from unwanted matter.

Fred finds a vendange pump at a village ‘porte ouverte’ designed for taking the wine from vat to press. We answered an advert for some ‘Bennes’ and find they are sold but instead we buy the farmers three and a half ton trailer for a hundred euros!  It will be perfect for bringing the grapes from the vines to the cuvage.  The gentle giant of a farmer sadly having to give up his vines due to ill health, looked at least pleased that this faded green majestic wagon would once again be put to work.

Paulo, a larger than life local vigneron called in one day, we had tasted his Regnie in his den of a cave in early June and discussed our needs for the coming harvest.  He arrives with a vigneron friend who would be available to aid the 2007 vinification process, we taste our Regnie together, very positively received.  Paulo sits at the head of our kitchen table, he has a shock of wild curly greying hair and a huge beak of a nose. At one point reaches for a box of matches, opens them, and rather delicately for such a large man proceeds to poke one into an ear whilst continuing his raconteuring and the emptying of his glass! Sylvan, his friend, may well be a possible for us, he has an excellent reputation as a vigneron, a charming manner, round smiley face and strong weather worn arms.

The team from the Quincie co-operative came to inspect our vines with a view to buying half our grapes. They were extremley positive, our vines are in excellent condition. I don’t know why but I had made some Shrewsbury biscuits, like shortbread with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla, which we ate with coffee and were much appreciated. We think they will want to go ahead with us, we wait to hear in a few days after discussion with the President!

Tonight our friend from Morgon arrived with yet another President, or rather ex President of ‘Inter Beaujolais’, the organisation in Villefranche who, amongst other activities, are responsible for the administration and promotion of Beaujolais wines. He could be another expert who is willing and ready to give us his professional advise. We tasted both our 2005 and 2006 Regnie. Fred and I were delighted at his positive response, of course we know its good but it is particularly encouraging to have such praise from a person with his experience and knowledge.

These days I wake up to the Regnie Durette church clock striking six or seven and already there are sounds of activity in the vines around us. The humming, whining, droning of tractors that is pleasantly soporific. It is imperative at this time that the dreaded ‘liseron’ does not take a hold and strangle the vines and their precious bounty. Names of flowers and birds seem to have no resemblance to their English counterparts.

I am talking about that delicate pretty pinkish white plant the convolvulus or bind weed its more aggressive name. It twines and winds around anything vertical in its path, we have to treat it before it takes its hold!  This will be the final insurance that our grapes will be in peak condition when the harvest time arrives.

I have a few strands climbing the enclosure of my little ‘potager’ or vegetable patch, I try to photograph it for you but the rain has been continual and their fragile heads remain firmly facing downwards and their petals closed. Maybe tomorrow the sun will arrive to waken them and ripen the tomatoes too which wait, as the grapes do, for some summer warmth to give a blush of colour and enhance their fruity flavours.

Roses are seen everywhere in Beaujolais, planted for a reason, decoratively outlining the vineyards. If the roses suffer it is a warning that the vines need treatment as they will suffer too, just as a canary sent in advance down a mine would sense a lack of oxygen so saving the lives of humans who might follow.

We keep these beautiful rose borders carefully pruned and weeded.

The grapes are now as big as small green marbles, advanced in their development due to the recent rain.

The local people say that when we see the a blush of colour on the first grape they will be ready for gathering in forty five days.
It is for certain this year the vendange will be early, towards the latter part of August.

The lush green hedgerows are abundant with poppies and the last of the foxgloves. There have been more storms recently but we expect and hope for a dry July and August, these months will really count.

Because of our new style of management we will have double the quantity of wine for 2007, too much too soon, although our sales are increasing and our market is broadening. We decided to approach our closest cooperative in Quincie with a view to selling some of our harvest in grapes. After some effort a rendezvous was made with the president. After sitting in a waiting area for some minutes we were finally summoned in to a large rather bare office where sat M. Lacondomine. He greated us warmly, and seem quite excited by our ‘Englishness’ and the possibility of us being helpful in supporting the developing effort to increase the sale of Beaujolais in the UK.
After much discussion and a meeting with the Director and a representative from an organisation who concentrated on the marketing of the wines from the cooperative, also keen to have us involved, an arrangement was made for an oenologue [a grape science expert] to visit us and our vines tomorrow. She will meet with D who has been treating the vines for us, when needed, since May. We have no doubt that they will be happy, We have extremely well situated vines that have been expertly trimmed and cared for, and no weeds and grass between the rows.

In the meantime notices have been posted in our search for vendangeurs who do not need accomodation or food, called ‘ A la grande journee’. In other words local people some of whom organise themselves into teams with a leader, others are just individuals seeking casual work. Since the adverts went in or up the phone has kept ringing, we struggle to listen to mubbled numbers and names on the answer phone and reply to them and those who email us.We interview a local Monsieur who gathers his extended family around for the harvest time and makes up a team of 20. Do we go for him and a ready made team, or try to gather together enough totally disperate individuals? how on earth will this be sorted? to arrange for the right number of people ready to start work on an indeterminable date, to complete all the paper work associated with their employment…. It seems the whole of the wine producing community in Beaujolais, where the tradition and the law is that the grapes must be hand-picked, dread this time, even the most experienced, but the grapes will be picked, it will happen!

I spend a morning tidying the edges of the rose beds by the vines closest to the house, perhaps, I have to say, to impress the visitors from the cooperative on friday. In a short time it looks neat, the tall frondy toadflax with its thankfully shallow roots and the yellow yarrow that have been so invasive due to all the rain, are removed. A quick check on the vegetable patch where my aubergine plants are showing off their beautiful purple bell shaped flowers, and then we relax with dinner, baked salmon on a bed of tomatoes and courgettes, puy lentils and a basil pesto dressing with of course a bottle of our Regnie. This fine Beaujolais accompanies a fish dish just as perfectly as meat.

The President invited us to a degustation after our meeting, with love and true passion he described the pleasure of first enjoying the colour of the wine, our Regnie displays clear vibrant reds and shades of violet. Then the ‘nose’ and all the complexities of fruit and minerals, sometimes more blackberry than cassis, the intoxicating first aromas as the glass is swirled and swished before the senses, and then, no disappointment, the taste is the summing up of all those delights that can be savoured from tip of tongue to back of throat. Beaujolais it seems to me has a generous personality, cleverly, yet easily adapting to and complimenting the flavours of its favourite companion, food.

One of the most difficult decisions we had to make whilst almost drowning in administration, learning all we could about the wine business, and furnishing the house from scratch, was how did we want our label to look? Soon our 2005 fine Beaujolais wine must be bottled and we needed a label fast!

Within the time constraints we researched as much as possible. It seemed that a large percentage of the wine buying public made their selection based on firstly price, secondly the label, thirdly the grape variety or ‘cepage’ [they looked for a Merlot or a Shiraz for example] familiarly displayed on the New World wine labels, a marketing angle, and we are used to seeing it. For me the country, land and climate where the grapes are grown makes all the difference to the subtleties of flavour Sadly at the bottom of the list was how the wine tastes! Gamay, our grape variety, is not grown significantly anywhere outside this region, we decided to put it on our label and it was now legally permitted to do so in Beaujolais. There are of course those who do have a great deal of expertise, and make their choice based on knowledge and a genuine appreciation of quality, who might also learn and take advise from their wine merchant or wine club, show interest in where the wine comes from and how it is made.

Many of the New World wines have modern and often abstract designs and bold colour. Our wine is traditionally made, we wanted to suggest this through the concept that we chose. I worked closely with Fran who cleverly created our first traditional style label. We investigated cost, quantity, the significance of the number of colours, and were recommended a printer in Montagny. With great excitment we were present on the factory floor when the first samples were being run through the machines.

Now, a year on, we have continued to learn and develop our ideas as we began to establish our market and listen to the views of our customers. Through Fred’s family in Canada we were able to find an agent in Alberta we take on board the preferences of the North American culture as well as needing to conform, in Canada, to the dual language laws.

During the past weeks we have been working with our printer to refine and remodel our label for the 2006 bottles. We have used the same image, the attractive classic ‘maison de Maitre’ house surrounded by vines but with a little more style and a touch of gold. The proofs should be with us any day now.

We have three beautiful, elegant poplar trees on our property. One perfect evening I walk through the garden with a fold-up stool and basket containing my precious water colours pens and pastels. On my way to find the right spot to capture the scene I reach up and gather some cherries from the tree, growning with the bright red jewels, to refresh me as I concentrate on my task, when completed it might just become another label idea for the future.

While we organise our new style of management the demands for our wine continue. We have the transporters set up to pick up a palet for England. John came for a glass of Regnie and ended up helping label and box the order, a tremendous help. Fred and I take about two hours plus to prepare 600 bottles. It makes a huge difference to have a helper!

We came across seven Canadian cyclists one day and invite them back to Maison des Bulliats for a degustation. They greatly appreciated both our 2005 and 2006 Regnie. We sat on the verandah in beautiful sunshine. Fred was born in Canada and we enjoyed their visit. I made a cake from a recipe given to me by a dear friend in the Auvergne which I will put on my recipe blog if I ever get a minute….

Soon after their departure a British couple, who had been given our name by a frenchman living in Wales… called in and tasted the two millisimes and delighted bought some cases of each.

Twenty cases were picked up for Brittany today. The paperwork has to be completed the address labels printed and affixed to each box [thanks to Catherines expert instruction during a visit here last year] I was reasonably computer literate for the needs of my previous lifes work as a university lecturer, but we have had to grapple with photoshop and, blind leading the blind rather, we have had to computer generate tariff lists, brochures, excel sheets etc.

The cherries are ready in spite of violent storms during several nights, there has been enough sun and I bottled six jars to enjoy during next winter and made pots of cherry jam and a cherry cake for my birthday tomorrow. Fernand came by this afternoon to kindly spray my tomatoes with sulphur against mildew [a treatment he would also use for the vines after rain] I gave him some cherries with which Christianne will make a clarfouti, a delicious french desert traditionally made with unstoned cherries baked in the oven in a sweet pancake type batter.

Fred, when weather has permitted been fixing the brakes on G’s Bentley. Tired but satisfied with the days achievements we share a bottle of our 2006 Regnie, which went divinely with the pizzas I made with dough I make from flour milled in the Auvergne and topping from all the delicious little bits of cheese left over, from local goat to Auvergne cantal, strewn with torn basil leaves picked from a pot on the verandah.

It has been a little quiet on the blog recently but we have been extremely active! We are managing the vineyard in a different way now, which means that we will have even more delicious fine Beaujolais wine for sale in 2007.
However we need to employ more people and invest in some new equipment to prepare for the next harvest and onwards. Remember that Beaujolais grapes are hand picked and come the vendange the landscape will be strewn with teams of workers picking, tractors, trailers laden with grapes, the to-ing and fro-ing of traffic from field to cuvage and hard, heavy duty labour of lifting, pulling, cleaning, sorting, leading up to the fine art of the wine making, which yeast? how much sugar? When to heat?When to press? You will hear lots more of this towards the end of August.
We have to put in place the team; meeting people, asking questions, numerous phonecalls, interviewing. Our friends have been invaluable such as John and J.P [over the memorable spag bol dinner in Lantignie] Our friends in Morgon who have been a huge support and encouragement providing us with contacts and possible personel. V and G from the nearby chateau de La Terriere called in one evening, we chatted over a glass or two of our 2006 and nibbled on wild boar saucisson and home made chicken liver pate made with apple and regnie and herbs….. We learn where to go to find our grape picking workforce, in previous years arranged by Fernand and his wife. Meanwhile the cherries are nearly ripe for picking and I make streamers from tin foil so the birds will not take all.