August is when everyone in France is rightfully on holiday. There’s not much to be done in the vineyard: the die is pretty much cast. It’s countdown time to the harvest now . So there’s a lot to do in the cellars, polishing, cleaning, scrubbing, unwrapping, setting up, revising, and checking all our harvest equipment. […]
Saturday 3 July Today deserves to be a free day, it has all the makings of it, plus there’s a birthday to celebrate. So we head to Narbonne plage to dip our feet in the sea. They, in turn, take us to Gerard Bertrand’s brand-new restaurant, Hospitalet Plage, which literally opened its doors just a […]
Wednesday June 9 Well here we go: signed, sealed and delivered by Madame the President of Occitanie herself: Dédicace, our Chenin blanc has been selected as one of the 100 best wines of the region by an elite jury of British wine writers, importers and merchants. And that is not to be sneezed at: Occitanie […]
Easter Sunday April 2021 One of the really positive things about this quasi locked-down monochrome existence is that we’re being driven to entertain ourselves. So we celebrated Easter al Argentino, Rives-Blanques style. Mallman substituted by Panman. And with a proper sandpit, and an Argentine-sized leg of lamb hanging from a tree, all organised by Jan-Ailbe. Trouble is, […]
Tuesday March 9 Saddened to tears to read that Steven Spurrier died today, at Bride Valley in Dorset. The world knows him as portrayed by Alan Rickman in that film called Bottle Shock, about the Judgement of Paris, the famous 1970’s showdown Steven organised between Bordeaux and Napa wines (won by the Americans), and that is so unfair. […]