Saturday June 1
We call 2018 “the black year”, and so it was: a vintage beset with problems caused by Nature, just to show us, maybe, that you can and should never sit back and relax in the confidence that you and the vineyard can always sort things out between the two of you. You can’t, sometimes. And so in 2018, four of our permanent range of wines were sacrificed: the two sparkling Crémants, our Mauzac, Occitania, and our top blend La Trilogie. That hurts. That really hurts.
But the Revue du Vin de France, the country’s top wine magazine, covered the wound with a nice bandage. The results of their exhaustive (exhausting?) blind tasting of 2018 wines from every appellation in every French wine region was released today in this month’s edition. They chose 1800 wines from all over France as the best of the year … and that included the two only appellation wines we could make: our chardonnay Odyssée, and our chenin blanc, Dédicace. It makes us we feel , well … vindicated, so to speak.
Sunday June 2
So let’s hear it for Natura 2000! Today we had our first sip of Dédicace 2018, the very one selected by La Revue du Vin de France, which was bottled just last week. (It’s still young, and probably too early to tell but Jan is over the moon. So is our winemaker.)
We normally dedicate each vintage to someone who either is very special, or has done something very special, and this vintage was dedicated to Natura 2000, the European-funded programme that helps us protect our biodiversity. Which is also very special.
And we have quite a lot of it, biodiversity, that is. We love our bats, they feast on grape worms, but they’re not quite as appealing perhaps on a wine label as some of our wild flowers. And since the Aude is famous for its range and variety of wild orchids, it seemed appropriate to pluck one, in this case, the orchis mascula, from our among our vines for this vintage.
Monday June 3
Today we saw the very first vine in flower. A chardonnay, of course, always the first of the pack. If the good weather continues, 
the rest will follow on in quick succession, and before the know it, the whole vineyard will be fully inflorescent …
To get here from bud break in March took us 92 days by my calculation, pretty much spot-on for a cool climate vine.
Sunday June 10
Today is the second day in a week that the temperature has literally fallen 15 degrees over night.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow.
You don’t want rain, and you do want warmth: 17 C would do us nicely, thank you.
Wednesday 12 June
Today we do our first foray into genuine wine tourism, and receive a small group of very nice Americans and Canadians for lunch. It rained all day yesterday, but that was yesterday. Today is beautiful. We sit at the top of the vineyard with the whole panorama of the Pyrenees spread out before us. Next to us on one side, the woods, and on the other the chenin from which the wine we’re drinking comes. They love it, and so do I. The food has all been catered, the table laid, the chairs put ready, the wine chilled, and the lunch served.
The family discusses the pros and cons at the end of the day.
“I’m doing this again” I say. It was like having a holiday at home.
Friday June 14
We get a nice double whammy today – not that it’s very nice to call either Elizabeth or Rosemary a “whammy”. They are both Masters of Wine, which number a total of something like 380 in the whole wide world and deserve to be treated with utmost respect if not outright awe; the former is a rosé expert, and author of the definitive book on rosés of the world, and the latter is a Languedoc expert, author of the definitive book on Languedoc wines. The two of them were judging rosés from the Languedoc, and you can’t get more expert than that. Languedoc actually produces nearly 40% of France’s rosés, and as Rosemary George MW said, getting ever better at making them. So roll over Provence.
The great uplifting news is that both selected on our Vintage Rose Crémant de Limoux, giving it lovely tasting notes, and putting it right at the top of the list.
Thursday June 20
Take 18 Languedoc and Roussillon wine women, add two stars from Chef Michel Kayser, of the famous Nîmes’ restaurant Alexandre, stir in wonderful wines from all the top appellations of the region, bring to a rolling boil in a red hot pant suit, add ten years of fun and friendship, and what have you got? The Vinifilles AGM!
An AGM unlike any other.
Longer than most too. It started last night at Alexandre’s, where chef Michel presented us with an endless succession of wonderful creations, raging from his signature tribute to Homo Habilis, then going via the byways and highways of fish and fowl and artfully stuffed courgette flowers unlike any other I have ever tasted, and ending finally in a panoply of 
desserts, including one made from peas. Just amazing. And he was so nice to us too, underlining the up-close and confidential relationship that exists between the kitchen, wine, and friendship.
And then today, all day, a meeting. A meeting that goes on and on because there is so much to discuss. So many projects. So many ideas.
So many women with so much to talk about!
Wednesday June 26
We declare floraison over. Bunches of baby berries are beginning to form. It all looks pretty good, though I didn’t hear myself say that. In fact, I positively didn’t say that. We have had hot and cold, wet and dry this month, far from absolutely ideal circumstances, but it looks okay. Yup, it looks OK …
And in 100 days we’ll be in the thick of the harvest!
Friday 28 June
The thermometer on the terrace reads nearly 55 C. That can’t be right! Admittedly it’s in full sun, but still, it’s not far wrong. In fact, it’s what the vines are feeling right now: an unrelenting, blazing blanket of heat that lies heavily and squeezes out every last whisper of breath, leaving them, us, the dogs even, motionless, inert, defeated. All the action happens at 05h00, and we give up and close shop at noon.
In Nîmes the day ends with the news that temperatures of 47 degrees had been recorded. A record for France.
Saturday 29 June
WhatsAp goes into overdrive today, ready to melt as a group of friends and colleagues comes to grips with reality.
Ping! “Have you inspected your vines? Ours are suffering badly from the heat”
(Picture of vine with burnt, dried out leaves). “Two days ago they were perfect”.
Ping! “What grape variety?”
Ping! “Syrah and Carignan”
Ping! “Did you do a sulphur treatment recently? Could that be a reason? “
Ping! “No”
Ping! “We’re never safe! Courage!”
Ping! “Me too, lots of problems with the old Carignan vines, sulphur treatment 15 days ago. Syrah’s still OK”
Ping! “Grenache and Cinsaults’s okay here. Difficult to tell with the old Carignan in gobelet style, problems are hidden right in the middle of the vine”
Ping! “Same here too. Young vines completely toasted. Others look like the photo. The vines on sandy soil are really badly affected, we’ve lost at least 20%. of the potential harvest. I’m away, but I’ve just spoken to my brother (the vineyard manager), he is really upset”
Ping! “There are bush fires all around us. Really worried about our woods”
Ping! “I don’t want to tempt the gods, but so far so good at this end. Fingers crossed for everyone, this is truly terrible” (Me)
Ping! “Nature has no pity”
Ping! “The young vines here have been hit, just did a sulphur treatment ….”
Ping! “Same here. Also the whites.”
Ping! “25% loss on some parcels of grenache gris, same with marselan and muscat, all of which we treated 15 days ago. The vines on schiste soils are ok, might have something to do with it?”
Ping! “Utter desolation at my end. 50% of the bunches have been burned. Only the Cinsault, Syrah and my oldest Grenache are holding up so far. But for how long? It’s 40 degrees today …”
Ping! “41 degrees here. And rising.”
Ping! “We’re breaking short our holiday and coming home. Things don’t look too good for us either …”
Ping! “Such sad news…nature is unsparing. 47 degrees here yesterday”
Ping! “There’s nothing anyone can do anyway.”
Ping! “On my way back from Asia, back at the domaine tomorrow. Apparently everything is burned. This is the beginning of the end”
We have so much respect for Nature. But Nature has no respect for us.
Sunday June 30
Got an email from one of the Americans who came for lunch earlier this month. The consensus among our group was that Rives-Blanques was our favorite winery visit by far, and we visited many fine wineries on our tour, including Chateau Rothschild…. they wrote.
Well, that certainly puts the sun into our Sunday!
Not that sun is what we want.
…./to be continued next month
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To be continued …./