June 2004
Author: Iain
In the Vineyard
A huge variety of jobs in the vineyard this month (rumour has it that the pace will slacken off from mid-July and through August – we’ll see). Amongst other things we had to;
• Cut the grass (twice)
• Spray (twice)
• Water the new vines
• Rotavate every
other row of vines
• Kill weeds between
the vines
• Trim all the vines
There was no rain whatsoever in June and the temperature soared into the mid-thirties most days. Even though the tractor cabin is air-conditioned it is like a mobile greenhouse and gets incredibly hot when you’re in it all day. This, combined with the amount of tractor work this month has completely eliminated any remaining novelty of tractor-driving. Cutting the grass in England was always a bit of a chore, this pales into complete insignificance when you have to mow every other row of vines in a 24 acre vineyard. Early in the month I spend a long day on this task that now needs to be done every three weeks or so. The tractor can’t get everywhere and every other time I cut the grass I use a strimmer for a few hours to trim the rest – in these temperatures this really is no joke. Still, the whole place looks really neat when it’s finished. The job is made all the more tedious because I have to go down every row twice – my shredding machine is too narrow to get all of the grass – so with Jose at my side we take a trip and procure a wider second-hand grass cutter (tondeuse). This will literally save me hours and by agreeing to purchase it ‘as seen’ we get what I think is a pretty good bargain. The excitement is short-lived because the first time I try it out there is a loud crack and the blades refuse to turn around – I immediately regret the ‘as seen’ agreement. Fortunately the problem is not terminal and a visit to the vendor for a new bolt sorts it out……..for now.
We continue to water the (almost) 600 new vines. On one particularly memorable day Jack went out at 6am on the quad bike to water the vines that are widely dispersed (Jack learned the hard way that it’s too far to walk behind the tractor when there is only one new vine in a row). I spent the day spraying – we generally need to spray every other week and it takes a whole day. Then, in the evening when it cooled down, we watered the remaining new vines. Finally finishing at 11:30 pm (again!).
We ask Jose to mobilise his team to help us with the epamprage (removing the unwanted shoots on the trunk of the vines), I follow immediately afterwards to spray against weeds (desherbage - this can’t be done before epamprage because the weedkiller would hit the vine leaves). We also take the decision to thin the buds on the heads (ebourgeonage) of the red grape vines, this is an important step in our goal to produce high quality wine – some bunches are removed, lowering the yield, the energy of the vines is subsequently put into developing grapes rather than leaves and there will be more air to ensure the bunches stay healthy. This is very manually intensive and we look forward to receiving Jose’s bill with some degree of trepidation.
There is a very important addition to the Chater equipment store this
month.
A rogneuse. This is a very scary machine that trims the vines. A total
of 10 large blades are housed in a frame that is controlled from inside
the tractor with a joystick. We ordered the machine some time ago but
it eventually arrives when the vines are in desperate need of a trim
– in fact some of the vines, particularly the cabernet franc,
are so tall that Jack and I spend a couple of days trimming the longest
shoots by hand! Using the rogneuse appears to be very difficult (not
to mention intimidating) but actually, while tricky, it isn’t
too bad once you’re used to the controls. I complete the trimming,
sacrificing only a small number of bunches of grapes, along the way.
The vineyard looks fantastic when the job is complete.
It comes home to me this month just how expensive our spraying programme is becoming. To guard against botrytis (grey rot) - absolutely essential to protection apparently – we need a product called Switch which needs to be directed only at the bunches of grapes. To cover the whole vineyard the cost is an amazing £1,000! With gritted teeth we do the normal test to make sure the sprayer is working properly and I set to it – only to find after my first thankful that I’m using too much product. It transpires that there is actually one extra spray jet open and I’ve sprayed 1/3rd of a thankful of this expensive product directly upwards. This amounts to over £100 simply thrown away. I am truly unhappy but console myself with the fact that at least it was sprayed in the air over most of the sauvignon blanc which need the treatment more than the red varieties…..
Grapes are developing well now. The temperature increases their speed
of development considerably. It is interesting to see the differences
between the varieties. At the start of June the merlot and cabernet
franc grapes are significantly bigger than the cabernet sauvignon and
sauvignon blanc. At the end of June the sauvignon blanc are the biggest
with cabernet sauvignon lagging behind.
The Winery
Hmmm. The month did not have a promising start (in fact it wasn’t that promising at the end either!). No builders. We pestered the architect (who is also the project manager) until he gave up and came to visit. Small aside: Our architect is called M Lucas. We found out from one of the builders that he is known as Lulu – I’m not sure why this is, but I have some doubt that it’s a positive sign in our quest to get the winery built. Anyway he came to discuss the situation with very little in terms of positive outcome – this was apparently the worst such situation he had ever seen – but we agreed that he would immediately try to secure the services of a different builder (if only as a threat to try to get the original one to pull his finger out). Miraculously, over the next few days some (but not many) builders appear, dig out the foundations, fill them with cement, put up a metal framework and install a roof. Wow.
The latest pictures are in our winery section.
However, once the roof is on, and in spite of repeated promises that bricklayers will arrive, everything grinds to a complete halt again. By this time Jack has crossed the borderline between complaining and ranting, phoning both architect and the builder every day and demanding some action - very impressive if not a little scary. Finally, at the end of the month we get a delivery of the special insulating bricks for the walls and two brickies begin work……
Daily Life
Dad is due to arrive towards the end of the month so we spend some time doing various bits at his house. The worst, by a long chalk, was the grass – there isn’t much of it but it was so overgrown that it kept clogging the lawnmower. Four full bin-liner bags and about five pints of sweat see it sorted out – I vow to cut it before it gets so long next time (or even better, get dad to do it).
The swimming pool has been troublesome ever since we arrived and, true to form, after the first time that Jack used the pool hoover to clean it out, the pump stopped working. In spite of hours of investigation, taking just about everything apart, I couldn’t fix it and with temperatures into the thirties it started going green in hours. We called one of our friends to give us a hand but he drew a blank too – we conclude that a new pump is needed. I drive off to Marmande to purchase one, get it back and begin the installation (of course the pipes to the old pump don’t fit the new one) – as I’m about to join it to the electric supply I discover I’ve bought the wrong pump. Great. Back to Marmande – the pool shop was not too keen to replace it but I used the tactic of just standing there until they did. Worked ok but I don’t think I had better return very soon. Installed the new pump. Disaster, the problem wasn’t solved. As a last resort before declaring defeat and calling someone in I check the pipes once again. Aha. Out pops what looks like a yellow pepper. I pull it out (by its guts I realise later) to discover it’s a huge toad that had somehow swum into one of the pipes. Put the pipes back together and, bingo, all works again. We now have a spare pump. Oh well.
By way of relaxation Jose and I have decided to start playing tennis. We go out on Sunday mornings, have a coffee and a couple of hours – mostly picking up the balls – on court in St Sernin. Good run around and we both enjoy it. Jose is Portuguese and England played Portugal in Euro 2004 this month. Beck and I went to Duras with Jose and Jonathon to watch the match. Beck was really upset when England lost (she’s really into football at the moment) and Jose tried his hardest not to be too happy.
Watershed point this month, we had our first visitors. A couple from Scotland (won’t mention names – in case people are uncomfortable) interested in buying a vineyard saw our website and got in touch. They visited the area so we spent a pleasant Saturday morning talking through the pro’s and con’s – hope we haven’t put them off. Another lady also contacted us and is coming to stay for a few days in July to help out around the vineyard.
Event of the month: The French “tractor pulling” championships were held at a village nearby. How could we resist. Huge machines fitted out with helicopter and aeroplane engines compete to see how far they can drag a large weight. Impressive, massively loud, and surprisingly fast they nevertheless became quite boring after you’ve seen each tractor once. The crowd was pretty enthralled (perhaps this event is something really special in a farming community) but we left after about an hour.
Am now very worried about Jack – she confessed in June that she was beginning to find the clothes in Terres du Sud (French equivalent of B&Q) attractive.
Finally, we seem to have lost the hen that had adopted us. I have a
small confession to make here. After a long day in the vines I returned
to find yet more chicken crap on the patio – it really is amazing
how much one small chicken can produce. I hurled a couple of large lumps
of mud at the thing, which disappeared in flurry of feathers. Haven’t
seen it since.
