La Legue Vineyard


Diary August to October March to July February Join List	September and October 2004 Author: Iain Apologies but I have to start the update with: YIPPEE!! Albeit that it’s in the first stages of life, we have actually made some wine!! Following on the tradition of our first year in the vineyard, the whole thing has been more than a little traumatic, with the amplitude of our ‘ups and downs’ increasing exponentially in the last eight weeks. In fact the level of stress as we approach the harvest with an inoperable winery, problems in the vines, a host of new, strange and untested equipment and only a basic knowledge of the whole process is absolutely impossible to describe in any way that can get across the true situation. Anyway, we press on and concentrate on sorting out ‘the biggest problem’ each day. At the start of September the legacy of the awful weather in August created a huge amount of work. On one of our regular inspections we discover that mildew is making a determined attempt to attack our vines. This is never good news but as the harvest date approaches it makes decisions about how to treat the problem even more difficult – Will the vines be able to ripen the grapes without treatment (it isn’t a problem if they have some mildew after harvest because it gets killed off in winter)? Is there enough time to spray? What else can we do? In the last six months we have become a little hardened to the various problems so it was just in a state of minor panic that we tried to contact the technician at Terres du Sud (our supplier of products for spraying etc) for advice. The response “Sorry he’s on holiday and no-one else can help” rapidly changed this into a major concern as we envisaged rampant rot destroying our harvest before it ripens. This is not helped by rumours of local problems with mildew so bad that people might lose half their crop. In desperation (and with significant doubt about our future allegiance to Terres du Sud) we contact a technician from one of their competitors. Fantastic service, he visited within four hours, gives us advice specific to each grape variety (just trim off the young shoots – these are the most susceptible to mildew - for those to be harvested first and make one last treatment for the cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc) and generally puts our mind at rest about the level of the problem. This of course results in even more tractor work – but that’s life... High point of early September: We had an impromptu visit from the owner of the nursery where we bought the young vines for replanting earlier in the year. An old chap, obviously passionate about his vocation. His first words were that our vines looked ‘magnifique’. We fairly glow with pleasure and afterwards assure ourselves (with some success) that this wasn’t a sales-related statement. The month starts well weather-wise. Hot without too much rain, the potential prospect of an Indian summer lifts our spirits somewhat. The grapes ripen inexorably, averaging around 11% of potential alcohol by the 9th of the month. It will be no surprise that by this date the winery is still not ready and, having sorted out our latest crisis (mildew) in the field, the full force of our concern is focused on what on earth we need to do to have somewhere to process the harvest which is now less than two weeks away. There are a number of things outstanding but the only one preventing us from using the winery is electricity. Somewhat fundamental. We find ourselves in the frustrating position of having the wiring systems completed in the winery, all the cables to the electricity network laid and connected, EDF (French electricity board) having verified that the installation is safe but refusing to turn on the power for up to two weeks. “C’est la France” apparently. José begins planning a solution based on some kind of mobile power plant and Jacky phones just about everyone in France who might have something to do with EDF. In the end she drives to EDF in Marmande and refuses to budge until someone promises to connect us. This seems to do the trick, five days before harvest of the sauvignon blanc I get a knock on the door from a man in an EDF van – “it’s connected” – apparently all he needed to do was throw a switch! I make him wait until I am sure we have power. The winery is finally ready and with just five days left and we need to try out all of the equipment as well as plan the harvest – but at least there is new hope….. Equipment. Hmmm. There is a bewildering range of kit needed to get the grapes from the tractor into the vats in the right condition. A conveyer belt to receive the harvest; a crusher/destemmer (does what it says); a must-pump to pump the mixture of juice and skins and finally heavy-duty large-diameter red tubes to pipe the grapes into the vat. While we have a theoretical view on how it all should work, we are familiar with none of it. We decide to do a dry-run using botrytis-affected (grey-rot) grapes (that we won’t be harvesting for real). I am sure by this time that José thinks we are more then a little mad – what do we intend to do when we have this objectionable harvest into our nice new vats? I’m actually not really sure how we will get rid of it but we remain determined to press ahead. Good job. Half way through the must-pump breaks down, terminally. With harvest of the first sauvignon blanc parcel two days away we find ourselves without one of the key pieces of equipment. We bought all our equipment from Agrifoy, a local supplier, and a frantic phone call results in a swift visit that consisted of several confused mutterings but a promise of a brand-new replacement the next morning – which thankfully arrives without further stress. As the first harvest gets closer, now only a matter of hours away, we press José on the precise logistics of the picking operation. He is unable to really prove to our final satisfaction that it is ‘doable’ in the time available with the number of people in his team (we are paranoid about everything by this point). He hides his frustration well but in the end says something to the effect of “just leave it to me” – fair enough. 20th September. This is it. We get up early and connect up the arcane equipment to get the harvest from the tractor to the vat. We have worried endlessly about the weather for what feels like months but today the sun shines and (what remain of) our sauvignon blanc are ready to make their final sacrifice in the name of making a fresh and zesty beveridge that will make our name in the wine-making world. Perhaps that might be overstating it a bit, but all is finally ready and we are, as now seems to be normal, torn between the three states of relief, excitement and absolute terror (in no particular order). We have talked in depth with our oenologist about the style of wine we want to make and for our white wines we aim for a crisp, fresh wine with true sauvignon blanc characteristics. This means we need to take real care, particularly in the period from harvest to the beginning of fermentation. So, on the 20th we are ready at the winery with our bottle of CO2 to protect the wine from oxidation, our box of solid carbonic ice (for the same reason), our natural enzymes to extract flavours from the skins and my ‘Heath-Robinson’ device (I coupled up our chiller unit to a big container of water which is then pumped around the outside of the vat by a small pond-pump courtesy of Mr Bricolage) to keep the vat cool for the critical first 24 hours. It seems forever for the first trailer-load to arrive but when it does, unbelievably, all works perfectly. Everything else is forgotten and we immerse ourselves in the logistics and physical effort of unloading cases full of grapes and rinsing and sterilising the cases before they are sent on their way back out to the field. Quick note: Of all the jobs at harvest time, washing and sterilising the cases is the most difficult, not to mention the wettest – avoid if possible ([Jack] Somehow I didn’t!). There are a few teething troubles out in the field, exacerbated by some rows containing unripe grapes which needed to be left for another day, by the middle of the afternoon there are rumours of a few ‘people problems’ and José is looking pretty frazzled – nevertheless, at the end of the day we have our first full vat of juice, the pickers gather in the winery and we have a toast of what will become our first wine. If you can judge the juice, then it tasted pretty good. All very weird. See some more pictures. The remainder of our sauvignon blanc were harvested before the end of September, just before the rain set in again. Our euphoria about successfully gathering our white grapes was stifled by a growing concern for the red grapes. So, the work in the winery begins. Having had so much to worry about before the harvest we have not spent a huge amount of time considering the actual process of turning the juice into wine. “Don’t worry about that bit” said our oenologist each time we asked. All very well for him to say. To extract the maximum possible flavour from our white wines we are putting them through pelicular maceration (keeping the juice cool and leaving it on their skins for a day or so rather than pressing them as soon as they arrive at the winery). So the first major winery operation, decuvage (taking out the juice and pressing the skins), arrives very quickly. The principles are simple but, having never done this before, the selection and usage of the various pieces of new equipment was pretty daunting. We were not particularly keen to see our first harvest end up all over the winery floor. The whole thing was made much trickier by the arrival of two of our equipment suppliers (from Agrifoy again, where we bought all our equipment) to make sure the kit, especially the press, works correctly. The first step is to transfer the juice that has separated from the skins. The whole day was pretty special but this event was one of the most memorable events in the winery so far, simply because the smell of the juice as it drains off the skins is wonderful. We managed to get the ‘free-run’ juice into another vat without much of a problem (except the need to rig-up a ‘broken’ circuit for the wine to flow out naturally and then be pumped into the new vat). It was when the juice stopped flowing that we were a bit stumped. What do we do next? Is it safe to open the vat door? Should we open the other draining points? All the time being watched by the guys from Agrifoy. Oh dear. We rigged up our conveyor belt to transport the grapes into the press and very cautiously opened the door of the vat. Absolutely remarkable. A solid wall of bright green grapes. Fantastic, but also a massive amount of juice, the juice drops onto the conveyor belt which simply can’t cope with it (we’ve subsequently found a way to attach a pump to it to cater for excess juice!). Plan B. So we decouple everything and set up our must-pump (used first for the harvest, this has a large funnel-shaped entrance and a ‘screw’ mechanism to move the skins) to transfer the skins to the press. With a little help from our friends from Agrifoy this seems to do the trick and we begin raking the skins out of the vat and into the pump. The point arrives when we can’t reach any more of the skins and the guys from Agrifoy tell me it is time to get inside the vat and shovel it out. I hadn’t really thought about this part of the operation and, half suspecting the French observers (actually, ‘observer’ isn’t fair, by this point they are playing an active role to help us along) were having me on, I don my wellies and climb inside with a spade. Memorable event number two! Hard work in a very odd environment, slippery, hot and claustrophobic. It seems to take forever but eventually the press is filled and the pressing can begin. The press is programmed to gently squeeze the skins over a period of 2 hours. The wait is interminable but eventually our first juice is ready to make wine. Well almost ready, we now need to chill it down and undertake a ‘debourbage’ racking the juice from its sediment before we start fermentation. We can’t resist tasting the juice frequently (several times each day) and become a little worried that we are making a significant dent into our stocks. The juice tastes great with a distinct flavour of elderflower, we are pretty happy with our first effort. The rest of the white grapes are harvested over the next few days as the weather threatens to deteriorate and the spread of rot becomes epidemic, reducing our yield even further. On one particularly memorable day we gave José the challenge of filling two vats - because rain was forecast for the next day - resulting in a 7am start, harvesting throughout the day without a break, into the darkness at around 8pm. Remarkably he did it. We also harvest our cabernet franc grapes which we plan to use to make a fruity rosé. Needless to say with the combined physical workloads of harvest and winery activity we are pretty shattered, but happy after a week of this. October starts with the whites secured in their vats but a lot of concern over the reds which all remain in the vineyard. After harvesting the whites we see a deterioration in the weather and a drop in temperature. The merlot and, even more so, the cabernet sauvignon are not yet ripe and if the weather doesn’t improve they will never ripen. Unbelievably, people around us start harvesting their merlot and it is psychologically very difficult to buck the trend (should we safeguard what we have (very very tempting) or hold out in the hope of better weather? – incredibly tough choice when the decision has such a huge impact on the end result of all the effort to date – safety/mediocrity vs risk/quality or risk/poor quality). José is twitchy (understatement) and as more and more people harvest their grapes he gets increasingly worried for us. But we decide to wait and miraculously the weather changes for the better, the first three weeks of October are sunny and dry with temperatures of 26°C. With renewed hope for our red wines we plan the harvests. The merlot arrives fully mature with potential alcohol levels between 13 and 13.5 percent depending upon the parcel. Again we are happy with the juice which is sweet and full of plumy flavours (very difficult to say what is ‘good’ juice given our lack of experience in this department but we manage to convince ourselves that it’s ok). We leave the cabernet sauvignon to the last possible moment (cabernet always takes longer to ripen than the other varieties) and our final harvest is made on the 26th October with José verging on panic, this was virtually the last in our area apart from the harvest of white grapes for sweet wine. Our patience pays off though, the cabernet has ripened, no green flavours and between 12 and 12.5 percent alcohol with the average for the area reputed to be around 11 to 11.5. With everything safely in the winery we finally relax about the weather…..and start to worry about what we have in the vats. The phases of development of the wine are many, varied and very rapid. Our opinion about the merits and problems with each of them changes on a daily basis and we make several ‘emergency’ calls to our oenologist, generally to be told “don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal”. Our wines are subjected to a regular, bewildering, and no doubt expensive, series of tests all of which are returned to us with a hasty note saying that all is fine. So, at the beginning of November, we have; · Two 80 hectolitre (8000 litres) vats of sauvignon blanc each containing around 70 hectolitres of wine. They taste very different with one being, potentially, excellent. Both are very dry, fresh and aromatic. · Two 400 litre barrels filled with sauvignon blanc. An experiment really but everyone who tries it, loves it. · Three different vats (80hl, 20hl and 50hl) of merlot, representing the different parcels of vines. The older vines producing something more tannic and ‘serious’ with the younger ones being fruity – and remarkably, after around 6 weeks, almost drinkable, or are we deluding ourselves here? · One and a half vats of rosé (around 50 hl from our cabernet franc and 30 hl of juice ‘bled’ off our cabernet sauvignon) that is fresh and fruity. Eventually this will fill a vat of 80 hl. · And finally two small vats of cabernet sauvignon that will eventually fill a vat of 60 hl. Too early to tell the quality from the taste but the test results are the best of the lot, it’s a lot darker than the others and, most telling of all, dad prefers it. A total of around 43,000 litres of wine of (already) pretty decent quality. Goodness knows how we are going to blend all this but if anyone had told us at the start of September that we would be in this position we would have been extremely happy. [Jack] It is just amazing to think that just eight weeks ago the winery was still not operational and now we have a full winery. We thought that the work in the vineyard was hard but it is nothing compared to the work we have undertaken recently. Iain, whose job on the harvest days was to empty the boxes on to the conveyor belt, has developed a rather worrying Charles Atlas physique, whilst I have developed a complete obsession with sterilising and cleaning everything! Between us we have unloaded, sterilised and washed over 4,500 plastic boxes throughout the harvest. Not to mention the fact that whenever working in the winery the majority of the time is taken up with sterilising and cleaning. And none of the equipment is designed for easy cleaning. Just when you think you have removed every last piece of skin or pip, yet another appears!!! Previous diaries have had a section on daily life. All I can say this time is ‘what daily life’? We’ve been fully immersed in the harvest and winery work. Everything else has been put on hold, including washing and ironing (which has only been done courtesy of the numerous visitors we have had during this period who have taken pity on me!), food shopping (which happens when there really is nothing left and hunger sets in!), gardening (finally my outdoor baskets and pots which I lovingly nurtured all summer just wilted and died!), housework (what?), social life (non existent!). Throughout all this though Rebecca has been brilliant. When not at school she has been out helping us with the harvest and has done her fair share of box washing (her favourite job amazingly). Maybe that’s because she can get absolutely soaked and not get told off! Thanks to one of our best friends she has been able to keep up with horse riding, which incidentally she is addicted to and now desperately wants a pony. Given the state of my plants at the end of the harvest I am not sure that a pony would be a good idea! Has it all been worth it? Most definitely. We have come a long way eighteen months but there is still a lot further to go, we certainly can’t be complacent (highly unlikely!). Our next major new challenge is marketing. After all, if we can’t sell our wine then all will be lost. So, we move on, with some of the worries, trials and tribulations of being able to make our own wine being left behind. Our focus for the next few months is finishing the winemaking, marketing and of course starting work on the next vintage . back to top	Get our diary every month Completely free Updates by email Click to join list

September and October 2004

Author: Iain

Apologies but I have to start the update with: YIPPEE!! Albeit that it’s in the first stages of life, we have actually made some wine!!

Following on the tradition of our first year in the vineyard, the whole thing has been more than a little traumatic, with the amplitude of our ‘ups and downs’ increasing exponentially in the last eight weeks. In fact the level of stress as we approach the harvest with an inoperable winery, problems in the vines, a host of new, strange and untested equipment and only a basic knowledge of the whole process is absolutely impossible to describe in any way that can get across the true situation. Anyway, we press on and concentrate on sorting out ‘the biggest problem’ each day.

At the start of September the legacy of the awful weather in August created a huge amount of work. On one of our regular inspections we discover that mildew is making a determined attempt to attack our vines. This is never good news but as the harvest date approaches it makes decisions about how to treat the problem even more difficult – Will the vines be able to ripen the grapes without treatment (it isn’t a problem if they have some mildew after harvest because it gets killed off in winter)? Is there enough time to spray? What else can we do? In the last six months we have become a little hardened to the various problems so it was just in a state of minor panic that we tried to contact the technician at Terres du Sud (our supplier of products for spraying etc) for advice. The response “Sorry he’s on holiday and no-one else can help” rapidly changed this into a major concern as we envisaged rampant rot destroying our harvest before it ripens. This is not helped by rumours of local problems with mildew so bad that people might lose half their crop. In desperation (and with significant doubt about our future allegiance to Terres du Sud) we contact a technician from one of their competitors. Fantastic service, he visited within four hours, gives us advice specific to each grape variety (just trim off the young shoots – these are the most susceptible to mildew - for those to be harvested first and make one last treatment for the cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc) and generally puts our mind at rest about the level of the problem. This of course results in even more tractor work – but that’s life...

High point of early September: We had an impromptu visit from the owner of the nursery where we bought the young vines for replanting earlier in the year. An old chap, obviously passionate about his vocation. His first words were that our vines looked ‘magnifique’. We fairly glow with pleasure and afterwards assure ourselves (with some success) that this wasn’t a sales-related statement.

The month starts well weather-wise. Hot without too much rain, the potential prospect of an Indian summer lifts our spirits somewhat. The grapes ripen inexorably, averaging around 11% of potential alcohol by the 9th of the month. It will be no surprise that by this date the winery is still not ready and, having sorted out our latest crisis (mildew) in the field, the full force of our concern is focused on what on earth we need to do to have somewhere to process the harvest which is now less than two weeks away. There are a number of things outstanding but the only one preventing us from using the winery is electricity. Somewhat fundamental. We find ourselves in the frustrating position of having the wiring systems completed in the winery, all the cables to the electricity network laid and connected, EDF (French electricity board) having verified that the installation is safe but refusing to turn on the power for up to two weeks. “C’est la France” apparently. José begins planning a solution based on some kind of mobile power plant and Jacky phones just about everyone in France who might have something to do with EDF. In the end she drives to EDF in Marmande and refuses to budge until someone promises to connect us. This seems to do the trick, five days before harvest of the sauvignon blanc I get a knock on the door from a man in an EDF van – “it’s connected” – apparently all he needed to do was throw a switch! I make him wait until I am sure we have power. The winery is finally ready and with just five days left and we need to try out all of the equipment as well as plan the harvest – but at least there is new hope…..

Equipment. Hmmm. There is a bewildering range of kit needed to get the grapes from the tractor into the vats in the right condition. A conveyer belt to receive the harvest; a crusher/destemmer (does what it says); a must-pump to pump the mixture of juice and skins and finally heavy-duty large-diameter red tubes to pipe the grapes into the vat. While we have a theoretical view on how it all should work, we are familiar with none of it. We decide to do a dry-run using botrytis-affected (grey-rot) grapes (that we won’t be harvesting for real). I am sure by this time that José thinks we are more then a little mad – what do we intend to do when we have this objectionable harvest into our nice new vats? I’m actually not really sure how we will get rid of it but we remain determined to press ahead. Good job. Half way through the must-pump breaks down, terminally. With harvest of the first sauvignon blanc parcel two days away we find ourselves without one of the key pieces of equipment. We bought all our equipment from Agrifoy, a local supplier, and a frantic phone call results in a swift visit that consisted of several confused mutterings but a promise of a brand-new replacement the next morning – which thankfully arrives without further stress.

As the first harvest gets closer, now only a matter of hours away, we press José on the precise logistics of the picking operation. He is unable to really prove to our final satisfaction that it is ‘doable’ in the time available with the number of people in his team (we are paranoid about everything by this point). He hides his frustration well but in the end says something to the effect of “just leave it to me” – fair enough.

20th September. This is it. We get up early and connect up the arcane equipment to get the harvest from the tractor to the vat. We have worried endlessly about the weather for what feels like months but today the sun shines and (what remain of) our sauvignon blanc are ready to make their final sacrifice in the name of making a fresh and zesty beveridge that will make our name in the wine-making world. Perhaps that might be overstating it a bit, but all is finally ready and we are, as now seems to be normal, torn between the three states of relief, excitement and absolute terror (in no particular order). We have talked in depth with our oenologist about the style of wine we want to make and for our white wines we aim for a crisp, fresh wine with true sauvignon blanc characteristics. This means we need to take real care, particularly in the period from harvest to the beginning of fermentation. So, on the 20th we are ready at the winery with our bottle of CO2 to protect the wine from oxidation, our box of solid carbonic ice (for the same reason), our natural enzymes to extract flavours from the skins and my ‘Heath-Robinson’ device (I coupled up our chiller unit to a big container of water which is then pumped around the outside of the vat by a small pond-pump courtesy of Mr Bricolage) to keep the vat cool for the critical first 24 hours. It seems forever for the first trailer-load to arrive but when it does, unbelievably, all works perfectly. Everything else is forgotten and we immerse ourselves in the logistics and physical effort of unloading cases full of grapes and rinsing and sterilising the cases before they are sent on their way back out to the field. Quick note: Of all the jobs at harvest time, washing and sterilising the cases is the most difficult, not to mention the wettest – avoid if possible ([Jack] Somehow I didn’t!). There are a few teething troubles out in the field, exacerbated by some rows containing unripe grapes which needed to be left for another day, by the middle of the afternoon there are rumours of a few ‘people problems’ and José is looking pretty frazzled – nevertheless, at the end of the day we have our first full vat of juice, the pickers gather in the winery and we have a toast of what will become our first wine. If you can judge the juice, then it tasted pretty good. All very weird. See some more pictures.

The remainder of our sauvignon blanc were harvested before the end of September, just before the rain set in again. Our euphoria about successfully gathering our white grapes was stifled by a growing concern for the red grapes.

So, the work in the winery begins. Having had so much to worry about before the harvest we have not spent a huge amount of time considering the actual process of turning the juice into wine. “Don’t worry about that bit” said our oenologist each time we asked. All very well for him to say. To extract the maximum possible flavour from our white wines we are putting them through pelicular maceration (keeping the juice cool and leaving it on their skins for a day or so rather than pressing them as soon as they arrive at the winery). So the first major winery operation, decuvage (taking out the juice and pressing the skins), arrives very quickly. The principles are simple but, having never done this before, the selection and usage of the various pieces of new equipment was pretty daunting. We were not particularly keen to see our first harvest end up all over the winery floor. The whole thing was made much trickier by the arrival of two of our equipment suppliers (from Agrifoy again, where we bought all our equipment) to make sure the kit, especially the press, works correctly. The first step is to transfer the juice that has separated from the skins. The whole day was pretty special but this event was one of the most memorable events in the winery so far, simply because the smell of the juice as it drains off the skins is wonderful. We managed to get the ‘free-run’ juice into another vat without much of a problem (except the need to rig-up a ‘broken’ circuit for the wine to flow out naturally and then be pumped into the new vat). It was when the juice stopped flowing that we were a bit stumped. What do we do next? Is it safe to open the vat door? Should we open the other draining points? All the time being watched by the guys from Agrifoy. Oh dear. We rigged up our conveyor belt to transport the grapes into the press and very cautiously opened the door of the vat. Absolutely remarkable. A solid wall of bright green grapes. Fantastic, but also a massive amount of juice, the juice drops onto the conveyor belt which simply can’t cope with it (we’ve subsequently found a way to attach a pump to it to cater for excess juice!). Plan B. So we decouple everything and set up our must-pump (used first for the harvest, this has a large funnel-shaped entrance and a ‘screw’ mechanism to move the skins) to transfer the skins to the press. With a little help from our friends from Agrifoy this seems to do the trick and we begin raking the skins out of the vat and into the pump. The point arrives when we can’t reach any more of the skins and the guys from Agrifoy tell me it is time to get inside the vat and shovel it out. I hadn’t really thought about this part of the operation and, half suspecting the French observers (actually, ‘observer’ isn’t fair, by this point they are playing an active role to help us along) were having me on, I don my wellies and climb inside with a spade. Memorable event number two! Hard work in a very odd environment, slippery, hot and claustrophobic. It seems to take forever but eventually the press is filled and the pressing can begin. The press is programmed to gently squeeze the skins over a period of 2 hours. The wait is interminable but eventually our first juice is ready to make wine. Well almost ready, we now need to chill it down and undertake a ‘debourbage’ racking the juice from its sediment before we start fermentation. We can’t resist tasting the juice frequently (several times each day) and become a little worried that we are making a significant dent into our stocks. The juice tastes great with a distinct flavour of elderflower, we are pretty happy with our first effort.

The rest of the white grapes are harvested over the next few days as the weather threatens to deteriorate and the spread of rot becomes epidemic, reducing our yield even further. On one particularly memorable day we gave José the challenge of filling two vats - because rain was forecast for the next day - resulting in a 7am start, harvesting throughout the day without a break, into the darkness at around 8pm. Remarkably he did it. We also harvest our cabernet franc grapes which we plan to use to make a fruity rosé. Needless to say with the combined physical workloads of harvest and winery activity we are pretty shattered, but happy after a week of this.

October starts with the whites secured in their vats but a lot of concern over the reds which all remain in the vineyard. After harvesting the whites we see a deterioration in the weather and a drop in temperature. The merlot and, even more so, the cabernet sauvignon are not yet ripe and if the weather doesn’t improve they will never ripen. Unbelievably, people around us start harvesting their merlot and it is psychologically very difficult to buck the trend (should we safeguard what we have (very very tempting) or hold out in the hope of better weather? – incredibly tough choice when the decision has such a huge impact on the end result of all the effort to date – safety/mediocrity vs risk/quality or risk/poor quality). José is twitchy (understatement) and as more and more people harvest their grapes he gets increasingly worried for us. But we decide to wait and miraculously the weather changes for the better, the first three weeks of October are sunny and dry with temperatures of 26°C. With renewed hope for our red wines we plan the harvests.

The merlot arrives fully mature with potential alcohol levels between 13 and 13.5 percent depending upon the parcel. Again we are happy with the juice which is sweet and full of plumy flavours (very difficult to say what is ‘good’ juice given our lack of experience in this department but we manage to convince ourselves that it’s ok). We leave the cabernet sauvignon to the last possible moment (cabernet always takes longer to ripen than the other varieties) and our final harvest is made on the 26th October with José verging on panic, this was virtually the last in our area apart from the harvest of white grapes for sweet wine. Our patience pays off though, the cabernet has ripened, no green flavours and between 12 and 12.5 percent alcohol with the average for the area reputed to be around 11 to 11.5.

With everything safely in the winery we finally relax about the weather…..and start to worry about what we have in the vats. The phases of development of the wine are many, varied and very rapid. Our opinion about the merits and problems with each of them changes on a daily basis and we make several ‘emergency’ calls to our oenologist, generally to be told “don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal”. Our wines are subjected to a regular, bewildering, and no doubt expensive, series of tests all of which are returned to us with a hasty note saying that all is fine.

So, at the beginning of November, we have;

· Two 80 hectolitre (8000 litres) vats of sauvignon blanc each containing around 70 hectolitres of wine. They taste very different with one being, potentially, excellent. Both are very dry, fresh and aromatic.
· Two 400 litre barrels filled with sauvignon blanc. An experiment really but everyone who tries it, loves it.
· Three different vats (80hl, 20hl and 50hl) of merlot, representing the different parcels of vines. The older vines producing something more tannic and ‘serious’ with the younger ones being fruity – and remarkably, after around 6 weeks, almost drinkable, or are we deluding ourselves here?
· One and a half vats of rosé (around 50 hl from our cabernet franc and 30 hl of juice ‘bled’ off our cabernet sauvignon) that is fresh and fruity. Eventually this will fill a vat of 80 hl.
· And finally two small vats of cabernet sauvignon that will eventually fill a vat of 60 hl. Too early to tell the quality from the taste but the test results are the best of the lot, it’s a lot darker than the others and, most telling of all, dad prefers it.

A total of around 43,000 litres of wine of (already) pretty decent quality. Goodness knows how we are going to blend all this but if anyone had told us at the start of September that we would be in this position we would have been extremely happy.

[Jack] It is just amazing to think that just eight weeks ago the winery was still not operational and now we have a full winery. We thought that the work in the vineyard was hard but it is nothing compared to the work we have undertaken recently. Iain, whose job on the harvest days was to empty the boxes on to the conveyor belt, has developed a rather worrying Charles Atlas physique, whilst I have developed a complete obsession with sterilising and cleaning everything! Between us we have unloaded, sterilised and washed over 4,500 plastic boxes throughout the harvest. Not to mention the fact that whenever working in the winery the majority of the time is taken up with sterilising and cleaning. And none of the equipment is designed for easy cleaning. Just when you think you have removed every last piece of skin or pip, yet another appears!!!

Previous diaries have had a section on daily life. All I can say this time is ‘what daily life’? We’ve been fully immersed in the harvest and winery work. Everything else has been put on hold, including washing and ironing (which has only been done courtesy of the numerous visitors we have had during this period who have taken pity on me!), food shopping (which happens when there really is nothing left and hunger sets in!), gardening (finally my outdoor baskets and pots which I lovingly nurtured all summer just wilted and died!), housework (what?), social life (non existent!). Throughout all this though Rebecca has been brilliant. When not at school she has been out helping us with the harvest and has done her fair share of box washing (her favourite job amazingly). Maybe that’s because she can get absolutely soaked and not get told off! Thanks to one of our best friends she has been able to keep up with horse riding, which incidentally she is addicted to and now desperately wants a pony. Given the state of my plants at the end of the harvest I am not sure that a pony would be a good idea!

Has it all been worth it? Most definitely. We have come a long way eighteen months but there is still a lot further to go, we certainly can’t be complacent (highly unlikely!). Our next major new challenge is marketing. After all, if we can’t sell our wine then all will be lost.

So, we move on, with some of the worries, trials and tribulations of being able to make our own wine being left behind. Our focus for the next few months is finishing the winemaking, marketing and of course starting work on the next vintage .

September and October 2004

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