March to July 2005
Author: Iain
Incredible that it has been five months since we last wrote our diary. I’m writing this at Dad’s house in England on a Sunday with just a few weeks before my contract with HBOS finishes, so this diary will be a perspective of the vineyard from a distance (although I’m sure Jack will add some comments later) and, given that I’m writing some of it so long after the events, it’ll also be a bit hit and miss in terms of what I’ve remembered.
The last few months have been pretty tough as we cope with the family being split up, my infrequent visits to France, Jack being virtually 100% responsible for the day-to-day running of the vineyard as well as trying to ramp-up our business and sell our wines. As usual, our fortunes have been mixed…..
Jack has worked incredibly hard, mornings in the vines and afternoons
in the office virtually 7 days a week – she ends every day completely
shattered. The pressure has been pretty intense with Jack and Dad, who
has been in France for quite a time this summer, working as hard as
possible in the vineyard to avoid having to pay other people to do the
work and then focusing on contacting potential purchasers to keep the
business going.
The Wines
I
have to admit that our packaging, particularly the labels was a bit
of a gamble – if you’ve followed previous diaries you’ll
know that we’ve chosen a very non-French approach. Minimalistic
labels with clear descriptions of the wine. Happily they have been almost
universally appreciated, we’ve had lots of unsolicited positive
feedback and we’ve not even heard the expected derogatory comments
from the ‘traditionalists’ of the area.
Things
get better and better for the contents of the bottles too – in
February we won our first medals in the Paris wine show and in March
and April we had even bigger surprises. Firstly, our Sauvignon Blanc
won a gold medal at the prestigious Bordeaux ‘concours’
(not sure of the literal translation of this but it means a cross between
a show and a competition) and then our rosé won a second gold
medal at the Vignerons Independants show (Vignerons Independants represent
many small independent growers and they try to encourage improvements
in quality by some basic membership rules) - this really was pleasing
because we were the only Duras wine to get a gold medal not just for
rosé but for any style. So we’re now in the incredible
position of winning three golds and a silver medal for our first two
wines!
What of the red wines? Well, they are still in tanks and barrels but there has been a huge amount of development over the last six months as the wines have aged. From the very start we decided upon small fermentation tanks to allow us to make the best possible blends from our various parcels of wines and the time arrived where we had to decide what was to be blended. This involved one of my weekend visits being dominated by lots of trial glasses of different blends of wines – after many many samples we decided on three different blends; an early drinking style made of our partially oak-aged young Merlot, a little of our more intense old vines Merlot (80% Merlot in total) along with 20% Cabernet Sauvignon; a single-variety bottling of Cabernet Sauvignon (the Cabernet Sauvignon has changed the most of all of our wines – it was harshly tannic at the start of the year, it is still tannic but excellent fruit flavours are coming out now so we decided to bottle a small amount as 100% Cabernet Sauvignon) and finally our premium red wine; 100% oak aged old vine Merlot and Cabernet. We’re very pleased with all the reds (although the barrelled wine did scare us for a while in May/June when the fruit just seemed to disappear only to reappear in strength in July – wonder why…..) but in particular the early-drinking style, while still tasting ‘young’ has both structure and full concentrated fruit. We’ve also blended our premium oaked Sauvignon Blanc which tasted quite special when I was last in France. If we (well Jack actually – just another little thing for her to do) can manage the logistical nightmare of getting labels, corks, bottles, capsules, boxes and the bottling lorry synchronised then we’re hoping to get everything except our premium red wines bottled at the start of August.
Here are the final drafts of the labels (many thanks again to James!);
So, all in all, the wines are looking ok. Our thoughts are now turning to the, frighteningly close, harvest for 2005 and the improvements we want to make – as ever there are lots…….
Business
The wine trade is a tough business at the moment, particularly if you’re a French producer, even if you’ve a good quality product and our biggest worry is how quickly we can grow our business to a sustainable position. But, little by little, things are starting to take off. We’ve quite a number of ‘initiatives’ on the go with varying degrees of success, all demanding much time and attention (mostly Jack’s again – how does she do it all?). Our Internet site continues to bring people to us and, directly or indirectly, has been the source of some of our best business (I really must spend some time updating it – it still has ‘La Legue’ branding, have to change it to ‘Chater’). Most surprisingly, the trade through local restaurants – we’re selling our wines through three at the moment - is beginning to bear fruit, not just through the direct sales to the restaurants but also by diners who then visit the vineyard. Jack had a visit from a South African couple last week who had had our wine while eating in one of the restaurants – they only bought 2 bottles from Jack because they were flying home but they loved the wine and were so effusive about the quality (better than any South African Sauvignon they’d drunk, they said) that it gave Jack a real lift – it certainly is things like this that make it all seem worthwhile.
One of our more unusual approaches has been a recent mail shot initiative. We looked up other people named ‘Chater’ in the UK and sent them a letter explaining what we’ve done and asking if they’d be interested in ordering some wine with their name on it. So far, admittedly for a low volume trial, we’ve had a 6% response rate so this could be useful for the future.
We’ve started to work with a local company who arrange wine tours for English tourists – customers visit, have a guided tour and taste our wines – hopefully visitors will like our offerings enough to be tempted to make purchases too!
We decided that we should have an open day at the vineyard. So, on
one of my weekend visits we invited all and sundry for a buffet, guided
tours of the winery and basically as much of our wine as 
they
could drink – with, of course, the opportunity to purchase some
wines. Big mistake. It turned out to be the hottest weekend of the year
(so far) at 40 degrees. We had about 100 visitors – I worked the
winery tours and Jack, with help from Dad and my Aunty Jean and Uncle
Dave who were visiting, sorted out the food and polite conversation
on our lawn. The sales just about paid for the food and the cost price
of the wine sold but the amount of work was immense, I was hoarse from
talking about the winery work and we were all shattered, clearing up
afterwards does not bear recollection…..
Jack and José spent a pretty fruitless day at the Maison de Vin (local HQ for promotion and sales of wine) for an event that they arranged. Another session of long hours in the sun with virtually no sales to show for it – optimistically though we hope that it all helps to promote our brand though.
But, to finish on a positive note, we made our first volume sale to an Irish wine merchant, we’re in promising discussions with a number of others and, right now, you can buy our Rosé from Noel Young Wines – www.nywines.co.uk (search for Chater) and all our wines, very shortly, from www.dnaselectwines.com – don’t forget that you can still order mixed cases of wine direct from us for delivery to your door though - just give us a call or send an email!
In the Vineyard
Having been away from the vines for such a long time I worried that the progress of last year would be difficult to maintain. [Jack: Oh he of little faith!] But the efforts of Jack, helped by José and Dad, have meant that the state of the vineyard continues to improve. In particular, our Sauvignon Blanc vines are in a much better state this year – I’m convinced this is because we reduced the length of the canes when we pruned and made sure that none of them overlapped when tied down [Jack: And because much time was spent on de-budding early in this year!] - we had to spend days sorting out tangled bunches of grapes last year because we didn’t do these basic things the right way – on a slight aside here, it has become really clear to me that in the vineyard as in many other things, if you do the basic things right, early in the process it makes life so much easier later on. On the other hand doing things too early can create its own problems. José, bless him, managed to persuade Jack that, because I was coming over for the weekend the vines needed to be pristine so they lifted the leaf wires and trimmed the vines. Everything looked really good for my visit but because the wires were lifted too soon, much of the growth wasn’t ‘trapped’ and simply flopped down after a few days – we’ve been lifting up all the dropped shoots individually ever since.
Without becoming too philosophical, it struck me as we entered our second year that there is a real feeling of wiping the slate clean, you can forget all of the problems and issues of the year before, learn from the mistakes and start again. It’s a good feeling – if only we could feel more secure about the sales side of things….
2005 looks to be another bumper harvest, particularly
for the Merlot so our work will be cut out over the next few weeks as
we cut out excess growth and 
radically
cut off bunches at veraison (the time at which the grapes change colour
– if you cut off the bunches before this time the remaining grapes
swell up to compensate) to maintain the concentration of fruit. Jack
and Dad’s main focus recently has been on our old Merlot vines
(we always try to give these the most care and attention) and I have
to say that when I last visited these were looking in tremendous condition
– fingers crossed for the weather. Progress in grape development
terms is pretty much on target for harvest to start in the middle of
September but if the current heat-wave continues, who knows……
Daily Life
I’m not sure there’s enough of a non-working life to fill this section! On top of everything else we’re changing our hangar/garage to be able to store our wines (or most of them) onsite after bottling – the experience of storing them at a warehouse in Libourne has been traumatic, to say the least, as well as being an expense we can’t afford.
The biggest news is probably that Rebecca successfully completed here ‘Tour de Lot-et-Garonne’ – school kids in the area have trained for much of the year for a cycling event – staying away from home, in Marmande, and cycling all across the department (county). The kids really enjoyed the practice sessions – great opportunity for them to encourage each other and work as a team and the event itself sounded great. Police escorts as they cycled around the local area, disco in a school on the last night, sleeping away from home, the lot. They cycled over 200km in 5 days – not bad for 9-11 year olds. The whole thing was thoroughly enjoyed. The French schooling system seems to focus strongly on ‘social skills’ in the early years and from what I’ve seen of the children this has had a very beneficial effect.
Rebecca continues to enjoy her horse riding although the war wounds continue to be inflicted – how many times do they say you need to fall off a horse before you can say you’ve learnt to ride? Injuries don’t seem to daunt her for long but some of the horses, one in particular, called Ebel, seem to have it in for her.
Back in England I managed to go to see Live 8. Steve, my brother, was lucky enough to get tickets and I was lucky enough for him to invite me. Queuing was a nightmare (only made bearable by the spectacle of the Gay Pride march in London) and the stage was a speck in the distance but the music was great and it was really good to be there.
Jack's Bit
Author: Jacky
Well it’s amazing that how quickly the time has passed and that it is so long since we last wrote a diary. Mind you I have not been as conscientious as I used to be in this regard (could be as a result of being on my own here!). One thing is certain – absolutely no time whatsoever to be bored!
So…what can I add to Iain’s view from afar.
Well for one thing being a family apart is pretty tough on all. Thankfully as I write this we know that Iain will be back in 11 days time. I just hope this will be the last time we have to endure this separation. However on the positive side it is our luck that Iain has the skill and contacts to be able to pick up where he left off in his previous life in IT. It has been long and hard but not without its rewards for him. But I can’t wait for us all to be together again.
Business
Well the fact that we are now a limited company has created havoc with the paperwork. Much of my time in March has been spent trying to get all our paperwork in order so that it meets with the requirements of being a limited company. Oh joy. And as Iain has said it has been me that has been largely involved with the planning for the next bottling and sadly I have failed. We were planning the bottling for August 3rd and 4th but the capsule suppliers have let us down. All the other suppliers have delivered on time. Despite promises that the capsules could be delivered by the middle of July we eventually got a letter ‘confirming’! that they would be delivered in the week beginning August 8th. Despite my (evidently poor) efforts at trying to bring the delivery date forward, by even talking to the managing director of the French subsidiary (it’s actually an Italian company), they would not budge. Last time we order from them. So as a result we have had to change the bottling date, and it is now September 8th and 9th. This is very disappointing as we will not have any red to sell at the Duras wine fair in August and it also means that we have to wait even longer before we can start getting some sales going with the reds.
Marketing has become a big part of my day now. I have spent much time at the post office in the last few months posting off precious samples of our wines. They are always sent with great hope, having previously contacted the companies who have agreed to take samples for tasting. But the hope fades invariably as I find out through endless phone calls, that the wine ‘is still on the tasting table’, ‘so and so is on holiday and we like to taste the wines together’, etc etc etc. From time to time though we do get some interest and we have indeed succeeded in making a significant sale to a renowned Irish wine merchant in addition to the sales Iain has already mentioned. We also have a couple of other wine merchants on the brink of making orders. And of course now we are benefiting from passing trade, some as a result of eating in local restaurants and some from recommendations. So all is not doom and gloom and obviously as we are new we have to get established. We have been given many many leads which we always follow up so who knows. But with regard to marketing we could do with some luck. We know we have a great product, but it often seems to me that someone somewhere is doing their best to make it all as difficult as possible for us and that to succeed we have to prove ourselves more than one hundred percent. Or we need Robert Parker, the guru of the wine world, to drop by one day and pronounce our wines fabulous and worthy of a rating above 90 points on his magic scale (Mr Parker feel free to drop by any time!).
Vineyard
As well as reducing the number of buds left on the vines this year, and ensuring that none of the canes overlapped each other, we also decided to burn all the prunings. Normally the prunings from the vines, once pulled out, are chopped up by the mower on the back of the tractor and left to rot down in the middle of the rows. But the healthier option, the one less liable to encourage any diseases in the vineyard, is either to remove them altogether or to burn them. We chose the later this year and set José the challenge of finding us a way of burning all the prunings. And the result was a converted wheelbarrow with extended sides. This caused a bit of a stir in the local community and, as far as we know, this was the first time that anyone around here had done this (it’s common practice in many vineyards in Burgundy and the more prestigious chateau of Bordeaux, but not here!).
Another annual job has been the replacement of all the broken posts, this year only around 400, still a lot but less than last year. Many of the posts seem pretty old and it will take a few years before we can reduce the number we have to replace.
Other jobs in the vineyard have included ebourgeonage, or bud removal. This we did with a vengeance throughout the three hectares of Sauvignon Blanc. This year in particular brought about two and sometimes three buds from the same node. So we fastidiously removed the second and third buds. This enables the vine to concentrate all its energies on the primary buds resulting in higher quality fruit. The reds did not suffer in the same way and whilst we have done considerable amounts of thinning there were no where near as many “doubles”.
Personal Life
Bit of a nightmare without Iain here, not only from the personal front, but also because there are so many things I just cannot do. I have to keep waiting until one of José’s team, usually either Luis or Pedro, can pop by to give me a hand…for instance...the swimming pool! As in the previous two years it has been nothing short of a nightmare. For whatever reason it decided to turn green on me! I attacked the problem from various angles, but none of the options or advice I sought helped! José visited on a regular basis always hoping that the pool would have returned to it’s tropical blue colour, often trying to convince me that it was a ‘bit bluer’ than yesterday! And in all honesty I cannot say now that I remember exactly how we managed to get it crystal clear blue again, but we did. May well have been the ‘magic’ tablets that José brought round. But eventually the pool did become clear again and enabled me to see the ‘muck’ that was at the bottom! So the next job was to hoover the pool. Silly me, thought it would be easy – but no – the pump kept malfunctioning and the pool kept loosing water. After several calls for help from Pedro and visits to the pool shop we eventually got José’s crew to do a few running repairs and after several weeks of pulling my hair out we finally got the pool up and running. To date though I have only used it a handful of times – but at least Beck loves it and she most certainly spend hours in there.
We have of course had our usual share of visitors. We are so lucky to have so many good friends back in England and it is always wonderful to have them over for a holiday. My sister, Jen, took pity on me and flew out on a mercy mission for a week to help me get ready for our open day and to take some of the load off me in the vineyard. She always loses weight when she visits us! This time was the hardest for her, we had no time for going out anywhere, in fact I barely have time to go food shopping! Fortunately Beck and I can live on very simple foods.
Following on from luck not being on our side I managed to hit, and probably kill, a deer one evening whilst returning from a meal out with my good friend who was visiting us. This resulted in having to have a new bumper; sadly I do not know the outcome for the deer [Iain: never mind the bloody deer the new bumper cost 300 euros!]. And in the space of three months I have had two speeding fines! Boy racer you might think but both times I was doing 57 km (just 2km over the speed they ‘book’ you) in a 50 km zone! Never had a speeding fine ever before in my life.
One thing that has become very clear to me over the last few months is how hard French people round here work. With their two hour lunch hour it is often easy to think they don’t work hard but they do; quietly. I think the fact was brought home to me when we were eating in a local restaurant and the lady that was waiting tables was doing so to make ends meet after having spent the entire day at her farm working in the fields. And the more you talk to people around here the more you discover that they start work as soon as the sun is up and work until dusk, seven days a week if necessary. This is a rural farming community and one thing is for sure, it’s no romantic idyll if you are trying to earn a crust. I am now full of admiration for those who succeed in this environment.
By stark contrast, it seemed, just a few days later, the British way of life. It is rare that a television program brings out any emotions in me but….well how incensed can you be. I caught a part of a totally banal programme about people wanting to change the way they were. For example a girl desperate to have breast implants to impress the guys and a guy desperate to have a girl find him attractive even though his body was completely (and I mean completely!) covered in countless piercings or tattoos! And the program was fronted by none other than Anne Widdicombe – is it really necessary to stoop to this level? Anne Widdi offered (vary half heartedly I felt – for one of them spend a year in Africa! Presumably to discover life’s real hardships. They didn’t seem too keen. Doesn’t real life exist in England any more or have I been away too long already???
And finally, my new nickname; ‘medaille d’or’ (gold medal). A good friend of José’s, with a very dry sense of humour, has taken to calling me that as a kind of humorous tribute for the medals that we’ve won this year. I take it as a great compliment.
