Blog Entries

Snippers and labradears

aliballantyne@mac.com — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:00:00 +0100

It's cold today. English weather. No wind to speak of, just heavy, dull, grey cold. Not a grand day to be pruning but we're panicking a bit now as to how we can finish in time, so needs must.
Lizzie is trying out some power-assisted secateurs she bought last year. They're a bit scary, though nothing like as scary as the ones the pros use which slice through metal, vines and fingers willy-nilly. The great thing about them though is that they leav [...]

This year's harvest and wine-making

lizziebg@mac.com — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:00:00 +0100

Ali's promised to write a blog (she's the word-wizard) about the harvest that took place at the end of August. Come back in a day or two for the full story.

Fantastic news from Le Couvent

lizziebg@mac.com — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:00:00 +0100

We've taken you through all our trials and tribulations over the last year, right up to a couple of weeks ago when our tiny quantity of wine had a stuck fermentation. But the addition of lees from Hans' finished wine kick-started ours, and within less than two weeks our malolactic fermentation was completed. We received the long-awaited -mail from the oenologue, then we had to take in a second sample for verification. My heart was racing as I opened her e-mail a day later. Confirmed. [...]

Stuck fermentation

lizziebg@mac.com — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:00:00 +0100

You'll remember that we have made some wine from what remained after last year's tornado and hail storm the night before the harvest. The wine has been sitting in a tank in my brother's cave since last September, happily going through its alcoholic fermentation, then resolutely refusing to finish the malolactic fermentation.

We had the wine tested by the oenologue about five times during the past few weeks and it just hasn't budged. It can't be bottled until it [...]

Label-day at Chateau Malaudos

lizziebg@mac.com — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:00:00 +0100

Ali & I had a great evening eating delicious tapas in the vineyards of Domaine Bourdic . Hans & Christa, the winemakers there, are our good friends and I asked them about our 'stuck' malolactic fermentation. Hans has a solution. He's going to give us some lies from his wine which has just finished its 'malo'. This should contain enough of the necessary bacteria to get ours moving. He too has some slow wines so that's restored my confidence a bit. I thought it w [...]

A mazet in the heat

lizziebg@mac.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:00:00 +0100

The temperatures at Chateau Malaudos are stifling at the moment. The vines aren't at their best either, having taken the most awful battering during last September's hail-filled tornado. I think they look weakened and they really have very little fruit hanging. We've also suffered a bit from oidium thanks to hot and wet weather during the Spring. So we're sort of cutting our losses this year. It's likely we'll have precious few grapes to take to the Cave Co-operative; [...]

Mas Gabriel - Caux

lizziebg@mac.com — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:00:00 +0100

I've written before about the kindness of other winemakers and just how supportive they've been. Just the other day I received this e-mail, out of the blue, from our lovely friend Peter Core who makes delicious biodynamic wine at Mas Gabriel .

"Dear Lizzie

I hope all is well. Just a quick note to say that performance bio keep warning about high risk for mildew, which we treat with copper. We have only seen a couple of taches so far but I think it would be [...]

If only the weather would make up its mind

lizziebg@mac.com — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:00:00 +0100

I've been blithering on about the spraying for weeks now, but it's our biggest headache at this time of the year. Worse still, we chose this year to move to organic treatments, so timing is even more critical.

We should be treating every ten days in the current weather conditions, but therein lies the problem. There is barely a day when there isn't too much rain, or wind, or heat, or the threat of any of those three. So, in theory one needs a still, cool, dry part of the da [...]

How to make a barrique

lizziebg@mac.com — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:00:00 +0100

Here's a good, speedy introduction to the fantastic art of barrel-making. Bear in mind that they're over 700 euros each and only take 225 litres when you swig that next glass of oak-aged red. Though beware, if the wine label says 'oaked' that could mean the winemaker has just dipped a large teabag full of oak chips in it. Another thing entirely.

'Tis the season to be filthy, tra la la la lah, la la la lah

lizziebg@mac.com — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:00:00 +0100

Warm weather + humidity after the spring rains = danger in the vineyards. Danger of grey or white mildew - and a host of other irritations that threaten our hail-enfeebled vines. So, that means we have to spray them. All. Individually. Each fortnight. And there are six thousand inconveniently placed on a hillside, so we can't use a tractor. Enter Ali (and me too, but I take more photographs).

More machinery

lizziebg@mac.com — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:00:00 +0100

After what seems like weeks of hopeless weather, sun each morning, rain each afternoon, the forecast is now good. Lots of sunshine for weeks on end. However, the soil is very humid, the air is warm and our young vines are bursting forth - leaves everywhere. This is one of the busiest times in the year in the vineyard.
With the combination of damp and warm the vines are at high risk from oidium and mildew. We treat the vines against these diseases each fortnight until mid-July. Last year [...]

Souches and spuds, cores and tips

aliballantyne@mac.com — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:00:00 +0100

Well, the vineyard survived the second onslaught of hail yesterday. The tender buds are still intact and the nascent grapes and apples get another chance at life. What a relief.
We met our lovely new friends, Deborah and Peter Core up at Chateau Malaudos today for a spot of lunch. They make beautiful biodynamic wine in Caux at their vineyard, Mas Gabriel . This year they made their first white and rose wines, both of which are absolute crackers - we ca [...]

Hearts in Mouths

lizziebg@mac.com — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:00:00 +0100

Ali here.
We had a pretty full day planned today. Poppy was turning up to do maths revision with Lizzie at 10; I was shopping for dinner tonight - a family affair with all the Goslings, Chris (volunteer extraordinaire) and her dad Stan and the lovely, lovely Sally and Paul Wheeldon - Sal, who you might have spotted on a previous blog as The Cake Queen surrounded by greedy, cake-loving Labradors. Oh, and a trip with Maria Picanço, our neighbour, to visit h [...]

How it looked today

lizziebg@mac.com — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:00:00 +0100

Today was gloomy - not much in the way of sun, but I thought our volunteers might like to see how it's coming on. The figs are just appearing, the pear trees are loaded with tiny pears, the apples are in flower, the vines are bursting - particularly the whites and the potager is full of cabbages, broccoli and lettuce.

Olives in a Languedoc Vineyard

aliballantyne@mac.com — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:00:00 +0100

I got back from Australia last week where I've been visiting my family. If there's one thing that Lizzie is really good at (and there are many, many things she's ridiculously good at) it's organizing surprises. There were two big ones waiting when I got home. The first one was the bridge. For anyone who knows us, this bridge has been in the "it's just about to be started" phase of construction for the last 4 years. But finally, [...]

Vineyard Sassoon

lizziebg@mac.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:00:00 +0100

I last had my haircut before Christmas. It's now March and I've looked like a mad woman for weeks. Ali was desperate to lose her 'I'm wearing a nest' look too, so we called our pal and hairdresser to see if she could fit us in. 'You're working in the vineyard today? No problem, we'll do it there. How about 4 o-clock this afternoon?' So [...]

An arresting fig

m@roujan.com — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:00:00 +0100

This evening's blog comes from Karen & Michelle our London fig-rescuers.
Our Thursday briefing from Lizzie at Chateau Mal au Dos pointed us towards a distant thicket. There's a lovely fig tree waiting to be released from there says she.

We gathered our favourite tools and plodded towards the edge of the amphitheatre. Confronted [...]

Wind, wind, Wind

a@roujan.com — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:00:00 +0100

Alistair from Brighton is today's contributor to the Chateau Malaudos blog
Today, Tuesday, started windy and got more windy as the day went on. The weather brought out the wise planning of M. Gineste. Down around the house, the air was still and, when the sun came out, pleasantly warm; up on the ridge hats were pulled down against the cold and eyes streamed in the wind. Each job came with its own unique weather conditions.

Today's blog is contributed by Rob
Well it's the end of my first day of “Volunteers Week” and I'm just sitting down for a well earned cup of tea. It was lovely to see Ali & Lizzie, seems like I had never been away. We made our way to the vineyard and no sooner had we had arrived, we were on our way back to Le Couvent for food - just what I needed.
The afternoon saw us [...]

Postcard from the Potager

p@roujan.com — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:00:00 +0100

Today's blog is written by Jane and Paula
This was our final day in the vineyard working in the potager and there were blue skies as usual. A gentle breeze kept us, Marianne, Jane and Paula, cool. Walking up to the mazet the almond blossom was beautiful against the blue sky and it is hard to believe it is only February!!

Our job was to clear the beds and prepare [...]