Chateau Malaudos

Okay, today is Tuesday 2nd March and it is beautiful weather here in Roujan. Everyone arrives for our delicious breakfast, prepared by Andrew and Sarah. Then it is all hands to the wheel to get us up to the vineyard.
We arrive with our energy at the ready and start by each planting a Eucalyptus tree and putting our name on it. The plan is to have an avenue of these wonderful trees to walk under.

 

 

We go on gathering old pieces of wood, sarments, to burn. Sarah and Linda look as if they are in medieval times, like magical witches captured by the fire which is licking around them as they throw the sarments onto the flames.

 

 

We are using the yellow muncher to munch old weeds and hoes to finish the weeding of the vines, together with seagull manure to fertilize the vines, yum!

The sun is shining and there is a gentle breeze keeping us cool and able to work for hours. Time flies by and Lizzie gathers us
into a change, sorry, I mean chain gang on the side of the hill.  We are looking into an area of overgrown land referred to as New Zealand, because the kiwi plants grow there. We have Sue and Andrew at the bottom of the hill, hauling and pulling old glass bottles, plastic, old equipment, tyres and other amazing bits of rubbish. The rest of the team wait with anticipation to see what is going to appear from the brambles and thickets of trees. There is a lot of stuff under there!! Chris is packing the trailer to the maximum and keeping it firmly in place so it does not
fly off on the journey to the dump.

 

Within a very short space of time we have moved to pruning, clearing, burning and seeing a wonderful expanse of the vineyard coming into view.
With one part of the chain gang taking the rubbish to the dump and the remaining members moving on to discover olive trees under brambles we are feeling inspired to be even more creative as we finish our lunch of excellent soup, crunchy bread, cheese and ham.

 

 

The discovery of massive stones under the previously overgrown and hidden ground leads to serious decisions to build stairways from one level
to another. This is reminding us of the steps that were found and built last year at Volunteer week. Dougie and Caroline do you recall that? We miss you guys, you know!! Sue has been digging like an Irish navvi and made, with some help from the rest of the gang, six lovely deep steps from one level to another.

In the meantime Linda has excavated some enormous stones and found another stairway along the slope. We are all involved with one activity or another and again time flies and the day is done on the vineyard. The weather has been wonderful, blue skies all day and the almond trees are beginning to blossom.

We pack everything away, tools, tractors, munchers, dogs and people and arrive back to a lovely shower and a cup of tea at Le Couvent.

This evening we are having a meal of Smoked Salmon Gratin cooked by Michelle and Karen. There is going to be wine tasting during our meal, presented by Deborah and Peter Core from Mas Gabriel in Caux.

What lucky, lucky people we are!!!!

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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. Hooray!

Now we had to take the wine off the lees, and add a tiny amount of sulfite to stop the wine oxidising. At this point we had the first taste of the finished wine. We'd been fully expecting cooking wine, and had prepared a cookery book of red wine recipes to go with it, but to our great surprise the wine actually tastes good.

 

 

I like it - enough to have a second and third glass. And to look forward to drinking it. After all we've gone through over the last year I can hardly believe it.

Anyway, enough boasting. Ali and I spent a day and a half manually filling and labelling a very limited edition of 364 bottles.

 

 

Of course we're using the wonderful Zorks instead of cork for the closures, and I can reveal the full set of labels.

 

 

364 bottles of very drinkable wine rescued from a hail-filled tornado. We're thrilled to bits.

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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 was all my fault.

So today I've spent a bit of time creating some new labels for our wine. This is the first of a series of four.

 

 

 You'll have to wait to see the rest.......

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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).

 

 

Last year our vines were pretty sick after four years of neglect before we bought them, so we were obliged to use chemical treatments to get them into good health. This year we have decided to use completely organic treatments to try to be as respectful to our environment as possible.

We trudge miles up and down the rows through a mist of copper sulphate which turns our silver jewellery black. (I'm sure the other old vigneron don't have that problem.)  Hence the nose mask and gloves. By the end of the day we are filthy.

 

 

Although you can see rather better in the next photo when the shoes and socks come off.

 

 

Regular readers will know that there is barely a week that passes without us buying another piece of equipment to make it even feasible to look after the land at Chateau Malaudos. Last week we bought this fab machine to cut the grass in the amphitheatre and orchard.

 

 

I'm lying of course. It doesn't look like that at all, because the one we bought is 13 years old and is a little faded. But it works and was cheap. Phew!

Well, it did work. Until I hit the same concealed tree stump twice. After eight hours solid mowing I was just doing that tiny bit extra when I wrecked the machine by bashing the skirt into the blades. Mercifully my pal Teddy came round with his huge mallet on the end of a long handle and whalloped it back into shape. So now it's perfect again. Or would be if I hadn't blunted the blades somewhat. By a stroke of (genius) luck, I had already ordered some new blades from an eBay shop in England - where they are a fraction of the french price. Now I just have to put it all together again and we're ready to roll tomorrow.

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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. 

On Wednesday the paysagiste Michel Reboul turned up with his team to dig up the vines at the top of the amphitheatre.  This is the steepest part of our land and has always been a bit of a nightmare.  The only time we took the quad up there Lizzie had to hang off the uphill side of it like a windsurfer to stop it toppling down the hill.  (Please don't try this at home!) Many of the Cinsault vines there died when the vineyard was more or less abandoned and the rest have struggled ever since so it feels as if we've cleared out a dusty attic now they're gone.   

After two days of rain the soil was pretty damp and in perfect condition for pulling up vines apparently.    They were about 50 years old I guess and, like icebergs, most of the plant lives below the surface - some of the root systems went on for metres. 

 

 

The lovely Christophe was the artist behind the digger-levers which he manipulated like a master puppeteer, and his even lovelier assistant was our very own Josh who worked like a Trojan all day long lugging heavy vines up and down the hill and building them into a souche wall. 

 

 

We reckon there's enough firewood there to see us through next winter.

 

When they finished that they set to work filling in the road by the mazet parcelle, shoving a huge rock under Olive's foot and digging over the grassy bit near the reservoir which Lizzie wants to turn into a lawn.  The two of them got through the most incredible amount of work that day, "happy work" Josh called it.  He was pleased as punch to be working on his land and it was fantastic to see him in his professional role as apprentice landscape gardener.

 

 

The countryside is in full bloom right now, carpeted with irises, spring flowers and, here and there, tender shoots of wild asparagus.  It's so fine it's quite difficult to spot but it's worth the effort, the succulent tips taste like the freshest peas straight from the pod.  There are two sure-fire ways of finding it.  One is to suck up to any old boy you see clutching a bulging carrier bag and the other is to dog the footsteps of Kit who has become the world's greatest living Asparagus-Hound.  Quick as a flash she spots her quarry and before you can say "Ooh, wouldn't that be lovely roasted with some olive oil and rock salt" she's bitten off the tip, scoffed the lot and tuned her asparagus radar to a new bearing.  We're wondering if she might transfer this skill to truffle-hunting though holding her back after she'd got a taste for the "black gold" is a daunting, and expensive, notion.   

 

 

Meanwhile, here's a little something for Marianne.  Yes, sweetheart your spuds are on the move and lookin' good. As you can see, everything in the garden is just lovely.  

 

 

 

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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, under Lizzie "the Mastermind" B-G's sweet supervision, Andy "The Welder-beast" Dixon and Teddy "Angle-grinder" Hutton pooled their resources and talents and came up with an airy, elegant curve of space-leaping, heart-swelling, simple steel that connects our old balcony at Le Couvent to the top garden.  It is a beauty.  Graceful, light as air and solid as a rock, the bridge soars way, way beyond my expectations.  My biggest thanks to the mighty trio and to everyone who has pondered, planned and contributed to this project over the years. 

Andy immediately found a name for it.  Because it flies over the chicken run he called it le pont des poules.  Which immediately turned into Pontypool.  Ah well, I suppose you can't have everything.  The name's going to stick, isn't it?  I can feel it in my bones.   

The second surprise involved a trip up to the vineyard.  When we got to the chain at the bottom of the path I said (well, shrieked is probably more like it) to Lizzie, "What is that white thing?  It looks like a caravan.  You've bought a, you've bought a caravan, haven't you?  Oh my God, you've bought a caravan."    It's not that I've got anything against caravans.  Actually, that's a lie.  I've never liked the idea of caravans at all, they seem hot and airless and rather mean.  Of course, I'd never actually been in one, so, obviously, I was speaking with an objective, if horribly bigoted, authority here.  Anyway, yes, so there it was, a big box sitting, oh so whitely, against the rippling, not at all white, prettiness of the olive and pine trees.  Lizzie turned the key and we climbed into a 70's beef stew and carrot interior.  Brown, cream and orange tartan, synthetic-tweed furnishings with contrasting blue lampshades, curtains and cushions.  And nets at the double-glazed windows.  Oh joy. 

 

It was instant head-over-heels love. 

For those of you fellow-travellers who burn to know these things, she is a Messager Mascotte 385, in her prime at only 25 years old.  We called her Olive and re-painted her the very next day in a new livery of olive green with a bauxite red stripe.  She nearly fades into the background now and we spent two happy nights in her, cooking on the gas-hob that transforms into a work-top and sleeping on the bed that transforms into a dining table in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

 

Lizzie assures me that somewhere or other here, there is a switch that transforms the entire caravan into a Porsche.  I believe her.  If only we could find that P-spot switch we might regain some street cred, or something.    In the meantime we're hoping that our rather cool candelabra does the talking for us while, oddly, we fight off painters-astrophysicists-writers-geologists-teachers-administrators-broadcasters-bankers-farmers-lovers-lawyers and teenagers, all of whom have volunteered to caravan-sit Olive through her first probationary weeks, even months, alone in the vineyard. Are we missing a trick here, I wonder?

Meanwhile back at Le Couvent we're well into the week's retreat for the Black and Asian Writer's Group.  Sponsored by Bloomberg and mentored by The Tricycle Theatre in London, this course is a treat for us too.  The house thrums with the energy of big brain-power as first, second and seventeenth drafts get written off and ideas get tossed around.  The chat is fabulous and it's a privilege to co-host such a fantastic and lovely group.

In other words, life's as awful as ever here.  What can I say?

PS.  Had you spotted that "I love" is actually an anagram of "Olive?"   Not a very challenging anagram I admit, but kind of cool, don't you think?

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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 she came, complete with hairclips, scissors, gown and her dog, Dolly. Ali took our mirror.

 

 

We've heard that human hair might ward off the wild boar from our vines. Of course, they're not remotely interested now that there's no fruit and plenty of delicious nuts about.  But if I can hang on for another haircut until August when the fruit hangs heavy, perhaps....?

 

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 Wednesday 11th February is our rest day after two days working with a great team of people at Chateau Mal Au Dos, the soon to become world famous vineyards of the South of France.

Monday started with many journeys to the local tip to clear the piles of garden waste gathered by the team over the weekend. Next it was up to the Chateau Mal Au Dos for the first time this visit, armed with an assortment of gardening equipment ready for any task that was assigned. Our first task was to strim area between the vines clearing the way for a group to prune behind us. This was followed by lunch, a fantastic vegetable soup prepared by Debbie.

After lunch we were taken to a sloped area between two terraces where the idea was to construct some steps from one level to the other. With the help of Sharon we started to clear the area before making plans on how we could set the stairway, then to our surprise we found a very large stones, then another and another which continued until we go half way between the two levels.

 

 

So what seemed like a daunting task was a lovely job renovating someone's hard work from the past. After this it was back to Le Couvent to relax for the evening and enjoy the delightful supper prepaired by Jane & Marianne.

Following that first fun packed day we were ready to take on the next, however our day was nearly brought to a premature end by our friends at EDF Energy who had decided to start excavating across the main access to Chateau Mal Au Dos. Not to be thwarted by this, some quick thinking by advance party, Ali had found an alternative route in, so we were able to get our small convoy of equipment to a very eager team already assembled and waiting to galvanise into action. Which is what everyone did without hesitation.

There were teams armed with strimmer, chain saws, clippers, choppers, saws & a whole manner of implements dotted around the vineyard taking on all & any rough vegetation. Again, as Monday,  lunch was provided by Debbie - a wonderful blue cheese & broccolli soup. Following lunch we had a short spell of Southern France's liquid sunshine before getting back to work.

 

As we walked back to the area where we had been working, looking around you could see the whole place looking fresher and somehow more vibrant, this gave us a real sense of purpose and the drive to achieve even more through our stay. So back to the prickly bushes, brambles & overgrown vegetation for more outdoor entertainment.

 

 

As the afternoon drew to a close Lizzie called the team together. Once assembled Lizzie & Ali took us all on a tour of the vineyard. As we went around you could see the dramatic changes that everyone had contributed to, vines had been pruned, access between the vines had been manicured, walkways clear, drive ways made wider, hidden featrures revealed and areas covered in weed exposed ready for replanting.

 

After this it was time to make our way back to Le Couvent so we packed the equipment and headed of, only to find EDF had not completed their work resulting in one of the cars being stranded to wrong side of their excavations. No problem, we had a plan, advance party Ali would lead on the quad followed by Lizzie in the van, then 5 of us in the 4x4 with the stranded car bringing up the rear and we would go out the same way as we came in. The order in which we were travellling was important because the route out was not exactly straightforward  and involved negotiating a number of large hills and a mountain track (for want of a better description), which only the 4x4 & quad were designed for. Anyway just as we started our journey the skies opened and it lashed down more liquid sunshine, making the track a little challanging to say the least. Despite this we continued until we reached our first steep incline (loose mud, shale & one or two large rocks), three of the vehicles got past this ok the 4th, however, as not so lucky due to a very slippery surface. However, it only took support, encouragement and a bit of a push from the team in the other vehicles to get the 4th vehicle through as well. We plodded on and eventually got back on to a proper road surface, with all credit to the driver of that 4th vehicle, the all terraine Nissan Micra (We have excluded the names to protect their identity should anyone from Hertz read this blog).

Supper Tuesday evening was again delightful, this time prepared by Chris & Sue, which was followed by an evening in the TV room watching a  of Mama Mia, the karaoki version no less, which I  (Doug) confess was good fun but made even better by those there.  

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Last Friday night we were having dinner with our old chums Pierre and Giovanna in their exquisite house on the beach at Agde.  As we were leaving Pierre and Daniel looked up at the star-sequinned sky.  "See how clear the sky is?  It means it's going to be a perfect day tomorrow, just wait and see."

The next day France and Spain were hit by the biggest storm in decades.  One and a half million people without electricity, winds blowing at 150km/hr and 11 dead in Spain.  Our local boys' local knowledge was more or less on a par with Michael Fish and his non-hurricane.  Even more surprising though was that the horizontal rain of Saturday was replaced by a bright and cloudless day on Sunday.  Almost unbelievable that the weather could change quite so dramatically in 24 hours.  Best of all though, we'd planned a big working afternoon and a bbq in the vineyard and against the odds it happened.  So our huge thanks to Alex C, Alex Mac, Debbi, Jenny, Michelle, Josh, Poppy and Justin (better late than never) who pruned vines and olives, weeded, planted, chain-sawed wood and collected souches.  It was a fantastic afternoon.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'd decided to move the bbq to the Convent in case the weather turned on us again.  It didn't but it was great to be back in the big kitchen tucking into a gigot of lamb, sausages, Lizzie's chilli roast potatoes and some fantastic salads. A special mention here for Michelle's excellent bakewell tart. 

 

 

 

Alex C had brought his dogs up to the vineyard in the afternoon and the five of them were circling each other like fish in an aquarium when they weren't dashing around and getting up to no good.  By pudding they were completely tuckered out.  We blame Josh for inviting them onto the otherwise forbidden sofa.

 

 

 

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For the last week we've been pruning up at Chateau Malaudos.  After a week of colds, flu and frosty winds after New Year, our noses and the skies cleared on about the 5th of January and it turned beautiful.  It's still quite chilly but when there's no wind and the sky is blue, it's T-shirt weather again.   We've been cutting up dead fruit trees and filling up the trailer with peach wood for the wood-burner at home. 

 

We decided this year that we'd take our time pruning the vines.  Now that we know how long it takes and we're just that bit more experienced, we know we can get it done in time, so why not take a moment longer and do it that little bit better?  Last year, knowing nothing but convinced that we'd definitely kill off these poor vines that had been struggling to survive without help or attention for three long years, we left lots of extra "just in case" buds.   We now know that a vine is much harder to kill than we ever suspected, and letting 29 sarments (the new "branches" which bear the grape bunches) grow when there should only be a maximum of 8, is actually a really bad idea.  So Lizzie and I and all our lovely chums - Alex, Erzsi, Nicola, Jenny, Debbi and the two Teds - who've been up to help are being resolute in our Less Is More campaign and pruning for quality and health.  Sounds rather like eugenics, doesn't it?  

So far all the muscat is pruned, all the grenache in the amphitheatre and Lizzie has pruned the syrah.  The syrah vines are the ones on wires and demand a completely different type of pruning to the rest of the vines which are all the old-fashioned "gobelet"  type ie. with one "arm"  at each corner.  The syrah vines sprout up from a horizontal branch and as they grow vertically are caught and held between wires.  We decided that if Lizzie pruned all these herself then we'd know who to blame.  Clever, eh?  

The whole mazet parcelle is now pruned and about two-thirds of the big amphitheatre so we're thrilled.  If the weather holds for another three weeks we'll be done.  Then there'll just be everything else left .  Yes!  We've also been planting roses up at the mazet.  Twenty seven have been coaxed into place, many of them in honour of mates this Christmas.

 

Most days we've taken a bit of lunch up to keep up our spirits and energy and taunt the dogs with.  It occurred to me yesterday as I was wandering up to the van (chuck-wagon) with new pruning chum Debbi that we looked just like three old blokes (sorry, Debs) sitting outside their sheds with a packet of sandwiches and a Thermos of nice, hot tea.  Debbi did point out that in fact we were eating quiche aux poireaux, tarte au thon and macaroons.  She also spotted that the Thermos wasn't tartan, but you get the idea.   

On Monday Lizzie and I finally plucked up the courage to take a sample of wine to the oenologue in Pezenas.  An oenologue is the wine-expert who explains what's happening to your wine chemically.  Oenologues are therefore very important and also rather daunting.  We had no idea what would be demanded of us - a declaration from Customs perhaps, or documentation that we had a degree in wine-making, or maybe proof that we owned a vineyard.  In France, the land of red tape, you come to expect the unlikely and the worst when it comes to paperwork.   So we crept into the wine-lab and were greeted by a charming lady in specs.  "No problem," she said with a dazzling smile when we asked her if she could test our sample to see if it had done it's malolactic fermentation, "but I'll test for volatile acids too.  If they're bad then the fermentation is beside the point.  I'll e-mail you shall I?"  We love this charming woman who didn't make us feel small or stupid or paperworkingly challenged. 

Now you could argue that when it comes to humans it's no bad thing to be a bit on the volatile side.  Spice of life and all that and nothing's more boring, surely, than being unvolatile or, worse still, completely inert.  When it comes to wine though, volatile is BAD.  It means your wine is turning into the "v"-word (as in salt and v crisps) which like "The Scottish Play" and The Bad Wizard in Harry Potter is the name that cannot be spoken out loud.  Anyway after 36 hours on tenterhooks, the report arrived.  Our "malo" is 20% done, but best of all, our volatile acids are excellent and all our wine-making chums are thrilled and amazed.  "How did you manage to keep it so low?" asked lovely Simon from Domaine des Trinites.  Well, Lizzie scrubbed out the cuves by hand and Justin has kept the seal pumped up and ... well, we're thrilled. 

 

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We've finished areas 4 & 5 and are due to start at the very top of the hill on area 1 next. That's the prize Grenache, every bit of which we lost to the storm. Next year is going to be magnificent. I feel it in my bones. We're going to have superb grapes of deep and luscious flavour to make the 2009 vintage an extra special one.

 

 

 

Having finished the top Syrah we're delighted with how it all looks. (These are yours, Sarah & Andrew) We did the last pruning and clearing at the end of last week. It was a freezing day and the wind blew so hard we spent five hours fighting with it. A real cold headachy kind of a day. But it's done and they look swell.

 

 

 

Less can be said of Ali. Back in the days when she was a person-on-the-telly she wore Armani, Jean Paul Gaultier and  the like. Her old pals would be hard pressed to recognise her now, but here she is - in her gnome-pruner gear - healthier, shinier, fitter and a non-smoking winemaker. Who'd have thought it?

Those old habits die hard, though, and one passion that remains is her love of cashmere. Not any old cheap stuff you understand, but the delicious touch-me touch-me of  high end 100% cashmere knitwear. So now she's selling wonderful TSE, Ralph Lauren and Elie Tahari sweaters, amongst others. Yesterday she had a stall at the magnificent Chateau de Cassan Christmas Fair where she sold lots of beautiful cashmeres to lucky visitors. Have a look at her new website .

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I ache from head to toe. All thanks to a good five hours at Chateau Mal Au Dos sorting out the problem with the well. But finally, after much puffing, blowing, wrenching, standing in Cauvy & Fils wishing I'd actually measured the pipes before going shopping for plumbing parts, it all fitted. Now we have water to the reservoir, and at both ends of the vegetable garden. And it's only taken 10 months.

After that I stopped briefly for a sweet pomegranate from the tree then got a fit of energy and dug the potager like a demon possessed under blisteringly hot sun. So last night passed with me groaning with aches, pains & crampy legs. Stupid old fool.

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Today's blog post has been written by Doug & Caroline, who came to Le Couvent, Roujan hoping that they could take part in our grape harvest.

Following a long drive to Roujan on Monday two weeks ago, we arrived to a very warm welcome from Liz & Ali, only to find the weather had put a premature end to this year's grape harvest. Therefore no vendange for us this year, however as some of the harvest had been salvaged there was the option to be involved with the next process, turning it into wine (yip-pee).

Thanks to lots of hard work before we arrived the grapes had already been transported into the village were in a vat and starting to ferment. So twice a day the fermenting grape & juice mix had to be mixed by hand & on the 2nd occasion daily the specific gravity of the liquid had to be measured for percentage of potential alcohol.

Within a few days of doing this the mixture was at its prime, and time to extract the grapes from the juice, it was decided that Sunday would be the ideal time for this 1100 to be exact. Sunday 1100 we all met at the Cave (Caroline, Liz, Ali, Colin, Judith, Justine, Michelle, Josh & I) ready to start the separation process. This involved draining the grape juice from one tank into another (by bucket), after we had transferred approximately 280ltrs of liquid from the first tank all that was left was the remaining grapes. These grapes still had potential to produce more juice so they needed to be taken out of the tank & be pressed, this meant that someone would have to get in to the tank and bucket the remaining contents out. I was that volunteer, so off with the shoes & socks, down to my speedo's and in I got.

What a sensation paddling in soggy grapes being overwhelmed by the pungent smell they were giving off. It was great. Once the remaining contents of the tank had been transferred to smaller containers and put into a van, we all went a few kilometres to where the press was situated. We all then took it in turns to press the juice from the grapes, which resulted in a further 100ltrs of juice that could be added to the 280ltrs back at the Cave.

The following day we did exactly that, so there is now nearly 400ltrs of premium Chateau Mal Au Dos vintage 2008 maturing in a secrete location somewhere in Roujan. Despite not being able to pick any grapes on this visit to Roujan we have had a fantastic time and feel very honoured to be part of the team that helped produced the very first batch of wine from Chateau Mal Au Dos. And who knows what other years will bring..

A very, very honoured & overwhelmed Doug & Caroline

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After the devastation of the vines and olives Ali & I have found ourselves more and more depressed each time we have visited Chateau Mal Au Dos to walk the dogs. After such beauty and plenty it is soul-destroying to see the blank vines and arid featureless soil. So, only one thing for it - we set to work. Each time we say we're off to the vineyards to do a bit of work wonderful friends and guests say they'd like to come too. So yesterday we had Chris & Sue & Sharon & Paula & Doug & Caroline along with us. And what stars they were. Thank you. Volunteer's week anyone ?

 

 

 Doug didn't seem at all embarrassed by driving Queenie the Quad decked out in flowers.

 

 

Paula & I set to clearing up and digging over the potager in preparation for plants from Clermont market.

 

 

Chris & Sue cleared the top road so we can get the van & trailer up there to collect dead vines.

 

 

Doug & Caroline fertilised the bottom syrah.

 

 

Sharon womanfullywrestled the yellow grass chomper round the orchard ready for apple tree planting.

 

 

Lunch for hungry workers

 

 

 The extra wine has been added to the first run stuff & now we have this:

 

 

  Just enough to bottle for Le Couvent. We hope.

 

 

 

 

 

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So yesterday was the day when we drew the wine off the skins, pips and snails (I jest), then pressed the marc to release further wine. Here are the photos of what was the most stupendously wonderful day.

 

 

 First we drew off the running wine and tipped it into the second cuve.

 

 

With a little tasting and spitting on the way. Here's Colin who, with his wife, Judy, called in to Le Couvent to see us on the very day we were pressing the wine from the vines we'd given them in May - despite being in the middle of a six month long tour of southern Europe. Naturally, they were dragged in to help.

 

 

 Josh even came down in his dressing-gown to check out the commotion.

 

 

 Happy vigneronnes, Lizzie & Ali

 

 

The remaining marc, once the wine had been drained off. The difficulty now  is that the marc is at the bottom of the cuve, so someone has to get in and bucket it out. That'll be Doug's job then.

 

 

Once in the tank he passes the marc to Caroline who lobs it into buckets. These will be taken by van to Domaine Bourdic where our half-share of the pressoir lives. The press weighs a ton, so it's easier to take the marc there.

 

 

Job done, Doug then has to climb out from the bottom of the empty tank - which could easily tip. Extra hands needed.

 

 

 Spotless feet.

 

 

 Marc in the van ready to go to Domaine Bourdic.

 

 

 Once there Justin, Josh & Doug pour the marc into the press.

 

 

 Ali checks it.

 

 

 Everybody gets busy.

 

 

Lizzie & Ali have a go at working the press. Really good fun and great to see more wine running.

 

 

 

 

 

 Caroline & Doug also have a go.

 

 

Michelle, Josh & Justin pour the recovered wine (vin de presse) back into buckets for us to take back to add to the original wine.

 

 

Tastes great. So much so that our wine teachers Hans & Christa say they are astonished that it's OK after all it's been through.

 

 

 Once pressed the skins and pips now resemble grape crumble.

 

 

 All hands are needed to tear the cake apart.

 

 

 Caroline starts washing out buckets while the next lot of marc is pressed.

 

 

 More wine runs from the second batch.

 

 

 Now we have 100 litres more to add to the 300 litres at home.

 

 

 Justin checks it is all OK. It is.

 

 

The press needs scrubbing. The red grapes have coloured the wood and Hans needs to press white grapes in it next.

 

 

Back home at Justin's house we set to cleaning the first tank.

 

 

 Do my hips look any slimmer with the diet? I think not.

 

 

 Feet are no cleaner though.

 

 

Tank clean and ready to wait for next year.

Meanwhile the 100 litres of vin de presse has to stand for 24 hours having had a meagre amount of sulphite and some pectin added. This will stop any remaining yeast and stabilise the wine. After that we'll add it to the original wine, float the lid on it and leave it until the Spring.

Many thanks to everyone who helped yesterday. It was huge fun and we learnt a lot. Ali and I hope you enjoyed it too.  We raise a glass to Hans, Christa, Justin, Michelle, Josh, Caroline, Doug, Judy & Colin. Thank you so much.

Roll on the Spring eh?

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