Loading the pressed grapes into trailer for the distillery.
After the pressing of the fermented grapes we have to keep all the pressed grape skins and send to a distillery to be made into industrial alcohol, this is a sort of tax we have to pay(yet another one) if we do not arrange for the "marc" to be sent than the customs have a right to come and take finished wine.

This marc is also used to make 'eau de vie' slightly different way of distilling to give a hint of fruit but still very alcholic. In 2001 we sent some marc off to a man in the village to make us some , we still have loads left very good to keep a cold away!! the locals say a tot aday keeps a cold away.

What a Night.............. Wake me in the morning!!

This is MER - CHIEN (aka Patapouf)

Ready for a night out!!!

Watch this space for the morning after!!

YET MORE GOOD NEWS FOR OUR AWARD WINNING WINES

Not content with our yet to be released VAT 665 being nominated for Guide Hachette 2009, our Cabernet Franc 2005 has made it to No 1 too.

Wine Report 2009 (Tom Stevenson) has placed the Cabernet Franc 2005 as the Best Bargain in the South West France section. This is the second time we have appeared in the Wine Report, the last time was in 2005 where we then got Best Bargain and Top 100 most Exciting Wine Finds.

The Guide Hachette award was a real surprise too. As we hadn’t actually bottled the VAT 665 when the closing date was approaching, we debated whether we should enter or not as in reality, with no bottle age, the finished product would be far from ready but we knew it had definite potential as it was going to be as good as the 2004 which had been nominated in 2007.

In the end we succumbed, quickly bottled half a case and sent it off, hoping that they would see its potential, which we knew it had. You could have knocked us over with a feather then a large buff envelope plonked itself down on our doormat and David got the surprise of his life when he opened it