CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

We would like to send Christmas greetings to all of you that have supported us this year, many thanks and we shall raise a glass or two to you tonight ,have a good one and we hope to see you again soon.

South West France Gets Snow As Well

Well there you go, people said I was mad when I said it was going to be a long snowy winter,see last post? I said this because I can't remember seeing so many berries ,fruit in the hedgerows as this autumn! We all know the old wives tale but this year you could tell there was a difference, a larder brimming full to be harvested and stored away for hard times ahead? So far I've been proved correct but yesterday we had a rest-bite and it was T shirts and 18 degrees but the cold returned today and is forecast to stay, we shall see?We have the horses back for the winter so looking forward to Sunday afternoon, hoping the weather will be kind so we can ride out in this beautiful countryside.

Decuving last cuve thank goodness, not my favourite job! Looks to be a very good harvest, saving some grapes to make some eau de vie before Christmas, picture to follow....David

Got a strange feeling about this winter I think it is going to be long cold and snowy! This year we have had a bumper crop of grapes but not only grapes all fruit and veg has been good , so many people have said what a great crop they have had from the garden and the hedgerows are full of berries, we have discovered two crab apples trees and quince trees we didn't know we had.

This weeks RANT!!! Why do we get more and more English tourists visiting our lovely outdoor markets, commenting on how nice that looks and taking pictures etc to walk all the way through the market to go and stock up on mass produed wine, beer and plastic cheese at the supermarket, to walk back through the market saying how nice French markets are? Perhaps we should charge them for passing through and put a levy on every photo they take ?...........David

Can anyone answer why vines like ours have lost all their foliage while other vineyards still have most of theirs? I can only deduce that knowing a little of the systems that are involved in some of the vineyards, is that those that have lost all the foillage are low chemical ,organic whereby the ones still with a lot of leaf have a more conventional chemical policy?

Facebook Merchien

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Domaine-du-Merchien/121133447945576

Autumn Colours in the Lot in Cahors valley

Harvest 2010 From Dawn to Dust

The Day begins Yes that's a vine and they are grapes, so start picking JP"
Keep smiling Tim only 60 tons left to pick
Emma "what are you doing to my vines with such a shaggy dog hair do"
Peter always smiling even though the day is long
Nikki ! my photo will be better and where is that frog you tried to kiss NON NO sorry take a photo of!!!
Whoops Got the order of photos wrong that's David eating his marmite on toast for breakfast , it might be a French Vendage but it will not be any good if the chief doesn't get his very English marmite in the morning

Time for a RANT

Talking to a good friend,customer and long standing Partner in Wine,yesterday we got round to talking about a new superstore just completed in our local town and how we couldn't understand how people could get excited about this? In the three villages where we do regular markets at the weekend large supermarket chains are trying to build new smaller supermarkets in my opinion to the detriment of the village and the small independant shops still left! I further think that it won't be good for the markets which inturn will have a knock on effect on the bars and resturants?
Going back to my good friend who like me was gob smacked by his sister in law who in conversation on a recent visit said no way she would shop in the local market because she had no idea where the food came from? My blood boils but on saying that it is up to us marketers to educate the public that it is from just down the road and picked at the right time not early to please the supermarkets? Comments please!

Autumn views before harvest

A selection of views of the vineyard at the start of Autumn along with the lees left in the bottom of the vat after bottling the GM. These are stored along with all the other lees from other cuves and sent to the distillery once a year and is sort of a tax which we have to pay it is then made into industrial alcohol ,I believe?

Weeding in what we call the big field can on the whole only be undertaken by hand. This means strimming by hand and in extremely hot weather, the weeding machine just can't cope with the old vines. So the rows are weeded twice during the growing season with the last passage taking place in September, although with all the weeds around doesn't look nice and goes against all the text books the vines don't seem to suffer. I think this is due to them not carrying loads of grapes and therefore not being pushed to hard and consequently not being stressed? This is my simple take on the situation but the proof is in the pudding it works!

Summer officially over?

Well thats what we call tomorrow in our Household, kids back to school after along summer break,it only seems like yesterday that they where helping us in the vines on their first day of the holiday! After not having them here for the last two weeks, tomorrow will be a different kind of quiet I don't know why? but it always is, a new school year , signals harvest fast approaching.

September,time flies by

Yes only a month away from Harvest and the weeding continues relentlessly only another 100 rows to do! The weather has been kind to us with some unusually hot days above 40 centigrade last week and still 30 degrees at 10PM so the grapes are slowly catching up, having been way behind due to cold May and June. If you want to pick the main weekend will be 2nd and 3rd October many people have asked but not confirmed so we need to know? to arrange food etc. Furthermore, if you left any phone messages last week we haven't got them because the phone line was down from 21st to the 27th so much for a "Professional Contract" repairs within 24 hours!! Of course that meant the E-mail and Fax also so if unsure give us a call because we have replied to all the E-mails we have.Thats all for now back to the weeding!!!

PEACE

The Gourmand evenings have drawn to a close and our hectic schedule of 46 events in 60 days has come to an end! The next month will be spent getting ready for the harvest and there is plenty to do,weeding by hand in the big field has some way to go and although the 40 degree days over the past week has been good for the grapes its been pretty hard for me. With the grapes lagging behind they have been playing catch up and have come on leaps and bounds with these exceptionally hot days and nights with no rain here but plenty all around us!
With the success of the summer markets we are clean out of CF and JAS and GM and our new vintages of the above will be bottled very shortly, hopefully along with VAT 665 , so allot of work to do. The beer has been even more successful and we can't keep pace with demand so if we have time another one or two brews will be attempted?
Finally we would like to thank all of you that have made it such a pleasant and successful summer, with your purchases and encouraging comments and help ,it makes it all worthwhile, thank you and hopefully see you soon.
P.S. We still have a small stock of the wines we have run out of here, in the UK, so if you would like any of these in the U.K. we are able to supply them duty paid from our store in London,e- mail us for details.

THURSDAY SO IT MUST BE??

Its Gourmand Time again and the last one in the canton for me at Aujols starts at 7. Could rearrange the first one at Fontanes which was cancelled due to bad weather but I think not, watch this space. Sarah tonight will be at Catus and we will both be at Montpezat tomorrow night for the night market/gourmand evening. See you later?

 
Harvest fast approachs and we've got so much to do beforehand, so to make things easier and because people are booking flights already we need to know who is participating or would like to participate? Food needs to be planned and the cooks need to know how many to cater for.The main event will take place over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd October but we will be picking the week before in small parties if you prefer. Any questions give us a call. 05 63 64 97 21 or Sarah portable 06 16 07 075 39.

Doesn't time fly???

Well its Thursday again,GOURMAND NIGHT.I'll be at Lalbenque and Sarah will be at Saint Pierre Lafeuille,so don't be late! Besides all the events we are attending work continues in the vineyard ,the grapes are just beginning to change colour and the weeding by hand never seems to come to an end, a bit like painting the Forth Bridge!!
Hopefully next week we will start to bottle our new wines one already in the Guide Hachette,VAT665, also JAS pure Cabernet Franc and the Gamay Merlot blend.

Its Thursday so it must be belmont St Foi and Cieurac

Its cloudy but who cares it Thursday and Gourmand Evening time again, I'll be in the little village of Belmont St Foi and Sarah will be at Cieurac next to the Chateau. Don't forget your knife fork plate etc. See you later?

SIXTEEN YEARS!!!!

For sixteen years we have woken up to views like this and we never get tired of them , how lucky we are!

Its Tuesday so it must be Lalbenque?

Tonight we will be at lalbenque night market and Gourmand Evening working as usual, but we will take some time out to celebrate Sarah's %$£@_* birthday and our anniversary of being here 16 years ,hope you can make it.The book is now closed for bets on the position of our stand since Sarah ,has Zac with her and he may get a better place? If not you will find us next to the band or furthest away from the tables possible but just in the commune? See you later??

August starts with a bang of thunder,wet and horrible

Well after a very long dry spell we managed a bit of bright weather to get our Sunday Markets off to a good start for the month of August,however, it didn't last long! With so many things going on in the afternoon throughout the region most of them became a washout as the heavens opened and the rain came down! The Fete de Battage at ST Antonin was particularly affected,but Zac managed to take some pictures of some of the tractors but not allot else! He did manage to film the horse drawn walnut press if your interested,sorry about picture quality.

Gourmande Evening at Saillac

A very pleasant evening at Saillac with it being not too hot or cold, a little disappointing that our stand was so far away from the main tables and other stands that hiking boots and rucksack was a near necessity. However , we've only been here 16 years and although have taken part and supported the gourmande evening since their inception we know our place, either by the band(impossible to talk to your customers) or so far from main proceedings that we might as well be in the next village. Anyway it was nice to see so many friends and customers make the hike out to our stand for supplies.
See you all next week, check the blog for venues and dates and by the way for the Lalbenque night market on our 16th anniversary and Sarah birthday, we won't say which one and yes she will be working We will be running a book on our location and of for those of you in the know ,we are going for a Frankie Dettori straight seven!!!! See you next week?

DON'T FORGET??

Check out the previous blog for this evenings Gourmande events ,don'tforget your plate ,knife etc

Dyos the dog and the vines after a short back and sides

Dyos the dog and the vines after the sides and tops have been trimmed and mowed inbetween now only need to cultivate between every other row before passing once again with the weeding machine.

Montpezat and The Guardian

Bit tired this morning after a late night at Montpezat Marche Gourmande Evening ,photos to follow ,Many thanks to those of you that turned out for a very pleasant evening and your comments on how much you like the wine, especially the new Roses. More events next week just read the blog previous to see all dates and locations. Hopefully we will have a new Green Pig beer ready for later in the week, keep your fingers crossed!
I nearly forgot the Guardian, Sarah was quoted in the Newspaper today in the Article on Quercy, her comment along with the other comments from ,I presume people who live here were probably in my opinion the only correct information .Having lived here for 16 years ,I can and have seen lots of changes ,particularly in the British population. To say it is undiscovered by the brits and any other incomers and that includes the French is obviously written by somebody who doesn't know the area at all ,but I stress this is my opinion,comments please??