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?

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Autumn Colours in the Lot in Cahors valley