Well what a winter so far. For you who have been following the BLOG on our site www.merchien.com or our Facebook page ( just search MERCHIEN) you will know that David predicted a cold cold winter due to the enormous amount of fruit the hedge row produced old wives tells and all that. Well we are certainly in the throes of a cold winter and according to the old locals it is not going to end yet!! (I think I will need some new long johns due to over use and as a friend said to me “Winter draws on my dear”)

Work Load
Work in the vine yard has been a bit slow, mainly due the cold weather, but still had to do markets for the regular clientele but with -10 at St Antonin and Limogne this Sunday not very pleasant but at least it wasn’t raining . Dry cold just makes your face red and bum cold for the rest of the day, the wet get the boxes damp makes the labels crumple and is generally miserable.
News BIG NEWS!
Merchien is finally going officially ORGANIC, starting from this year we are signing up to the ORGANIC movement. The reasons for this are to increase our market place and give us more opportunities to sell our wines. In David’s market in Limogne he is opposite an Organic wine maker and though people taste our wine, like it, see that we don’t use chemicals in the vineyard but because we have no officially label they go across the way and buy the wine without tasting it just because it has a big fat AB(organic) sign on it (I just don’t get it!!). So because of our principals, more marketing opportunities and to get one of those big fat AB labels we are on our way.
The Good News For Us But Maybe Not For You!!
It looks like a chain of shops in the UK are going to stock our wine. As you all know we have been trying to do this for a while, not only for the income (but that is nice) but to increase our visibility and audience in England and Wales, sadly not Scotland yet. So good for us but stocks will start to go. So for any of those who haven’t taken your full allocation for 2010 please order now while stocks last!!! (Always wanted to say that). I have attached a list of wines for you, please don’t delay as I do not want to disappoint.
2010 Wines.
All red wines need Malolactic to take place but way too cold for that and Rose still fermenting very very slowly will probably have to heat it up a bit next week. Really looking forward to seeing how the pure Merlot turns out, this is mine and Zachary’s little baby he really has taken an interest in this wine must be his age! This year will be the first time we have a pure Merlot and pure Gamay along with the old favorite pure Cabernet Franc.
Finally
A Partner In Wine at Domaine du Merchien; Clare Brigstocke for one night only is taking over a Paris restaurant on Friday, 18th February, the meal, a menu découvert featuring traditional English food, is by reservation only. The website is www.lecoindetableparis.com and reservations are emailed to contact@lecoindetableparis.com. If know anyone in Paris who would like to discover the restaurant and Clare’s wonderful food please use contact details.
Health Wealth and good wine drinking!!

Jan 2011 Pruning ????

Photos of today!! so foggy rainy and grey somewhere in the photos is the vines out back!!
Pruning has started but after the cold snowy, dry underfoot December the temperatures have really warmed up The bad news is it feels like it hasn't stopped raining. With our clay soil its difficult to even walk in the vines let alone prune them. slipping and sliding all over the place with electric secateurs in your hand is not advisable as you can easily cut yourself, that's why so many wine producers are minus a finger!!!
So we have plenty of other things to do to keep us occupied so we won't be sitting in front of the fire reading a good book as many people think we do all winter?