EARL de Merchien - wine and beer

2009-10-05T16:17:00.004+02:00

GRAPES READY TO PICK BY HAND

FIVE DIFFERENT CEPAGES

If you look at them carefully you can see how different shape the bunches are, well we can, can you????

2009-10-05T16:12:00.000+02:00

Septembre 2009 David checking the quality of the Grapes

2009-06-25T18:59:00.002+02:00

Urgent Message !!!

Have YOU emailed us from the 1st June to 25th June PLEASE email again as due to an error compressing the file the above dates are missing . lost somewhere in the computer, you would have thought that wasn't enough room in the machine.

Don't you just love these machines .

I am SORRY

Sarah

Hail Stones

2009-06-22T22:41:00.000+02:00

Hail Stones The Winemakers nightmare

And these were the small ones!

When they hit the vines (especially in spring time when the vines are just setting the grapes) a hit by a hail stone can cut straight through the new growth , leaving you with just a green stalk.

Luckily for us these hail stone missed us !

But my Dads car looks like orange peel every panel is dented!

2009-06-22T22:27:00.000+02:00

Earls Court First day !!
All set up and ready to go!

Smiling faces and new white Tshirts!

You should have seen us at the end of the day.

Tshirts not quite so white and smiles not quite so bright!

Real Food fair London's Earl Court

2009-06-22T22:24:00.001+02:00

Busy Busy

2009-06-22T21:47:00.005+02:00

It has been a long time since our last blog!!

Mainly a trip to London , Real Food Fair , Earls Court which was only over a weekend but the months leading up to this was full on. Why? I hear you say , we decided to change the labels and our logo!! make a new beer and bottle it, fine tune two of the Rose wines and Hint of Pink which by the way isn't quite pink hey ho! worked in the vines weeding 60,000 plants and paper work re wine going to UK with duty paid.

Then when all was getting up together we lost the memory card for the camera so couldn't take any photos to down load.

Anyway this is our excuse for not updating.

So here goes

Buds appear and the season starts all over again

2009-04-22T17:47:00.002+02:00

Customers ask when is your quiet time and we answer there isn't one but to be fair if there was one it would be now.

But with not using lots of chemicals the workload is greater because more time has to be put in with the hand weeding etc. Its a great time of year with cool misty mornings and warm afternoons.

In the vines today we heard nightingales singing (this is the male we have been told) the wild orchids look amazing ( I will take some photos tomorrow) and the sun on our backs is lovely after such a long winter.

The vines are just starting to show there first leaves, quite a delicate time as a frost now could ruin it all or a hail storm which Lalbenque had last Friday. I was told the hail covered the streets like snow.

Pruning 32,000 Vines

2009-03-04T12:20:00.004+01:00

Pruning Vines.

As you can see from the video , David prunes with electric sectuers (though he does use manual as well) this helps with a clean cut and for us to go faster.

When we prune we select a main branch from last years growth, the critrea for this is ; a healthy light colour branch that had grape bunches last year , pencil thickness with 5 to 8 buds which usually works out to be about half a metre long.

A reserve branch is also kept , this will have only 3 buds and about 8 to 10cm long, we do this in case we have a late frost or hit with disease, this reserve usually survives giving us a few bunches of grapes but more importantly a main branch for next year.

We have found over the years we can spot which branches we will keep and which branches we will cut away within the first glance as we work towards each vine.

Once all the dead wood is pulled away we take the main branch and wrap it around the wire, we do this as to train the vines so that the new growth grows upwards and the bunches of grapes hang down, making it easier to pick either by hand or machine.

We will show you throughout the course of the growing season how this vine progresses ,to give you an insight into what happens as we go through the year.

2009-02-16T20:48:00.006+01:00

This is the piece that was in Living france this month sorry about the quality of the image and the order but I am sure you will understand.

2009-02-16T20:34:00.002+01:00

Just thought I would let you all know about a new wine book out this summer.

Paul Strang is acknowledged as the foremost authority on the wines of the south west of France and is a firm supporter of Domaine du Merchien since our beginning

FORTHCOMING IN JUNE 2009
South-West France
The Wines and Winemakers
Paul Strang
Photography by Jason Shenai
Between Bordeaux and the Spanish border, reaching east to the Massif Central and the river valleys of the Dordogne and Lot, and south to the foothills of the Pyrenees, lies a unique and little-known viticultural landscape. South-West France is a wine lover’s paradise that cultivates an astonishing array of grape varieties, many that grow nowhere else, and produces a fascinating assortment of wines. In this book, Paul Strang covers the South-West with enthusiasm and keen expertise, providing a history of its wine industry, including a near collapse and unlikely rebirth, and introducing readers to a region that seems to defy globalization. The outstanding local wines—made by idiosyncratic growers motivated by a passion for their profession—range from inky Tannats to honeyed late-harvest Semillons. Intrepid readers are invited to rediscover this beautiful part of France, already well known for its cuisine, castles, and cave art, for its earthy and intriguing wines.
Paul Strang is the author of Wines of South-West France, which was named one of 1994’s best wine books by Decanter magazine, and Languedoc-Roussillon: The Wines and Winemakers, as well as Take 5000 Eggs: Food from the Markets and Fairs of Southern France.
FORTHCOMING IN JUNE 2009
Copub: Éditions du Rouergue
400 pages, 7.5 x 10.5”, 30 color illustrations, 50 b/w photographs, 14 maps
£26.95 cloth, 978-0-520-25941-6
To read more go to: http://go.ucpress.edu/Strang

Finding truffle with the dog

2009-01-29T14:35:00.004+01:00

Found ONE!!!!!

truffle market lalbenque

2009-01-29T14:21:00.002+01:00

The snow at merchien!

2008-12-29T17:45:00.007+01:00

Merry christmas!

This is the snow at the domain du Merchien on boxing day . Just 3 month ago it was harvest, hard to imagine the change in such a short space of time?? It just gives those of you that visit us in the summer and ask the question whats it like in the winter a taster. We will try and show you the work over the winter period both in the field and the chai to show you a year in a vineyard!!

2008-12-18T19:57:00.003+01:00

Just had to show off my first ever cooked HAM!!!
Wiltshire ham can not beet it!! there says a wiltshire lass

Cork not plastic

2008-12-08T21:51:00.000+01:00

Forest In A Bottle = Natural World BBC2 8:00pm

As most of you know we only use cork for our bottles and hopefully always will. Our motto is supporting the natural Cork forest of the World and not the petrol chemical industry.

If we do not support the cork producers the forest will die!! cork is renewable .

Please consider this when drinking a bottle of wine with a plastic stopper or screw cap.

David has been saying it for years, use CORK maybe now it will become fashionable and we will all benefit.

Maybe Domaine du Merchien with our little bit of eco-ness will also become fashionable.

Please watch the program if poss. and give us your thought on our BLOG http://merchienwineandbeer.blogspot.com/

David and Sarah
www.merchien.com

2008-11-23T19:13:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-11-19T21:20:00.002+01:00

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

2008-11-14T18:02:00.001+01:00

This is MER - CHIEN (aka Patapouf)

Ready for a night out!!!

Watch this space for the morning after!!

2008-11-14T17:34:00.001+01:00

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

Quercy brewery news

2008-10-31T12:44:00.001+01:00

Quercy brewery news

David and Sarah will be brewing again shortly, so hard to keep up with the demand!!

2008-10-28T20:16:00.001+01:00

Making sure it is in the right place

2008-10-28T20:16:00.000+01:00

Pushing the cage into position

2008-10-28T20:15:00.001+01:00

Pressing under way

2008-10-28T20:15:00.000+01:00

A better view of the press