THE VENDANGE IS SUPER

Harvset has gone well todate,with warm days and cool nights, grapes have good sugar levels and loads of juice. All that is left to pick is the cabernet franc which will be picked by the W.A.G.S of Brive rugby club this Sunday comming, 12th of October, who all would like to experience the pleasure of hand picking at Domaine Du Merchien. They also intend to press the grapes the old fashioned way for a promotional shot for the club, so watch this space for the photos, it should all be good fun??
On a more serious note we have once again been selected for the guide Hachette 2009 with our 2006 blend VAT665 which will be released in 2009 so watch this space for details.

Summer Truffles

Found by Zachary and Sophie -Tor, he will not tell us where!!!



We are now hoping they will find winter truffles, as the price is much higher! If you want some let us know.

SPRAYING THE VINES

Penultimate spraying was applied on the 2nd August in fine dry hot conditions. A small amount of mildew was present in the back field of Cabernet Franc, otherwise, the grapes look good and are starting to change colour, in french "veraison ".

The cannons , the spray nozzles on the back of the tractor, are operated from the tractor cab and thus reduce the time stopping to change the direction and mean no spray is wasted or miss directed.

1995 Vintage

A funny thing happened at market on Sunday, Sarah had a French customer come and asked her if she had any 1995 for sale ,she hadn’t, the 1995 had sold out very quickly in less than 8 months! The French man had just had a bottle and said it was absolutely fantastic!
So not having tried a bottle for many years mainly because I’d lost the key to our wine cage!!! Anyway I found the key and with some partners in wine who happened to be here for dinner had the pleasure of trying it! What a surprise it was absolutely fantastic some judged it better than the renowned 2001!

So if by chance you have some can I buy it back??

No, drink it! Decant first one to two hours then enjoy!!

Can you spot david working in the Vines??