You are invited to view a photo from Sarah's photo album: Movies FOR A LESS BLURRY VERSION PLEASE GO TO YOU TUBE AND SEARCH FOR MERCHIEN or double click on this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=648_fw_P5Ss . THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH PICASA ITSELF WHICH I CANT RECTIFY. ENJOY!! View Video

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????

Septembre 2009 David checking the quality of the Grapes

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

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!

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

Busy Busy

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

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

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.

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.

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

Found ONE!!!!!

truffle market lalbenque