Real Food Fair 2010

Well, we arrived back at Merchien3.30 this morning, having wasted the whole of Monday, a so called Trade day at the Real Food Fair, the only problem in our and many other peoples opinion was that the trade didn't turn up for whatever reason? For other exhibitors who where not as fortunate as us and had to fork out for an extra days accomodation, food and travel plus the wasted day they won't be happy bunnies and it could reflect on participating next year?

We would like to thank all our friends for making us so welcome, Jem and Cathrine , Emma Kathy and Nigel you made us so welcome and even gave us a bit of a holiday! It was great to see all of you that took up our offer for free tickets on Sunday and Monday and hope you enjoyed the show, your comments please! Encouraging ,was the number of people who bought last year and had returned this year to seek us out to buy and tell us how much they enjoyed the wine and why on earth haven't we got suppliers in Britain?

For the first time we were displaying our beer now known as green pig and pink pig and after a dismal first day we decided to give tastings ,which is rather difficult with bottled beer ,but to cut a long story short it sold out with a day to go and comments were extremly positive!!!!

Glad to be back

David

Hillbillies are coming to Town

The Real Food Festival at Earls Court in London is nearly upon us, 7th to 10th May,we are busy trying to finish all our work here in time to drive upto London on Tuesday next to set up ready for the show starting on Friday. Anybody wanting a free ticket for the Sunday or Monday we have a limited stock and will hand them out on a F.C.F.Served basis so if you want a great day out and meet the hillbillies from the deep south west of France and even better want to purchase some wine or beer or place an order, you better get in touch fast!!! Hope to see you soon,David

Jamie Goode, he of the wine gang fame asked could we be included in the natural wine groupment last year. Well it’s so debatable what natural means, something different to whoever, you choose to ask?

For me its using the natural flora and fauna to encourage the good bugs to overcome the bad bugs in simple terms!!!Seeing these orchids growing in the vineyard is great, they encourage the good bugs ,ladybirds etc. I will print some pictures of some of the vineyards that use purely chemical weed control and chemicals to kill any growth from the stem, yes it works, its cheap and its quick but as far as I’m concerned it makes a totally sterile zone which the bad bugs manage to reasserts their numbers before the good bugs can take control unless you re apply the chemicals, a viscous circle as far as I'm concerned occurs and its just a recipe for using more chemical weeedkillers.
We've steered away fro this over the last 15 years and even our technician, who is pro chemical has admitted that our system has worked, as long as we don't push for higher yields we are O.K. Its common sense really I see the same happening with the modern dairy cow for example it comes back to the old adage of everything in moderation!!!!! and if you push things to hard they get stressed and then are open to attack!!! Your thoughts please.

Time seems to fly by and there is never enough time to get everything done, either that or Sarah and I are just getting older and can't do as much? Sad news to report is that Patapouf our rescue Newfoundland from Paris who has been with us for six years,sadly went missing a couple of weeks ago and hasn't returned nor has anyone seen him! He was around 12 years old so a good age for his breed, but it is very quiet without him, those of you who knew him will know what I mean.

Vines around the house have now been attached and work continues on the big field it could be called late but we don't mind as it doesn't produce loads of quantity and its easier for us to see what we are doing.

The late spring has helped us in the sense that the grass and weeds haven't started to grow as quickly as normal but as many of you will know if using chemical weed control this wouldn't be a problem, however, by mechanical means and by hand it is both time consuming and costly and is about to start. An article that a friend has read has got us thinking? somebody has been using sheep to graze between the vines, so if anybody has a couple of spare sheep give us a call and you can have some free grazing.

BOOK NEWS

Many of you who know us well will be aware that Paul Strang, the foremost authority on the wines of the South- West of France has just gained an award for his new book Wines and Winemakers of the south west. For those of you that haven't heard of this man look out for this new book and also his wife's cookery book on the South west Goosefat and Garlic ,a must for anyone who likes the food down here, and who wouldn't!!

March Workload and Weather

Well its the end of March and after just a couple of warm days last week we are back to cold wet weather and the heating on again!! It really has been along winter but work continues and we still have pruning to do in the big field, however,the fields by the house have some attaching to complete and one has already been cultivated! Pictures will follow shortly when we get some nicer weather.

If its wet there is plenty of work to do in the winery with the Roses about to be bottled along with a new JAS and CF, furthermore, we have just about ran out of Doree beer so if the rain continues we will be brewing on Thursday.All this has to be completed soon or it won,t be ready for The Real Food Show in London in May!

Best wishes for 2010 and as we say, Health ,Wealth and Happiness to you all.

We would like to thank everyone, who has supported our Domaine over the past year, we are most grateful.

Before ranting on we would like to explain a new slant to the BLOGG !!
We want it to be more than just a vineyard, more on are philosophy of why we are here and the way we wish to live our lives. So we will try to explain what and why we are doing certain things in the vineyard because it has become apparent that what is routine and mundane to us is of interest to others. We will also try discussing wine topics and new rules and regulations, furthermore we would like to discuss topical points that are relevant to our way of life.

What has become very apparent over the last 12 months particularly in a credit crunch is that producing wine; that has over a period of 15 years won countless awards and acknowledgements counts very little when trying to appeal to a wider audience. The mass media and independent merchants seem to want a sure thing! So an unknown wine produced by a unknown (non celeb) in an unknown appellation in an unfashionable region is very difficult to get any coverage. But we will keep on trying.


Where we have failed, so far, our dog Patapouf has succeeded, he is to grace the pages of Decanter Magazine February issue. Unfortunately the wine doesn’t come from an area posh enough area to be featured in said publication?
So the quest continues for small unknowns like us, we won’t become fashionable until we reach a wider audience and we can’t reach a wider audience until we become fashionable, does chicken and egg ring a bell!

Any comments or ideas welcome, as we fear that many of these smaller appellations for wine and other regional products for that matter will disappear. We are losing our shop window, with street markets in France, the tradition of customers visiting the Farm, the 35 hour week in France and supermarkets generally not opening on a Sunday (though not for long if Sarkozy gets his way) this shouldn’t be the case but we do seem to be going that way. Supermarkets and materialist living is going to be the down fall of French rural life .

This also has become particularly apparent over that last year with the 3 locations we regularly have a stand at the market having campaigns against large supermarkets being built on the out skirts of the towns/village we feel along with others this will be very detrimental for the towns/village , markets, local family run shops and businesses in the town and ultimately the life of the village,

Before we came to France we both lived in towns where the local street market and family run shops and businesses were closed because of supermarket being built and dominating all before them.

So please think twice before you put your whole life in hands of the supermarkets, besides the farmer being dominated by them, the environment collapsing with food being brought from the other side of the world, the newsagent, chemist , butcher, baker ect… not being on the high street anymore NOW they will do your banking , insurance, internet server and credit card…..

Have you ever thought what would happened if the supermarkets went the same way as the banks did last year. Where would your life be….