A relatively quiet month but nonetheless interesting! With the prospect of new tanks and working with Julian, our NZ caviste, things were looking up, or were they...?

August is usually a quiet month in the vineyard as things wind down after the busy months of June/July. However, the weather patterns this year have been unusual with rainfall in May/June affecting the health of the grapes and further rain again at the end of July threatening the vineyard again. A lot of vineyards suffered from mildew & oïdium which meant a loss in volume. We have had some oïdium in a couple of parcelles (mainly Syrah this year) which will affect our yields. The other problem has been the dry heat of the summer which in addition to the oïdium problem means lower yields. The grapes are very small and not "plump" at this time of year so any rain between now and harvest is a bonus as the grapes should hopefully swell a little and generate more juice without diluting it.

We still had a lot of work to do in the vineyard in August. We had to add another treatment at the beginning to protect the grapes from oïdium. We still had to finish off the work in the parcelle grafted with Grenache - removing the wood from the original vine and continuing to remove the shoots which compete with the grafted vine. We think we have achieved an 80-85% success rate with the graft which basically means that 15-20% did not take and the Cabernet Sauvignon is still there! We can re-graft these next year and hope that they will take. This is not unusual when grafting and considering we attempted a large parcelle (2,5ha) we have done OK.

At this time of year we can also estimate the yields per vine/parcelle. The bunches are starting to swell and change colour as they ripen. It is at this time of year that we make a decision on whether to do a "vendange verte" or green harves to reduce yields in certain parcelles. We do this to ensure that we achieve our minimum yield which we aim at around 30-35hl/ha (we have actually yet to achieve this - our average yields thus far have been 21hl/ha and 25hl/ha - clearly way off the mark!!). This year we decided to do a green harvest in three parcelles (La Rivière, L'Homme Mort & Le Pati Noir). This takes time as you have to assess each vine in turn and remove the furthers bunches away from the trunk as they are unlikely to ripen fully anyway. Also, each vine will be different and you have to assess the overall production capacity of the parcelle, too, when you are considering which bunch to remove and how many. We usually like to have between 6-8 bunches per vine on the Syrah & Grenache, and 8-10 bunches per vine on the Cabernet Sauvignon.

I had spent half the month in Japan as Patrick's son & girlfriend & daughter came to visit. We went up north where it is cooler at this time of year and explored places such as Nikko, Dewa Sanzen, Sado Island & Nagano (where there is a monkey sanctuary and you can actually bathe with the monkeys if you feel that way inclined!). Although I love Japan and seeing as much as I can when I am there, I was itching to be back in France as there was still a lot of work to do and things to organise/prepare for the harvest. Also, Julian & Anna had only just arrived and I wanted to spend some time with them and see how Julian would fit in working alongside me in the winery.

Julian & Anna are from New Zealand (we have a leaning towards people from NZ!) and were travelling/working their way around Europe for a couple of years before heading back home. Julian is a trained winemaker with a passion for biodynamic/organics so there was an obvious match there with Combebelle. I met him in Ireland where he was working and decided that of all the candidates that presented themselves, he would be the best one suited to Combebelle. Having stressed the importance of visas for being able to work in France, Julian unfortunately arrived in France without the necessary visas & documents which meant that I had to try and persuade the DDTEFP (Employment Department) to sign off his contract anyway as he would not be staying longer than 3 months. Julian had been advised by the French Embassy in Wellington (NZ) that for a stay of no more than 90 days he would be allowed to enter France and during that time seek paid employment. However, this information had not transferred itself to the DDTEFP and they would simply not budge. In France you have to present a valid reason for employing a non-French national which is not a problem if you can show that you advertised the job in France and interviewed candidates who responded to this advert. We did not have this problem as I had done the correct thing, but without a visa we could not hire Julian - it would be too risky. If we were to be checked by an inspector and he found Julian working here "illegally" we would be fined quite severely. If Julian were to have an accident, we could be in serious trouble as well regarding insurance and health & safety issues. I spent the better part of one week speaking to various governmental departments, embassies and so on trying to find a solution. We looked at alternative ways of how we could legally employ Julian but none would work. Eventually, we had to make a very difficult decision and explain to Julian that without the required visa we would not be able to take him on for the vendange.

This was a blow as we were 3/4 weeks away from harvest and there is a lot of preparation that needs to be done to make sure things are ready. And, with having to run the business as well this is a lot to have on your plate. However, I am used to it!

I suppose the nicest thing to happen in August was the celebration of my father's 87th birthday! Most of the family were able to be there on this special day with one of my sister's (Alison) acting as the hostess. It was great to catch up with everyone as we do not often see each other, let alone all together!