The year started off well with moderately cold temperatures from January through to March when it started to really warm up.

April was much cooler than the previous year and there was concern about whether or not the flowering would set in well. There was little or no rainfall until May/June but enough fell to boost the water reserves in the vineyard and to provide enough moisture for the all important ripening period during June-August. The weather warmed up in May through to July with temperatures reaching 35°C which allowed the vines to catch up a little from the delayed start. August was warm and then rain fell towards the end of the month followed by a spell of warm humid weather which set off some rot in one plot. However, the north wind arrived in time to dry the vineyard out and the rot to disappear.

Harvesting here is at least 2 weeks later than the rest of the vineyards in St Chinian and memories or last year caused some concern as rain fell just as we started off the 2006 vintage ruining half of the Grenache crop. Everything looked fine until the day before we were due to start picking when the heavens opened and 5mm of water rained down on the vineyards ! Needless to say I had another sleepness night wondering if the rain would again provide a challenging vintage for me. However, the following day brought with it the north wind which dried everything quickly and the forecast was for dry sunny weather throughout the rest of the week. Being a « vigneronne » I am more understanding and sympathetic towards farmers who are so reliant on the weather for their livelihood. I have also become somewhat obesessed with the weather and check out the local conditions on France Méteo probably 4-6 times a day especially one month before I know we might start picking !

We started picking 2 days after the rain mainly due to the pickers not turning up as agreed on the first day ! They thought that as it was raining in Beziers it would be raining here as well ! So, there we all were ready to go at 730am admiring the beautiful sunrise and morning mist coating the mountains in the distance and no pickers! Needless to say when they did not turn up it was somewhat of an anticlimax as the endorphines were really flowing with the excitement of the start of the harvest ! I love the first day as this is the culmination of a year�s work in the vineyard and you never know what the quality of the grapes will be until the first load arrives and the juices start flowing into the tanks .

Day 1 of picking started off with a glorious sunrise (memories of Japan and the « Land of the Rising Sun ») and again the mist coating the mountains in the distance which is truly spectacular and I have tried many times to get this on camera but thus far not successfully. We started off with the parcelle closest to the house � « Syrah L�Homme Mort ». This was the most urgent one to pick as the grapes were starting to « shrivel » and after the rain a few days previously I was concerned about rot setting in.

I am using a different team of pickers this year, who are all Morrocan, as we had to let go the two seasonal workers we had employed during the last 10 months , which is another tale ! It was an easy first day and I had the chance to observe their work and efficiency in the vineyard. I am quite impressed with them as they obviously know how to select the best bunches and to leave the « satellite » bunches which are unripe and would impart an unnecessary astringency in the wine. I have also employed a New Zealand Assistant Winemaker to help out in the winery and on the vineyard generally. Her brother and his girlfriend (Iain & Mel) were helping out too. However , because we were still waiting for Katie�s visa she could not work along side me in the winery. Instead she joined the pickers with Mel & Iain. The final « team member » was the tractor driver « Cyril » who was a hoot ! He got quite bored waiting around all day moving the tractor along the rows in line with the pickers and would often pop into the winery for a quick chat ! We picked the the first plot in 6 hours which is fast and meant that we finished the first day earlier than expected.


Day 2 started off the same as before and anxious to get the Grenache in we attacked this plot first. We had also decided to machine pick the parcelle ear-marked for the rosé and the two adjoining parcelles which would make up the tank (unwooded) AOC red. Well, everything was fine until we started processing the rosé when the press decided to have a « paddy » and stop working ! Well, for those of you who are not familiar with producing a rosé this is rather a disaster as the juice needs to be collected before the skins start to impart too much pigment and colour. We managed to get all the run off juice which was excellent but not enough to really make a cuvé of rosé. We had no choice but to leave the grapes in the press until the « man » came to fix it. Then the water pump decided to pack it in after 9 months so we had no water which is vital when processing as you need to clean tubes, tanks, etc in preparation for the next load. It took all day for the « man » to come regarding the pump and even when he turned up at 530pm he wanted to return the following day to install a new pump. Needless to say this was not going to happen so female charm came into play and we eventually had a new pump installed by 9pm so that we could clean all the equipment before the next day. We managed to increase the quantity of rosé by taking some of the run off juice from the two other plots which were harvested. The quantity this year is small, only 2000 bottles but the quality of the wine is exceptional (of course there is a little bias here !). Disasters always happen in « threes » so I was expecting the electricity to stop working so prayed like mad in the hope that someone « upstairs » would think that I had faced enough challenges for the day. However, there was one other challenge for me to face ! The machine harvester could not pick one of the adjacent parcelles to the rosé which was a blow as it would mean that I would have to pick this one by hand the following day or when we finished the Grenache. Anyway, this was the busiest day as we picked & processed 3 parcelles : « Grenache Pati noir », « Syrah La Manchette » (rosé) and « Syrah La Longue ».

Day 3 was a short day as the pickers stopped at 12-noon for their weekly prayers at home. This meant that we could only finish the Grenache and would have to pick the other two parcelles over the weekend. I do not usually like to pick over the weekend as you need a couple of days to catch up and get on top of the work in the winery, however, I could not take the risk of delaying the picking by another 2 days. We have one full tank of Grenache and I put 20% into another tank of Syrah to see how the two grapes would vinify.

Day 4 we picked another Syrah « Les Cerisiers » which is one of my favourite parcelle and made a great wine in 2006 some of which will go into the TOP WINE « Sakura ». I was concerned about the volume here as the sanglier had had a happy time munching the grapes ! However, I was pleasantly surprised to fill