This is always an exciting and nerve-racking time of the year as the "fruits of all our labours" will hopefully be rewarded by a bountiful harvest. However, when you are dealing with unpredicatble elements such as the weather, anxiety can set in and the addition of at least another 100 grey hairs is inevitable!

The month started off with our annual audit by Ecocert & NOP which thankfully went very well. They come to check the products we use in the vineyard and the quantities applied during the growing season to make sure that we do not exceed the limit. They also come to check out the vineyards and the property as a whole. This year the audit will include the activities and products used during vinification which is specifically for the NOP certificate. This does not actually concern me too much as we use very little during vinification and I would rather be regulated on what I can / cannot use as this makes it easier and less complicated when it comes to making the wine. This neatly ties in, too, with the new AOC rules part of which includes an annual audit of all growers by an independent body who monitor/check the vineyard, winery, machinery etc to make sure that we have the means to produce and maintain a quality wine. As this has onlyn just been implemented here, we are still in the "honeymoon" period and no doubt there will be many teething problems along the way. There are those for and against this new form of control - I am personally for as there is a varying range in quality and style throughout our AOC and it would be nice to see more conformity in terms of style & quality of wine.

For the first time this year, we have collectively voted to reduce the yields per ha down to 45hl which is essential for many reasons, not least to ensure a better quality of wine. However, growers who sell their crops to the cave cooperatives are not that happy as this means a potential loss of income which in todays economic crisis is the last thing they need right now. However, there is also an excess or surplus of unsold wine which is not good for the region either. Part of the reason for reducing the yields is to encourage producers to only produce what they can sell - makes sense to me! We do not want to be the cause of another "wine lake" situation and with more and more effort being put into the quality of the wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon, we have to take strong measures to build on this success and take the next step forward. There will always be a handful of people who will be dragged along "kicking & screaming" to tow the line, but in the long run, I hope that they see this makes sense.

So, what else?! Well, Julian & Anna left during the first week, heading back to the UK to sell their camper van and to organise their European railcard as they have decided to do some travelling before heading back to New Zealand. Hopefully, we will stay in touch as they are a lovely couple. I have managed to find someone local who can help me out for the days when we receive the grapes and when there is basically a lot of work to be done. In an ideal world, we need to have someone here full-time for 3 months at least but this is just not possible at the moment and finding someone at this stage is just too difficult.

And, after some anxious moments and delays our tanks finally arrived around the 17th. We have bought 4 new 50hl stainless steel tanks and are still borrowing 3 x 50hl tanks from the same supplier which gives us just enough capacity to receive the whole crop this year. In addition, we have repaired the two wooden fermenters which are great to use (I have nicknamed them "Margaux" & "Pétrus" in the hope that they can produce such quality!). It is quite interesting to see the cooper at work repairing these vats - there is a lot banging and hammering which initially worried me as I thought the wood would split or something! Anyway, the winery is just about ship-shape now and I have started the soaking process for the wooden tanks as this needs to be done at least 10 days before they receive the grapes. Every day I soak the wood with water and start to fill the vats up gradually to allow the wood to absorb the water and expand which makes them watertight. It is a slow process but one that is very rewarding!

We have moved tanks around to create a little more space too and I think that for the first time, we can be a lot more efficient in the winery and a lot safer too. We have had to keep the press where it is so someone will have to climb on top again to help "feed" the press with grapes. We have had the press & cooling machines serviced and "fingers crossed" everything should work at the right time!

Our first holiday guests arrived this month - a lovely couple from Holland (they even kindly brought me some "drop" or liquorice!!). They loved the gîte and the location so hopefully they will recommend their friends to come next year! We are very pleased with the result and we have tried to make it feel like a "home from home" so that anyone coming to stay can feel relaxed and at ease which is in part the magic of Combebelle. There are still a few minor things to sort out before next Spring but other than that it is ready!

We have been revamping our website too this month and again are pleased with the result. We have added a separate page for the gîte now and the Newsletter & News of Combebelle sections have been changed so that I can manage this myself and make sure that we publish up to date information about Combebelle as and when it happens. There are still a few things we cannot do ourselves such as scanning in images but this is a relatively quick and simple thing for our web team to do. We hope to launch our online ordering system in 2009, too, mainly for people living in France until we can find a way of shipping direct to people outside of France. With the duty & tax imposed on wine and a limitation on "personal consumption" we need to ensure that if/when we ship wine direct, neither the consumer nor Combebelle are at risk of falling foul of the law!

The harvest has been very late this year and we are still patiently waiting to start picking! Each week we do a maturity test of the grapes - we collect 200 grapes per plot picked at random in the middle of the plot which are then taken for analysis. The key things to look out for are acidity and sugar basically as they determine when to pick. We started this process at the beginning of the month - usually around 3-4 weeks before we anticipate starting. With each week you pray that the weather will be kind to you - provide enough sun and warmth to continue the ripening process. Rainfall at this time of year can be beneficial in "plumping" up the grapes a little but if there is too much rain it can lead to rot which means careful hand-picking and lower yields. At the moment, I am pleased with the weather despite some rain we have generally had lovely warm & sunny days. The grapes are very small this year so yields are much lower in general. We have tried to aim for an average yield of 30-35hl/ha, but I doubt we will achieve this. Anyway, time will tell!