The challenges of running a vineyard and trying to have a relationship with someone special in Japan is difficult especially in this "romantic" month! However, distance does make the heart grow fonder and modern technology means that we are really not that far away from each other...............

The challenges of running a vineyard and trying to have a relationship with someone special in Japan is difficult especially in this "romantic" month! However, distance does make the heart grow fonder and modern technology means that we are really not that far away from each other...............

There are some months when I am here on my own and the loneliness really sets in. A combination of a lack of sun and cold weather always makes me feel a little melancholy. This is when I need a shoulder to cry on or someone to comfort and encourage me. I am particularly upset by having to rebottle the rosé as this is literally doubling the cost of production and we will never recover this, especially in today's market. However, I am not going to let this get me down. There are plenty of positives and I know that the wine will sell well and more importantly that it will bring a lot of enjoyment to those who drink it!

It has been particularly cold and wet here again. There is a lot of surface water around the vineyard and we have had icy puddles all over the place which is very unusual. We have had some days of sunshine and the temperatures are just creeping up slightly. This is an advantage for those who leave pruning until the last moment! We will start pruning around the second week of March and need the weather to remain "cool" so that the vines are not activated into life too early. There are some plots which need canes attaching to the wiring (guyot) and if the canes are not flexible enough it will take longer to do this as we cannot afford to break them. Also, if the buds start coming we have to be careful not to damage these either. These are the risks when pruning late and the damage caused could have repercussions on the yields come harvest time. I have decided to leave all the pruning to our contractor and shall instead focus on the "attachage" (attaching the canes to the wiring) with probably one other person to help.

It is not all doom and gloom though! Our new barrels arrived - later than expected and totally unexpected on a day when I was on my own, so the driver (after much persuasion and some wine) finally unloaded them into the chai (barrel cellar). He was all for letting them stay outside until I could find someone to help me put them in the chai. Well, I was having none of that and literally put my foot down! Buying barrels is a huge investment and I was not going to have my "babies" suffer in the wet and cold just to accommodate him. We have bought one new 500L barrel this year to age the cuvé HENRI in. I wanted to see what effect / character the wine would take on by being aged in new oak. Not wanting to impart too much tannin, I opted for the larger vessel thinking that the wine would have less contact with the wood and would therefore not take on too much oak flavour. We shall see in 4-6 months time when I shall taste the wine and asses whether to transfer it out of this barrel into a slightly older one. The other barrels are one-year-old from Burgundy so they are 228L instead of the 225L commonly used in Bordeaux. We now have a mixture of both which shall be interesting. I am keen to continue with the larger barrels going forward as I think our wines will benefit from this in time. We also need to make sure that we can buy in a maximum of one-third "newer" stock each year to ensure that there is a blend of aged barrels in the chai. I think this will add to the complexity of the wine and enhance what we already have from the "terroir" of Combebelle. I do not want to go down the route of over extraction as this is a sign of poor winemaking in my view. Our style is more "nurturing" of the grapes and respecting the "terroir" of Combebelle which is unique. I shall keep you posted on the progress of Henri!

I have spent a lot of time planning the work in the vineyard and seeing where we can reduce costs this year. Although we are selling well and have some great importers, they too are feeling the pinch and we need to make sure that our cashflow covers the monthly costs of the vineyard. This is a very difficult thing to achieve and balance but a challenge I have been wrestling with since the beginning. Last year I managed to get this right for the first 8 months of the year but the economic crisis then took charge (uurrgghh!). We are now looking at establishing new markets mainly within the Eurozone but we have had some more interest from Canada which we are looking into now. We shall also focus on cellar door sales here this year and try to optimise this as much as possible. With the gite bookings this should help enormously.

I have had a chance to speak to a lot of producers in recent weeks/months and most of them are finding it difficult at present. Those with strong UK markets are perhaps suffering the most and are now desparately looking at alternative markets. Where I can be of help to some, I will, as I know how hard it is, and providing there is no direct competition with our wines there is really no issue.

Well, I am off back to Japan for a couple of weeks R&R! I shall of course be seeing our lovely importer there and catching up with friends. There are also a few wine tasting events going on which should be fun!

By the way, just to prove there is still "romance" in these difficult times, Patrick surprised me with the biggest bunch of beautiful red roses on Valentine's Day!