The AOC has a worthy cause. It is there to maintain standards of quality and style. In some ways it is a shame that it has to exist. It says that there are people who are willing to cheat the consumer. To produce poor quality wine and to present it as something else.

However, the AOC does not allow for innovation. A wine is tested against history and so it is very difficult to try new things or to follow market demand.

I am in this situation now. I want to make a light (11.5%) elegant merlot that appeals to a younger audience but the AOC insist that I make a heavy (13%) rustic red.

C'mon innovate or die!

We're trying something new!

JancisRobinson.com rates us!

This is great!  I am delighted to get such an important rating for our first harvest. We are passionate about our respectful approach to winemaking and this recognition confirms that we are doing the right thing and can build on this success.

It was all looking so good last week. the Merlot and Malbec are in full flower. They smell great by the way for thiose that have never smelt vines in flower. Delicate perfume in the air, intoxicating up close. The Cabernet are just about to flower (They are allways a little later)

Then Monday night the hail hit. 2 minutes of near horizontal pelets. The leaves provide some protection to the flowers; a delicate verdent shield protecting the bunches of flowers hanging below. It is like machine gunning the vineyard and horrific to watch. In the morning the vines looked weary and drooping like they had been in the boxing ring with Tyson. I was told not to look now. "Go away and come back in the afternoon". A big ask for the worried owner, but I followed instruction and by the aftenoon they had all recovered most of their poise.

If you look at the picture you can see where the hail has punctured each leaf. We've lost some grapes thats for sure but I think we've escaped lightly. This time at least...

Well what a turnaround!

Our 2007 was a really difficult year and on more than one occasion I felt horribly despondant with all that were had to face: Weather, market, France and stating a new business...

When we picked the 07 we were desperate that we should salvage something from the year. Quality if not quantity at least. Our 'new claret' must be a 'funky bordeaux'

However, having just finished a series of tastings of the 07 Primeur, I am absolutely over the moon to say that it is a fine wine indeed!. Very different from the 06, which is a great wine, because of the different blend we have ended up with. Less Merlot means that the ratio of Malbec and Cabernet are higher. A funky Bordeaux indeed.

This certainly makes for a more spicey and really ripe fruit combination. I absolutely love it and like many 07s it is advanced for its age and with slightly less alchohol it is going to be a star!

We have just had our first primeur ratings:

Le Point - 14

Revue des vins de France - 15

Its great to get some recognition and we are certainly starting to get some of that.

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We had a great piece in the Times last week and are realy pleased that our 07 is being offered 'primeur' by Bibbendum in London.

Why don't you join us on the 23rd at Lords

Bibbendum Fine wine Primeur Tastings.

This week is Primeur week in Bordeaux.

What this means is that winemakers provide samples of  their last harvest (2007) , which has now been maturing now for some 5 months in oak, to the great and the good of the world of wine, so that they may get a view of the success or failure of the harvest as a whole. It is an opportunity for the public to see what is in store for their consumption when this is ready to be drunk. It is also an opportunity for the individual vineyard to gain recognition from the Jornalistic world.

The truth however is that it is a bit of a feeding frenzy for the rich large grand cru and there is very little interest for the majority of struggling small winemakers. Not suprising really. All those jornalists with bright red teeth would much rather be courted by the wealthy commercial wine factories of the Medoc than to rub shoulders with the hard working makers of wine that the average consumer can actualy afford to Drink.

We didn't realise it when we started but the run up to Christmas is the busiest time of year for the wine industry. No brainer I suppose... At least we know now!

As a result, we've been doing lots of tasting in Paris, London and the Westcountry. Here are a few puctures for those of you that missed out...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11420&l=7787a&id=787752487

Check out the visit by Enrico Bernardo (best sommelier in the world!) to our stand.

It's not all fun fun fun you know...

I recently went to an interesting talk by Nick Barclay (www.slowfoodcornwall.com) about ‘slow wine’ courtesy of Cornwall wine tasting group (CWTG). This got me thinking a lot because Nick was keen for us to taste wines he had selected from around the world (mostly new world) and he was keen to explain that amongst many other aspects, ‘slow wine’ was no irrigated. That’s fair enough of course because if you don’t irrigate than you encourage the roots of the vines to go deeper in search of water and to be more drought tolerant. Also, at harvest time leaves are more likely to be dropping also and the grapes are more likely to be smaller, drier and as a result more concentrated. That’s all great of course and results in grapes with fuller flavour.  I also understand that this is contrary to the ‘fast food’ production of grapes in large commercial operations where huge yields of big fat ‘fast’ grapes are supplemented with sugar to counteract their natural unripeness. It’s good that the new world wine factories are recognising the value of respecting the true cycles of nature. However. I was left thinking that this is exactly what quality ‘old world’, particularly French producers, have been doing for centuries.

I suppose that every farmer throughout time had said the same thing but for the farmers (winemakers) who grow grapes the problem is that there is only one crop a year. There is no winter cropping, no diversification to lamb and cereal. Basically if your crop fails,  your ****ed; and of course there are lots of reasons for failure. Late Frost is a killer,  hail in May, when the plants have budded can knock both the current year and damage the next, Oh and Mildew, That’s what got us. 9 years out of ten (Bordeaux reakons that years ending in 7 are unlucky) we’d have been OK limiting the amount of anti-funcacidal spray we use. But this year it wasn’t and as a result, partly of our ideals of aiming to be respectful of nature, nature has bitten back. We’ve lost 30% of our crop.

Does that make me change our ambitions to make wine in a respectful way? Of course not, in fact it just makes me appreciate nature a bit more, but it sure makes it a lot harder to justify our approach to the bank manager!