Monday 1st October 2006

Spoke to Nicolas today. Arranged to meet him next weekend. Luckily Juliet and Mike are heading down to France next weekend. I can tag along. Booked a cheap flight. Can't wait to tell the lads at football.

Sunday 30th September 2006

We have lift off! There was a forwarded email from Olly in my inbox today.

He'd found us a winemaker, a guy called Nicolas Bergasse who works out of Chateau Viranel. He spoke good English which is a bonus and waiting for a phone call.

Checked out the Viranel website.

A family owned wine estate with 4 centuries of history. The man in the photographs looked older than me. Could he be Nicolas? Whoever he was he looked at ease posing amongst the vines, breathtaking countryside in the distance. My kind of place!

All I need do is pluck up the courage to phone him then book a cheap flight out there.

Friday 29th September 2006

Running out of options. Louise said 'Why don't you try Olly?'

Olly was this chap we'd met in a wine shop in this town called Saint Chinian in the Languedoc region of France. We'd been taking advantage of free accommodation at Louise's sister and brother-in-law's place nearby. I never could resist the lure of a wine shop and had to take a look. The amazing thing was that the only wines he sold were from the Saint Chinian appellation and there seemed like hundreds of them. He spoke good English and it turned out he knew Juliet and Mike. He wasn't a fan of non-French wine and in particular despised English people coming over to France buying up vineyards. For that reason alone I'd avoided him as an option. How was I going to tell him that I needed help find someone willing to lend me some vines for a year so I could have a go at making wine.

'What have you got to lose?' Louise said and surveying the rapidly diminishing array of options open to me the answer was clearly nothing at all. 

Asked Louise's brother-in-law Mike to send him an email as he probably didn't remember me. I told Mike to tell him I wanted to write an article on winemaking in the South of France for an article for an English magazine and would like to shadow a winemaker at several key moments throughout the vineyard year. Don't tell him whatever you do that I want to make wine.

Mike sent the email today so hopefully should get an answer soon.

Thursday 28th September 2006

Mart phoned up this evening from Spain, asking when I'm coming out again to write some tunes. Mentioned my wine making idea. He suggested we make it has his place, in his garage.

'Won't Bev mind?' I asked 'doesn't she use it as a laundry room?'

'Nah, she'll be alright. We can borrow an allotment down by the sea. It'll be a laugh'

Yeah! a right one no doubt. It's a nice idea. It's just when I get over to Spain, I never feel like working. Their pool is too enticing. We end up working on a backing track for a bit then its suddenly time for a cold beer and a dip. Can't imagine us getting it together to make wine when we can't even get it together to finish a song.

Sunday 24th September 2006

Louise and Ben appeared at the door of the study this afternoon. 'Do you remember us?' she said 'We're your partner and child.' 

I must admit I have been somewhat obsessed recently. I'd spent most of the day googling 'vines for sale' but after careful consideration came to the conclusion I had neither the time or the money.

A lesser option would be to rent a row or two somewhere.

Found a website called ultimategifts.co.uk. A young lady stared seductively into the camera surrounded by vines. 

'Who's that?' Louise said. 'Oh, it's only research' I replied. 

What seemed to on offer was the chance to rent a row of vines somewhere hot, very hot by the look of things. It didn't cost much either. You could visit your row whenever you wanted. It was sort of like owning your own piece of France or Italy or wherever, the snag was you didn't get to make the wine. Someone else did that for you. They'd slap your very own label on the bottle made from your very own grapes but it didn't seem quite like the real thing.

'Looks like a good idea' Louise said.

'The whole point is for me to make it myself' I replied, 'to be involved in the whole process from start to finish'

She sighed

 'This is cheating' I said, 'like singing someone else's songs'

'You're really determined to do this, aren't you?' she said backing away from the door.

'Yes I am, deadly serious'

Friday 22nd September 2006 (p.m)

Rounded off the course with a spin in a tractor. Been looking forward to this as thought it might reawaken the closet farmer in me. Alas, not. Managed to lose control of it and almost collided with another tractor in the purpose built training area. As the rain began to fall the terrain got muddier. Time to bid Plumpton farewell. 

On the train back to London I wondered what I had gained from all this. The overriding thought was that I was hopelessly out of my depth. It might not be a bad idea to back out now before I humiliated myself. 

But something inside me said with a conviction I'd rarely known, 'you're not going to give up just yet, not until you'd truly exhausted all the options. 

Friday 22nd September 2006

9.30 a.m

Back in the classroom for the morning theory session. More mathematical equations and scientific formulas. The most interesting part was about pest management. Its a wonder wine ever gets made so vicious are the forces of nature stacked up against it. The accompanying slide show was of Hammer Horror proportions. 'This is a dagger nematode' Chris said pointing to a particularly ugly worm on the screen and this cue Beethoven's fifth, pale of lightning is 'Phylloxera' Oh how those 4 syllables must have struck terror into European winemakers in the late 1800s. Having hitched a ride over on some vine cuttings from America, where the vines were resistant to it by some intrepid British Botanists, Phylloxera began its blitzkrieg across Europe, laying waste to everything in front of it. It took years and many ruined businesses before it was stopped in its tracks by grafting European grape varieties onto resistant American rootstock. Its still around today but thanks to effective pest management largely tamed. The list seemed endless. If the bugs don't get you, then there are the diseases. If they're not enough to put you off then there are the animals and the weeds. Of course all this could be managed using the proper techniques but I couldn't help thinking back to my one and only attempt at growing anything. The ill fated allotment which was infested by Bindweed. So bad was it that I practically napalmed the plot with weed killer, killing virtually every living organism in the process.

Ah well! at least the theory was over. As dark clouds began to circle overhead the afternoon promised to be more fun with a demonstration of vineyard equipment and a spin in a tractor.