Well who knew?

now look where the barn has got to...

now look at where the courtyard has got to...

and all the new roofs

and the winery

and we just harvested year 4...

Year 1 red was junk, and some claim now drinkable.

Year 2 red is lovely.

Year 3 red is even better, richer but is still maturing, year 3 white (yep made it separately) everybody loves even non white wine drinkers.

Year 4 red is still in the carbouy as is year 4 white.









We had one bunch of grapes on the 150 "babies" this year, so next year - it will all start to happen with Cabernet Sauvignon!

yeh! really - who knew!

absolument!..a blog from Steve

Well, it finally happened - I made the time to write the blog I promised Amanda! I guess that is the first point - making time for stuff is a challenge we all face on a daily basis, as we spend our day reacting to what happens to us , rather than sorting out the urgent and important, from the really important and doing what only we can do, instead of getting involved in detail that doesn’t need our time. 

As I have been juggling the next phase of development at Grusson and helping my friend Andrew with his renovation around his pool and keeping the grass cut and place tidy at Grusson I have spent too little time on equalta. 

However I always had an excuse - I’m getting older and tire more easily, there’s too much going on in my head, I need to rest etc. well it’s time to ‘fess up - it’s ….ocks!!! Whether consciously or not I had prioritised, I had decided where to spend my time and effort AND for the past few months it was in the wrong place!!!!!  Having a small business working from home requires a different set of disciplines and has different frustrations from working in a corporate environment  - the making of your own routine, rather than by being driven by a meeting schedule; choosing the projects you want to do, rather than what the strategic plan did say but got changed by the boss's boss's focus on this months numbers, the list goes on. 

The key point here is about decision making, making choices and making choices involves thinking through situations and to do that effectively requires three key components: you, some tools and the right environment. We have created the environment we have a whole host of tools we just need you.

So, do yourself , your family and your organisation a big favour - come and spend some time with me and Amanda at Grusson - thinking about what’s on YOUR mind.

...planting the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon vines

So off I went - day 1 and got to the first dug hole. Yikes! it was so baked solid that I couldn't do anything with it (end of March 23 degrees or as I call it "factor 30 weather"). It is all very well having a mega horse power tractor digging holes but I just had my hands to re-fill for the little plants. In the end I took a lump hammer to the "soil" and softened it with water. I think I planted 7 on that first day.

On day 3 it rained, so stopped play at lunchtime, and life was sooo much easier on day 4. I had no idea quite how much difference water could have on soil, I think I was on about 35 by the end of day 5.

But at the weekend, after I had managed 55 so far, the cavalry arrived in the form of Ian, and low and behold we finished the other 45 in a day and a half! How does that happen!

Meanwhile Steve had finished putting all the posts in, single handedly mowed and strimmed the whole vineyard AND made an amazing Sunday lunch, complete with giant Yorkshire puddings and onion gravy, which we had in the barn.

So on to the wine tasting....

long time...

...since I posted about the vine growing and winemaking antics at Grusson (and all the building and restoration going on - I'm on a promise from Steve for a blog from him about that!). Mainly because I didn't want it to become same old-same old.

However I thought you might be interested to hear some stuff now, many months later!

I'll tell you about the October 2013 wine making in a later blog, this one will be about the April 2014 planting of the new vines and here they are!

Yep, 101 of them (they sent one extra). Now - we had only ever intended to plant another 50 BUT my supplier had disappeared off the face of the earth, and the only other supplier I could identify had a minimum order of 100.

So my birthday present from Steve and Dave was about 106 vine holes and about 35 post holes and 35 posts and wire and tensioners for them all. What a lucky girl!

I only really heard the details of the hole making later from Dave. It was done with the auger on the back of the tractor, which was both much, much easier than digging and at times harder, with moments of it slipping and sliding all over the place. But I just thought it was awesome to have them all done for me. That is until I got there and started to look into the detail (it was still awesome but not quite as easy to just plant the vines as I might have imagined!).


So enough for now, I hope you look forward to the next installment!

Mmmm - guess where I am?

Yep - the "How really to make wine properly" course at Plumpton.

Wish me luck!

The Story of the Labels

My labels have arrived - and the story is worth telling.


The first row I planted I did almost entirely on my own, and it was very, very Special. In the warm and peace of the vineyard, putting into practice all that I had learned, just the sound of the boys building in the background and achieving our dreams. This is the essence of Grusson as a learning environment which we hope some of you may experience in the future.

Then Ian arrived for the weekend and despite quite a lot of planning and laying out of the rows before his arrival, his input made them even better, hence the Straight row. Measured well and lined up - it is clearly the most aligned!

Then Ian went again and apart from Dave digging a few holes for me I was pretty well on my own again. The building was going fantastically, there was a fair amount of coming and going and the row ended up pretty wobbly! When we discussed this, the boys claimed it was the number of Kir Royales I had had - hence the Sparkling row.

PS lest you all think Steve wasn't doing anything - he was putting in the 7 foot posts for the trellising! As for the building work - well - more of that very soon!!!!!!

Live Life and Enjoy!

The bottling commences!

Who would have believed that we would get this far! The good news is that the wine looks fantastic, and there was very little sediment left. The bad news - it tastes even worst than it did in February. However, Paul the builder, who knows everything, said " it is very well rounded and smooth, I think the acidity taste will mature away in the bottle".

Can't say fairer than that then!




Bottling it was easier said than done - needs two people to get the flows right, and strong boy's arms to get the corks in!

...and using her serious photoshopping skills - my sister drafted a wine label for us!

I am promised a new winery for next September, Dave Brown was feeding the power to it a few weeks ago, and guess what I'm going to do - yep - the Winemaking Intensive course at Plumpton in September - you never know maybe I will get a merit (again!). And hopefully will learn what on earth we did (wrong?) this year.




Meanwhile back in the.....yikes the roof is all finished!!!!!