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!!!!!

New vines!

How fantastic is this!

We decided since we had no idea what the grapes in the vineyard are, apart from one of the locals suggesting there were some Noah grapes. Whenever we mentioned this to anyone, including my tutor at Plumpton, there were sharp intakes of breath! Something to do with ethanol??

Anyway we researched and made friends with some suppliers who helped out these strange Anglais who have no idea really what they are doing! Sent off a soil sample and lo and behold the answer was Cabernet Sauvignon. (Which is Steve's favourite wine? (answers on a postcard...) and which grape is a major constituent of that wine?).

The science bit - we have phylloxera in the vineyard so needed a rootstock which was resistant, so the baby vines are Cabernet Sauvignon, grafted onto SO2 rootstock, the red you can see is the dip into wax they do to protect the graft.

As I write a week after I planted them, I am reliably informed that the buds are growing on all of them and bursting out of the wax and bud burst looks imminent! Now which chapter is "Looking after Vines in Their First Year"?

Meanwhile back at the other barn (gite)....

Ah yes the pruning

Well - did I say that I went on a Vineyard Management Course at Plumpton College last September to learn all about vines? Mmmm yes and did I say I got a merit in my exam?

Well anyway, in a cold week at the beginning of February I decided it was time to put it all into practice. So I bought us some new shiny kit  - short loppers and new secateurs and off I went.

Yikes!!! This isn’t like any of the diagrams on the course! OK - so I took some photos and sent them off to my tutor for help, and headed back to YouTube for another look at the pruning guidance. My tutor's first comments were “I’d pull them all up and start again if I were you, they are all pretty derelict!” Mmm helpful I thought – but then he was helpful and gave me some suggestions.

Now if we put our yellow hats on here – we could say – woooo! we got 163 lbs of grapes off these “derelict” vines last year – what could we do if I have only half sporting chance of bringing them round a bit further? So I ploughed on and after three days the place was looking – well OK-ish.

Dave Brown, when released from his electrickery in the Barn, came and helped me bash in a few posts and tighten a few wires – and it ended up looking pretty respectable! Btw did I say I went on a training course and got a merit?

Meanwhile back at the Barn - the windows are going in thick and fast, and the boys have their first beer at the Barn bar  (to be).

 BTW did I tell you...


 So a new seasonal cycle of the vines to learn about and enjoy, and another attempt at producing wine in October. And we’ll be bottling last year's wine in the middle of April.

Hey here is a picture of my merit certificate!

On a final note: James (Steve's son) is raising money for his World Challenge. I asked him about it and he told me this....
"We will be trekking to the small community of San Vicente, Napo which is located around half an hour by vehicle from the town of Tena. Our project is to help the local community advance their water pipe line which was started back in 2010 by world challenge. Once out there we will be clearing vegetation so that we can dig a trench which we will then place 2" PVC pipe inside. By doing this we will be advancing a vital pipeline which will supply the local community with safe drinking water. This project phase spans over 5 days and will be physically challenging yet despite this, it will be amazing to have the opportunity to work with the local community in order to improve their quality of life."
 It seems that his biggest challenge in fact is raising money whilst studying hard for his GCSEs. If anyone could find a few quid to help that would be FANTASTIC!! (email me and I will send you the snailmail address to send a cheque to). Thanks! (on his behalf).

Now where were we?

Ah yes, 43 litres. So we tucked it away for a few weeks and then it was time for racking. So in a twist of suction tubes and transfer vessels that were too small and hapless attempts at trying to keep the air away, we managed to seal it back into two containers again. And yes we kept a sample back.

URRGGHHH! It tastes awful!

Nice colour though!

I took some back to the UK and did some measurements - yep too acidic at 9 ppt and pH 2 - well we knew that, it was in the "too hard box" at the beginning.

So I bought some calcium carbonate crystals, and thought I will do some experiments on my little sample I brought back to UK. Mmmm yes you can change the pH but lots of crystals crystallising out all over the place!!

So we turned our backs on it again. And in February racked it again. I added 5 campden tablets (should have been 10 according to the internet but that didn't feel right). And yes we kept a sample back. Mmmm tastes slightly less awful, pH now 3, and actually the same pH as the Bordeaux Steve buys from Lidl!

So when in doubt, consult the experts, so we asked Paul, the builder. He said he thinks it is OK for its age, and it'll be fine. So I dumped the calcium carbonate idea and we've turned our backs on it again!

Meanwhile time to prune the vines.....