Are we already almost through January already? Well it may be a little late for wishing all a happy new year.......the holidays seam like ancient history........Emmanuel has already started his Christmas wish list for next year! But we are only just in the beginning of 2011 and so I thought it would be nice to start out this year with a little look back on 2010.
2010 was a big year for La Combe du Jardinier. Lots of firsts and lots of great memories. Thanks to everyone who came by to share a little of it with us.
We started out 2010 with a bang.
The Turners, the Van Fraassens,
Collioure and a little pruning!
In FEBRUARY we went to the vines to prune but mostly got preoccupied with hunting wild leeks. We also finished our website www.lacombedujardinier.com thanks to tom and the team over at www.webboutiques.co.uk/. They were awesome to work with,I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a web designer.  In MARCH we woke up to a winter wonderland. Three days of snow adventures, candle lit dinners and sleeping in front of the fire! (our power got cut off)  In APRIL we finished pruning AND finished the labels. April was a very satisfying month!  In MAY we started blending....and tasting, we did a lot of tasting. I guess all that hard work of tasting was worth it. Our 2009 blend will be bottled and for sale this spring.   We bottled or first batch of La Benita in JUNE. We also had Emmanuel's fairy god mother (Kate) come over for a visit. We put her to work, opened our first bottle of La Benita and picnicked under the summer sun. Renaud turned 4 at the end of the month!   In JULY Grandma came to France. I met up with her and a good friend for a few WONDERFUL days backpacking in the Pyrenees. Then mom came back to ours to spoil the kids and help me get ready for my exhibition. Oh ya... I turned 30 in JULY!  At the end of AUGUST we started out first day of picking. We harvested our syrah under perfect conditions; sunny skies,a cool breeze and loads of little helping hands. Kids in the vines is perfection. Emmanuel had his 6 th birthday!   SEPTEMBER fills the house with a yeasty smell of wine fermenting and a permanent trail of dirty work boots, coolers, picnic baskets and juicy sticky laundry. In other words the Harvest is in full swing! Christophe starts the vintage with our first harvest at the end of August and can be found at almost any hour either in the vineyard or in the cellar until the beginning of November. Its a busy, exciting, magical time of the year for us... when everything begins.   We managed to find time in SEPTEMBER to invite Emmanuel and Renaud's school over to pick some grapes and make their own bottle's of juice. 47 little barefoot sticky kids running around was a sight to see!   In OCTOBER we were busy pressing the grapes. The press is a very important part of making our wine. When the grapes are harvested they are put directly into our cement cuves where the fermentation takes place. They are then transferred into our two hundred year old press where we lightly press the last of the juices. It's a big job leaving Christophe and the guys hungry and blue by the end of the day.  Uncle Brian came for a visit at the beginning of NOVEMBER. He spent most of his holiday showing us his talents and keeping me pleased by building me a new kitchen cabinet. Nothing better than a carpenter for brother! We also picked olives and drank wine.  Jamie came at the end of NOVEMBER and we took to the sky's. I got a great shot of the vines from above and yes that's Jamie co-piloting the plane!   DECEMBER finds us back in the vines pruning. The cycle begins, although this year I have my brand new 'bruloir' which has made my work so much easier. (Merci mon amour) Cheers to 2011, may it be just as wonderful as the last year! xx Amanda |
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