How Laithwaites happened - part eighteen

An even bigger passion for me was my 'Flying Winemakers'. (A trademark we invented one boozy night in L'Envers du Decor wine bar, St Emilion.) Looked at with hindsight - always the best view - it looks like having done all the wine discovering there was to do, I started back at the beginning of the trail again, in Bordeaux, but this time looking not for good wines but for good vineyards that could be making good wines, but weren't. If I could arrange for good wine to be made in places written off by everyone else I could get fantastic value for money.

That's hindsight for you.

In reality what happened was that late one day, during the '86 vintage at La Clariere when I was stirring a tub of yeast and wondering why it wouldn't go, this Australian walked in. In that charming way Aussies - and some Yorkshiremen - have, he said I was doing it all completely wrong.

So he showed me, it worked, and he said he'd be back next year to sort me out properly. His name was Dr. Tony Jordan - to wine people everywhere; 'The Doctor'. Did I, he asked, also know a white wine property where he could show me how to make a decent dry Semillon because he hadn't found even one on his holidays.

Upshot was he couldn't come back in '87 as Moët et Chandon had hired him to build and run them their great fizz winery (Green Point) in the Yarra. So he sent a young Nigel Sneyd in his place and ran the vintage by phone from Australia. They made just one terrific wine in a village called St Vivien just up the Dordogne, fermented, finished and bottled in six weeks. Fresh, zingy, crisp Sauvignon Blanc-style white, and so cheap! Went down very well with customers.

Next year he sent the great Martin Shaw and then John Belsham from New Zealand. Their wine was so good it won the White Wine trophy in the big Concours National in Burgundy.

We put 'Flyers' into the Midi, Rhone, Ardeche, Provence, Spain, Slovenia, and Chile.

With other projects we arrived at a point in the early '90's where we were making almost a quarter of the wines we sold.

And keeping winemakers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and France out of trouble by giving them something to do during their winter seasons.

Later on we also got interested in what some of them did when they went home. The Australian wine industry had embarked on an unwise course of what might be called extreme 'rationalisation' which ended up – after innumerable takeovers – with almost all Australian wine being made by just four Companies! Any surprise people complain it tastes 'samey’.

We struggled to find enough of the good old family Companies we'd always dealt with. Many of our Flyers also struggled to find winemaking jobs that satisfied their creativity. Some were making a few barrels of wine in their garages. It was very good. We set up a very basic shed-winery in an old building that had been a restaurant called Red Heads. Wine makers and wine growers met there, played loud music, drank beer, fooled around and still made amazingly good wines. We called it a studio winery. We struggled to keep them under control - that's artists for you - but it became a real fount of creativity.

How Laithwaites happened - part seventeen

I had always been Chairman (I was never Managing Director). I stayed with the writing and two special areas particularly close to my heart. But gave up my office to Greg, found myself a windowless room in the depths of the rabbit warren and also worked from home.

My relationship with Greg was interesting.

Barbara pulled right back immediately as she said she would, restricting herself to chairman type things. But me? I couldn't do that. The Company needed me to do my words. They needed me to do wines. So I was working for Greg. Whilst he, of course, was working for me!

Founding-Entrepreneurs can be a real problem for professional CEO's. And Founder-Entrepreneurs usually hate new Managing Directors messing with their beloved Companies. There was tension. Few actual rows. But definite tension, often quite creative, though.

Greg's team took our £15M 'rough diamond' Company and, as requested, polished it. Mad ideas were severely reduced and the watchword became 'focus'. The boys stuck to what worked - our wine Clubs, Four Seasons, Premier and such and just made them work better. Results were impressive. That team took us from £15m to over £200m in just over ten years. And we made fair profits. Never excessive but enough to keep banks happy and allow us to invest in systems, good new people and growth.

Impressive; I could have no complaints. Except I did complain. All the time. I can't help the fact I want to change things every day. I may overdo it, but everything out there changes all the time. It you don't change too, you will get left behind. So in the face of my moaning, I got given my special areas where I could go away and do what I wanted to do.

One was shops where despite my two previous failures I would not give up trying to get it right. With the legendary John Knapp we began, very slowly, opening a new type of shop where everything was based around a big tasting table. After all, that's what wine is about; tasting something special.

We are still at it today and at our new Railway Arch by London Bridge - where we now have the world's longest tasting table - we are evolving something quite unique. I love doing unique.

How Laithwaites happened - part sixteen

So, twenty years after starting, at the end of the Eighties we had a big business. But it appeared to be rather dangerous to our health and it had never made money.

But it was a good business, it was fantastic fun and we loved it. Well, I did; I got all the interesting things to do! Barbara got the boring stuff.

The Company was unique, really, back then; producing so many words, pictures and events all aiming to draw people deep into a world I found to be quite magical and couldn't shut up about. But it was dangerously profitless. One wise old business friend said to me that whilst he knew many guys who had made gold out of shit, I was the only one that managed to make shit out of gold.

Brutally crude... but effective; he had a point, and we listened.

We had wonderful suppliers and very loyal customers but until we made a proper return we remained very, very vulnerable to any unexpected glitch. And we already knew there were plenty of those about.

Barbara suggested I take some time off to try and get healthy. Actually, she wanted me to stop coming up with mad schemes so she and the others could just get on and trade properly. Which they did. This meant we could now go out and recruit a management team appropriate for a Company our size.

Alex the Aussie came in as Marketing Director, David the Scottish Accountant came as Finance Director, Phillip came as I.T. Director, and Ade moved up from damp old Railway Arch 36 to be Wine Director. To head the team and take over from Barbara we recruited the man who had made Smallbone kitchens famous; Greg Hodder.

Barbara 'retired' to look after me and three boys (which she always said actually increased her work load) and became Co-Chairman with me. I didn't retire.

How Laithwaites happened - part fifteen

So during the Eighties we grew but quietly - in our little Caversham backwater. I guess that we, during the boom years of Mrs T, actually marked time. So much to do and no time to think about planning.

Wasn't intentional. And we had setbacks.

We got a bigger computer which the salesman said was a 'Turnkey' solution. 'Turn the key and it works'!

The man should've been shot. It was anything but 'turnkey'. 'Turkey' maybe. We had no idea how to control the thing. And it started eating our money. By which I mean we fed customers cheques and credit card payments into it but it then refused to send the money on to the bank … or anywhere.

That was tricky. One Friday, the bank threatened to foreclose. That weekend I went screaming around the country and finally found the girl who had installed the brute and dragged her off her horse. By Monday she'd started to get the machine to cough some cash. She was a game girl; stayed days in our offices - in her jodhpurs - 'til we were safe.

Business is full of these sorts of things but we don't like to dwell on them.

There are worse things.

One early summer morning in Spain, 1988, after a long drive, Tim Bleach our first employee, my buyer 'shadow', and drinking mate, had a head-on smash and subsequently died.

We lost two other friends and suppliers the same summer.

So I then had a heart attack. "Sell your Business and Retire" the Cardiologist said. "Retire and take a touring holiday in the South of France". I said that was more or less my job anyway, so maybe I thought I'd carry on. But no longer with just Mom and Pop running the whole show. We'd finally understood we needed help.

How Laithwaites happened - part fourteen

Dear old Monsieur Cassin, incensed that his nephew had turned down the offer of his vineyard "because it is not Saint Emilion!" rang early one morning to tell me I was going to buy his vineyard. At a very good price. AND he would rationalize his 24 tiny plots into something more manageable. I said yes if we could also have his barn to convert into a winery. And so Château La Clariere was born.

Here's old André and the huge Labrue working the vineyards in 1980.






Monsieur Cassin found us a farmer; Guy Delage, father of our current farmer; Olivier, but we - the family - went every vintage to make the wine. I had no idea how to make the wine. But I had to learn pdq. I owe debts of gratitude to my mentors Peter Vinding-Diers and The Doctor; Tony Jordan. We did OK. Won medals even. And we still have at least six cases of every vintage from 1984 so from time to time I can show people just what I did.

Amidst all this Barbara managed to produce Henry in 1980, then Will '82 and Tom '83 … whilst still full-on M.D. But … a couple of months after Tom was born she went out one morning to do her horses and came back with a headache so bad she was screaming.

It was a brain haemorrhage. Could it have been a warning we ought to have heeded? Barbara was in the lucky 2% who survive - with no scars. She soon got better … and we carried on heedless as before.

It was still just her and me. We didn't know about how you delegate, neither of us had the slightest business training. Luckily there wasn't any real competition and Barbara tried to make sure none arrived by insisting we kept a low profile.

I was banned from going around boasting. The rest of the wine trade and the wine journalists found us secretive, despite us doing ever increasing amounts of advertising. It was true, we told no-one what we were doing, and probably a mistake.

More highlights from the Vintage Festival

Liked the hot 'empanadas' (sort of Argentinian pastie) being offered next to the Malbecs on MalbecWorldDay.com. Also liked the Tango demonstration!! Mmm, she was lovely.

No Bill (West End/The Boxer) Calabria this year on account of the very late harvest in Australia. Bill still working harvest. His many fans say they understand and send their best wishes. But two other BIG Oz personalities MAC Macpherson and Bob Berton adequately fill the gap. Very adequately.

And Hickinbothams, even without David, seemed the most popular stand overall.

Bollinger stand was mobbed. Unsurprisingly.

And for the first time was a stand with beer pumps. Nothing like a glass of draught after multiple wine tastings. Loose Cannon Brewery.

The popularity/sales of the new-style XV has/have rocketed.

Saw Anne – representing Portugal – narrowly defeat Helen – representing Spain – in a Head-to-Head … one of many 'bouts' in the theatre.

Particularly liked the Andre Dupuis 'Le Merrandier' Pinot Noir 2009 and Farnese's perfumey Ultima Edizione four grapes.

Tried the first samples of 'The Spritz' – a new idea, yet to be launched. Barbara will love it.

The Chablisiens were mobbed, especially the Dampts. Not surprising; wonderful stuff.

Beaujolais makes a big come-back I note.

Winners of the Members Vote (First Past the Post)


Friday AM

GOLD: 62609 Hickinbotham Shiraz/Cabernet 09

SILVER: 62781 Baron de Barbon 2005 Rioja Reserva

BRONZE: 73112 La Font del Bosc 2005, Maury



Friday PM

GOLD: 62685 Le Prince de Courthezon, Cotes du Rhone 2009

SILVER: 62609 Hickinbotham Shiraz/Cabernet 09

BRONZE: 62175 Domini Veneti Vigneti Amarone 2004



Saturday AM

GOLD: 62609 Hickinbotham Shiraz/Cabernet 09

SILVER: 27920 Babich Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2010

BRONZE: 40514 Nine Tails Moscato Rose 2010



Saturday PM

GOLD: 62688 Domaine les Escondudes Chateauneuf du Pape 2009

SILVER: 62609 Hickinbotham Shiraz/Cabernet 09

BRONZE: 62646 Willy Willy Shiraz 2010


Sales look good and are still coming in and at least 144 new customers too. All-in-all, an excellent show.

HJ and I finish up with the Masis.

Barbara has gone off to Italy today so I dare show this pic of me and Anna Rita Masi. See what I mean about wine being about friends!

The 32nd LONDON Vintage Festival

32nd year of The Sunday Times Wine Club's annual get-together. This must be one of the world's longest running wine shows. It has launched many wines to a success that goes far beyond just The Wine Club.

Started because I so wanted my customers – in this case Wine Club Members – to meet my wonderful wine producers. The liquid they pour for you is only part of the story and only truly appreciated when you know who made it, how and where, and why.

It’s even better when you become friends. You see, at this show a lot of friendships that form over a wine then go on to endure for years and years.

Many in the wine world have forgotten a truth known since Ancient Times; "nothing tastes better than wine made by friends".

That's not forgotten here.

I have attended every session of every show for all 32 years. Like a huge party that lasts two days it is … exhausting. But you wouldn't want to miss it. Well, I wouldn't.

I sit (bliss for my feet) watching several producers who now run very important and successful wine companies. (Although many were much smaller when we first worked together). They have flown from the far ends of the earth and now stand for two days solid, just pouring and talking.

It’s that friendship thing … and more:

"I learn here" says Bob Berton … major Australian wine producer. The London Vintage has a very smart audience and one that actually stays coherent to the end of the night … and that is rare, say experienced wine producers. Hundreds of wines to try – but the visitors handle it so well.

"I expected snobbery" said one new visitor, "but I saw none of that; it’s all so friendly and informal".

Ah well, time to see if the feet can keep going.

How Laithwaites happened - part thirteen

Over our 19 years at lovely Thames-side Paddock Road we grew to take over all the space in almost every unit on the estate - that was five buildings. And we still didn’t have enough space. Putting important people like Anne the Head Buyer into a converted toilet did not exactly make me popular.

But the old rabbit warren did have a great buzz to it. It was kind of healthy too as the yard became the hub of the business … many projects were planned around the coffee and sandwich van out in the freezing air.

My overriding memory of those days is that it was like being in a very hot kitchen with incredible amounts of noise and yelling and stuff happening. There was no time to think … just react. To this day, a quiet office doesn't feel right. There was also an overriding feeling of needing a pee … just no time … and there weren't enough toilets left.

We got our first computer; an IBM 34. Probably not as powerful as my phone is today and about the size of a car. It did work well though.

Then, we took on a vineyard.

Paddock Road was captured on canvas by Jo Dennis of Indent Design. Cheers, Jo!

Tasting with the 'Bounders' at Laithwaites HQ

Lunch today with Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse, who, it seems, is recruiting - on behalf of The Prince's Trust - entrepreneurs to help disadvantaged young people get themselves on their feet. Very successfully. But help is increasingly needed in these times.

Back at HQ, later, a packed 'Chiller' was the setting for most of the wine enthusiasts (commonly referred to as the 'Bounders') in Laithwaites to share a few bottles. An old tradition making a welcome comeback after too long a gap.

What happens is half a dozen of us pick out a wine they personally enjoy a lot – and which their customers also seem to like – pour them and explain their choices.

The wines:

Domaine Bott Geyl Pinot d'Alsace 2007

'Trazzera' Fiano from Sicily

Artisan 'The Sands Block' Sauvignon Blanc 2009

Château Duthil 2005, Haut Médoc

Chapoutier Rasteau 2009

(The last two aren't online - if you'd like some, you'll have to speak to the sales team.)

They all went down well. But personally I liked the Alsace so much I ordered a case. So did Glenn our new Laithwaites Managing Director. This was his first good look at the most important people in the Company: those the customers know personally … and trust to guide them through the wine maze.

I managed to steal a couple of samples of very top-end Argentine Malbecs from Trapiche while Thomas was out of the building. I am still in awe of what I saw on my recent trip there. They went down extremely well, too.

Bottling Château La Clariere 2009

Today … quick flit over to Bordeaux to see the bottling of the 2009. It is tasting very good indeed. A vintage which, for younger palates – or palates that like their claret younger – might only need six months or so to round off nicely. It’s a very 'forward' vintage. We had a bottle straight off the bottling line, with Bernadette's garlic-soused roast leg of lamb and it was so good. So very good. One of those moments.

Henry is pretty proud of it. As he is with his own Château Verniotte which he will bottle next, when the La Clariere is done.

He already did a small bottling over the weekend when a bunch of rough lads – accountants, finance guys, I.T. people, you know the type – came over from the UK and US to bottle a barrel they'd persuaded Henry to let them make in his cellar in '09. I warned him. But he's a big hearted lad. They call themselves the 'Grape Pretenders' and their label shows a British Bulldog wearing a French beret. Rather cute. H says the wine isn't bad at all. Well, 2009? Could hardly fail. They intend to drink it all. I'll have to try steal a bottle.

With the lunch in our hall surrounded by the sacks of corks and boxes of capsules, labels etc, and the yard full of wooden boxes, we also had a bottle or two of our 2005 which is coming along very nicely indeed. That was a big vintage too. You don't even have to taste it for proof; when you've poured a few glasses, you clearly see how the bottles already have a great, dark encrustation of tannins inside, round the shoulders, left behind on the glass. That's something you hardly ever see these days because people are frightened of it. Frightened of really natural wine. But that's the best sign of what I call a real, proper, honest wine.

Bernadette had made all 15 of us a real Easter meal. Fresh local asparagus with her superb but, alas, very secret vinaigrette-type sauce. Then a village speciality: omelette of fresh wild garlic. 'Aillet' grows all over our vineyards this time of year. Eggs from next door's scraggy-necked hens. Then The Lamb which must be about 50/50 with garlic. Pow! All finished off with chocolate pud of course … Easter!

And all of us expected to work after.

Nothing cerebral for me; I only have to pose for photos again; my new career as supermodel having really kicked off! It’s for the new Chai website coming out next month on the occasion of the celebrations (for the sailing of the old 'Irene' for Tower Bridge wharf with a cargo of Chai Castillon wine.)

Have tasters of Hoddy's latest Chai bottlings - both his Vent de Folie white Vermentino and his '09 Syrah de Folie are stunning. Really. His Syrah '09 is, I do believe, as good as anything made in France today - Hermitage included.

Great day. Back to the airport, up, up and away. TL signing off from just over Cherbourg.

How Laithwaites happened - part twelve

With me travelling and writing, and Barbara Managing all, the business grew to about £15m turnover by the end of the Eighties.

With one accountant we did pretty much run everything.

Well, things ran OK, but they didn't run at all as smoothly as they do today. Deliveries could be a bit hit and miss and I was, err … let's say 'spontaneous' when writing and designing what we sent to customers. Spontaneity doesn't work every time!

The frequency went from being monthly to bi-monthly, really, because 'Bordeaux Direct and The Sunday Times Wine Club' were much more separate than now and each written in a different way. Every month it was 'all-change' from the previous month and from each other. That must have been confusing for customers but on the other hand the excitement levels stayed very high … if erratic.

There seemed to be an endless supply of new wine regions to write about. Hard to believe but the wine world was so much smaller then. Such a lot of new territory to cover. We did things like a 144 bottle Tour of Italy offer; 12 regions, 12 wines from each. 12 wines from e.g. Liguria is quite a feat of exploration!

We would have huge successes and run out of wine; big problems. And then I'd have a wild idea, get it wrong and totally bomb - no sales; even bigger problems!

Most of which Barbara had to cope with … because I was always travelling! She's always said as soon as I drove off the ceiling fell in - twice, quite literally. And of course, pre-mobile phones, once I left I was pretty much out of contact unless I remembered to ring home.

As well as the buying trips we did many more wine tours for customers than we do now. We did almost one a week. I didn't lead them all but I did quite a few. We thought nothing of chartering cruise ships for several hundred. And we ran what amounted to a regular bus service to Champagne and Paris where the champagne started to flow at Victoria and just didn't stop for 3 days. That was popular!
In between the big cruises and the Champagne Bus there was nowhere with vineyards we didn't run at least one tour to.

Tastings all round the country too. From Shetlands to Scillies. I can't claim I did all those - we had a succession of excellent people who did them well … mostly. Though I remember one of our ladies who got to Edinburgh for a tasting but forgot the wine. Apparently she just went to the local Oddbins for a few boxes, poured very generously and got away with it.

And the fact that we still had The Old Arch at Windsor prompted us to try opening shops.

We couldn't afford to open real shops at first but we found a dozen customers happy to open 'Saturday Cellar' (sort of franchises) in garages and basements across the country. Tunbridge Wells, Winchester, Tetbury, Ringwood, Stockton-on-Tees, Kinross, Reigate, Sale, Leeds. Started well but not a great success - we found it too hard to keep the franchisees on track – but … you gotta try!

Then we opened a place of our own in a back street in Barnet. We just piled up the cases and I built some rudimentary wine bins from rough timber and we ran it our way and it worked better. So we opened a string that more or less encircled London and went as far west as Newbury.

But … most still failed to make money and Barbara made me shut down nearly all of them.

We outgrew Farnburn Avenue, Slough - there were about 30 of us - mostly in Portacabins - and moved to Zanussi's old premises in Paddock Road, Caversham, Reading in 1979. I remember Barbara being in tears at the prospect. But … we grew to love Reading. (It is possible).

Crossing the mountains …

Sorry to keep showing you my holiday snaps. And you might well complain there are no vines in these.

But I wanted to show you what happens when you head up the Elqui valley and keep following the river (which is what makes the vines possible because it just about never rains) up to the 'Black Water' pass at 16,000 feet.

It looks like another planet.

South American tasting at NAH

Lots of meetings. The new April List is going very well. Sales have perked up. The Voyage wine looks like it will sell out. Am very glad of that. My head on the block! Now we just have to get it here without sinking!

A really good tasting of our South Americans, and a de-brief on our trip with Becca and Thomas; respectively, Chilean and Argentine buyers.

Some stand-outs:
The Patriots 2009 Merlot really is such a good wine for the price … just so rich … something that dense from Bordeaux would be three times the price. It’s unfair!

A new arrival from Tarapacá that they'd already shipped when I was there is their upmarket Terroir 2009. Just classy.

Everyone's favourite here though is Emiliana Pinot Noir 2008 which absolutely proves the Chileans have now found the right places to grow that difficult grape so it really tastes like PN … which it never did before. Keep your eyes peeled!

I like the Dos Valles 2010 Sauvignon Blanc Rosé - a clever blend - almost certainly illegal to make in France … pity.

Other winners:
Santa Inés Limari Unoaked Chardonnay 2010 would be a good one for Chardonnay haters because so clean, fresh and zippy.

The Polkura Syrah 2008 made by a Syrah nut who apparently searched the world before deciding Marchigue in Chile’s Colchagua Valley was the perfect spot to plant his dream. Another one to look out for.

Finally an Argentine wine from a place we didn't get to because it’s so far north in Salta province. Ascencion Malbec 2010 is made in Argentina's oldest winery from the fruit of the highest vineyards in the world … 7000 feet. For that alone it’s worth a try … but it is just a lovely, long wine and the result of Thomas' legendary (within Laithwaites) Long Bus Ride North.
Maybe one for my next trip to S. America.

I am definitely going back soon, because although with S. America representing nearly 15% of our sales we are well ahead of most other shippers, we are certain there is so much more we can do, so much more to find.

Diary. Vineyard.

Spent a lot of the weekend assisting Barbara in her vineyard. She was desperate to get all her vines tied down before bud burst. Some of Henry's have burst over at Marlow so we can't be far behind. You do the job too late and in bending the new wood you are going to knock off a lot of buds. Every one gone means two bunches of grapes less.

I can't be entrusted with skilled work. I was needed to put on the new wire clips which hold the vine support rods to the fruiting wire. Requires strong thumbs. What with using a Blackberry all the time, my thumbs must be the most powerful part of me. But those clips are tough. Thumbs now in agony.

So no more thumb-typing. Here are some beautiful shots from our recent South American trip. They show Aldo and Giorgio's vineyards, people and Alta the Guanaco.

Alta Tierra Vineyards

Aldo Olivier and Giorgio Flessati of Alta Tierra

Aldo

Alta

Heroes. Like my Godfather …

Yesterday, I learnt that my 'Uncle' Gordon Thackeray who had piloted my Dad safely through all those hazardous raids from Malta in his Wellington, had passed away.

He was my Godfather.

Today, I heard they are dedicating a memorial to the 'Cockleshell Heroes' on the Pointe de La Grave - the tip of the Médoc - at the mouth of the Gironde.

And I can't tell you how glad I am that Denis was able to deliver a load of our wine there this morning to help with a few toasts to some incredible men.

Our gesture is nothing - absolutely nothing - compared to what those men gave. Only two survived.

I look at my generation; The Lucky Generation, born after the war, who reaped all the benefits.

What did we do that compared in any way to what our parent's generation did for us?

When, next month we sail our cargo of wine past the new monument I will be thinking of my Dad and Gordon as well as the Commandos of Frankton.

The Frankton Raid led by Major 'Blondie' Hasler was even more suicidal than a bomber raid. They were to paddle canoes up through the tides of the Gironde and set mines on ships in Bordeaux to cripple the harbour. They did that, but what a price they paid.

Husband and wife sit on the terrace, sipping wine ...

Wife: (turns to husband) I love you!
Husband: Is that the wine talking?
Wife: (pauses) No, it’s me talking … to the wine.

Thanks for that one, Juliana, in Italy.

And talking of Italians who make us happy, get this;

"Antonella Carraro has over the years helped me have a greater knowledge of this vast subject. She has taken the care and time to give me a personalised service which has resulted in a far more focused approach to what I buy. The benefits have been, for you, an enhanced customer satisfaction and, for me, more enjoyment from drinking wine."

That's a customer writing today to thank us. I get so much praise for the people here who do the talking for me. They do it so much better than I do.

People do say that just talking to my lot brightens their day.

Antonella is very special; a 'one-off'. (There isn't room for two personalities like Antonella!) But then there is a whole roomful of very special people of all shapes, sizes and etc. here, waiting to talk, bring cheer and help.

Me, this week, I've just been tapping away at words.

I was also at The Savoy to help launch their Green Initiative and accept the first consignment of their restaurant's corks (that's a lot of corks!) which we will grind up and recycle as mulch on our English vineyards. Great mulch.

I also attended my first lunch with fellow holders of the 'Chevalier de Merite – Agricole.' 30 of us had a noisy time with the chaps from the French Embassy at Ransome's Dock.

Not a lot else, this week, just writing. All the Buyers were away at Prowein; (the biggest wine show in Germany – hunting for new finds from all over the world) so the place has been eerily quiet.

Which is why I keep reverting to telling our history.