News from home

I'm having a day off going to see an old friend in Nelson. So instead of me have a look at news I just got from LeChai; Mark's hilarious blog about dealing with St Tropezians and Jean-Marc's pic of Le Chai's first Sparkler 'sur lattes' down below Montagne.

Picture first:

And now Mark's Blog:


A day in Provence

Handy late flight from Bordeaux down to Marseille; cuts out a huge amount of driving. Picked up hire car, spent a good five mins trying to find the handbrake (on the dash, merci Citroen) and headed for St Tropez. After many km's of winding road, I arrived late at the little town of Cogolin so it was head-down to be ready for an early start.

A sunny but blustery morning as I made my way to Celliers des Ramatuelle on the outskirts of St.Tropez.

Glad I got up early as the truck was an hour late. Further south you go the more laid back it gets … makes the Bordelais look punctual. However they get away with it, no grumpy, complaining old men truck drivers ‘a-la’ Bordeaux, here; the truck drivers are lovely young ladies! Well, this is Saint Tropez!




I was paying a flying visit to the cellar to ensure our delicate 2011 rosé doesn't fall at the last hurdle and is safely transported from the winery to the bottle without oxidising. That would turn that beautiful, classic Provencal pale-pink colour to a dull orange.

This is the place to be for Rosé. It’s big business here and rose makes up 80% of their total production. Ramatuelle village is up on the la Colline de Paillas, just south of Saint Tropez at an altitude of 130m. The combination of slate soil, cool nights and proximity to the sea gives lovely fruit-driven wines with low alcohol.

2011 was a good year for rose with a much-needed wet winter, warm and dry spring, and a good summer with the odd storm that thankfully brought no hail. The wines resulted in being very aromatic with great colour and a slightly higher acidity than previous vintages.

On arrival at the winery the president, aka the 'Doc Brown' of Provence,' was as animated as ever and began by drawing up a quite mad, over-complicated plan to get the heavy CO2 bottle up to the tanker. I was thinking "maybe a longer hose?", but that's nowhere near as exciting or dangerous as calling in a forklift and balancing a huge cylinder of CO2 on a rickety wooden pallet accompanied by a cellar hand for extra risk and lifting him up to the top of the tanker!

We got there in the end and I am very glad to say no injuries occured.

So with the wine avoiding every possible contact with air and no Doc Brown ideas given the chance of affecting the wine quality, we were soon on the way to the bottling plant in Brignolles.

The wine will be available soon so give it a try, remember you can drink rose all year round. I do.

Job done and back to the Aeroport de Marseille-Provence for a hop back up to Bordeaux. Need to be at Le Chai first thing as Les Secrets des Etoiles comes out of barrel tomorrow … mum’s the word!

Day 5: In limbo

Otago Daily Times March 19:

Wine Merchant Tony Laithwaite said yesterday his travel around NZ in four days "ran like clockwork but fell over at the last hurdle."

The final bit of the journey – Queenstown to Blenheim – didn't work. Got to airport; flights grounded! Stranded 'til next day. A journalist pounced on me expecting a rant. I said there were much worse places to be stranded. 'Cos my old wine merchant mate David Thomas would take me in off the streets and we would have a good evening drinking stars from his cellar whilst looking across the lake towards 'The Remarkables'. (His house has one of the world's great views). We did, and caught up the three years since we last met … in Fiji.

Next day was just planes, packed airports and further delays. A kind couple squeezed over to give me a rare airport seat. Denis and Marion turned out to be Laithwaites customers from Nottingham. "Oh!" I said "we did a tasting there yesterday. I just got an email from my boy Tom." Which I offer here:

Says Tom:
"My favourite thing about a customer tasting is that the informal and relaxed nature of them means they don’t really feel like work. I just get to hang out and talk to people whilst having a taste of some wines. It’s not all that different to a night in a good bar (that happens to have an excellent wine list).

Nottingham was a good event, the venue was The Albert Hall; well not THE Albert Hall but a very good venue nonetheless. 180 guests, 36 wines, 12 staff, 2 producers and me, although I suppose I belong in the staff count.

A good time was had by all, wines were tasted, questions were asked and friends were made. It’s always great when armed with a few interesting facts about a wine to see the interest and surprise in the face of someone who might not have previously cared.

Len was waxing lyrical about wine education and his blind tasting showed people there is nothing wrong with liking a more affordable wine. “Loved the idea of the blind tasting” (Steve Hathaway). Ruth Chavarri added a little continental class by gracing us with her presence and a selection of her superb Riojas.

I was given the chance to show off Henry’s Wilson Gunn and show off I did. You could no doubt hear my “Best wine in the room” from the far end of said room, followed by (at a lower volume) “in my humble opinion”. It must have worked as I have since learned that it was in the top 10 sellers of the evening, which is quite rare for a wine of its price … us Laithwaite boys are anything but cheap.

People also enjoyed trying something a little different, or something they certainly would not normally have the chance to try. “Really enjoyed the sparkling red” (Sharon Dent) “… white Port definitely a favourite” (J Partridge).

All in all a great event, guests left with smiles on their faces. And thanks to a lot of them for placing orders on the way out."

Finally got to Blenheim in time for bed 26 hours late.

Couple days off, now.

Day 4: 'Central'

Fly Napier to Queenstown by 10am. Two planes before breakfast. Ow! Hurts!

Central Otago.

We found Nigel Greening later in the morning picking leaves, flowers and wild mushrooms – "some people are allergic to these, but hey" – from between the vine rows at Felton Road, his prime estate which makes New Zealand's greatest wine. He's from Leeds, and was a big Ad Man until he fell for this alpine wine paradise in the far south.

As so many do.

He was hopping around, excited, (as normal) constantly sweeping back the mop of long hair and being a bit baffling. So why should we want to walk to the top of the hill to see a compost heap? Then: "that's Amy calling me; she thinks I'm her mum." Amy is a pretty kid … goat.

We climb the steep vineyards. Block 3. Block 5. It’s cool, but the light is so bright it almost hurts. Important for wine quality here; very high UV, long summer days. Nigel suddenly stops and calls out in a curious way. Is he OK? Ah! We see chickens come racing from under the vines to be picked up and petted. It seems Nigel – a TV chef amongst many other things – likes to feed his 25 staff entirely from the property. 'Veggies', fruit, beef, goat, and eggs.

He's a keen trout fisherman too. All sounds rather good, doesn't it?









Nigel explains his cover crop five-year rotation … the stuff in between the vine rows. There are three distinct styles of row:

Row one is for the soil. Stuff that enriches the humus, making lovely black soil out of what was sandy, pale glacial loess. The plants also compete with the vines which forces vine roots deep into the minerals.

Row two is 'rugby' grass: really tough stuff. To work on. This is the row the tractors and people use.

Row three is the insect row. Lots of insect-attracting plants like Buckwheat which hosts these little predatory black wasps that eat vine eating bugs. Brassicas for butterflies and bees. And, indeed, you can see plenty of them flitting and buzzing. Lovely to see.

Then he took us to his huge compost heap and the 'Voodoo Lounge' – this is a Yorkshireman remember; he can't take all the airy-fairy mumbo jumbo stuff too seriously – it’s a shed where he does his Biodynamic stuff … makes his 'preps'.

And he's very convincing about what he does believe in.

There's cow manure and a basket of eggshells. In a hole in the ground under damp sacks. The mixture of both has, after some time, become sweet smelling and even pleasant to touch. In a buried barrel are small earthen pots full of even nicer black stuff, and there are lots of cow horns into which much of this will be placed before being buried along the vine rows. More of it will be made up into what he calls his 'microbial teas', to be sprayed on the vines.

Basically, Nigel sees all this as simply breeding and spreading around billions and trillions of appropriate micro-organisms which enhance the natural micro-ecosytem here and keep his vineyards and land healthy, happy and productive.

He and his team are always out there on foot, watching as they work. Once you get your eyes in the right place, he says, you don't stop learning: learning what drives the ecosystem – be it micro or bigger – and how it all interlocks. Planting peas, they found, brought pigeons. Pigeons brought falcons. We saw a couple of those; peregrine falcons. They were busy taking care of the rabbits. They like rabbits. And so the eco-system goes round. No sprays, chemicals used. Looks gloriously healthy. And tastes bloody wonderful.

Blair, his winemaker, says all his ferments (wild yeasts of course) go so easy with no herbicides. It’s a neat gravity-fed cellar of open fermenters/storage vats over the deep barrel hall. We taste. I love the way he describes two of his wines; Calvert and Cornish Point as being like 'Wife' and 'Mistress'. The former restrained, tight and neat in style; the latter wild and voluptuous … slutty even.

We sell way more of the Mistress than anybody. What does this say about my customers? Felton Road is phenomenally successful. It’s like New Zealand's Grand Cru, its Romanée Conti. All production has been on allocation for years. We are lucky to get a triple figure allocation which I think is unique. But then, we go back a long way.

Great day, great evening. Thanks Nigel and Caris. Back to my little family in Blenheim in the morning.

Day 3: To Hawke's Bay

The smell of petrol led the flight attendant to a chainsaw in the overhead lockers. When they asked security how it got past they said well, it wasn't on their banned list. Kiwis love their chainsaws. And I love taking the relaxed flying buses around this country. In NZ roads are slow, not really any trains and there's a big gap in the middle.

So you fly. It’s cheap and works well, usually. So we get the 7.10 from Blenheim/Marlborough to Wellington. (15 mins). Have a coffee then get the 8.15 to Napier/Hawkes Bay.

Hire car drive 5 mins to Mission Estate.

This impressive, white clapboard Victorian 'Château' was the first winery in NZ. Now it’s the most famous … or at least the most visited. Its was a monastery, but the monks moved to Auckland where they do many good works with the poor and this place is run as a charitable business to raise money to pay for those good works. And it’s doing very well. We are big customers.

We asked Peter and Martin to put on a bit of a show for Jim to photograph (not that you need much more show, given they have this iconic great building). But … they rolled out a vintage Packard and a stunning white open Auburn tourer - very rare indeed.

Napier town is all very Art Deco because it got flattened by an earthquake in the 30's and rebuilt in the style. And it seems a few guys here have been collecting cars to match. They also found a penny farthing which Dan rode. This time I did bottle out.

That all done, we toured the ultra-modern and ultra planet-friendly cellars before lunch back at the Mission, in what is apparently the best restaurant in town. I know this because whilst all the car and bike stuff was going on, a girl with luscious, long dark hair came up and slipped her arm in mine for a kiss! Claire was with us for over 20 years and my PA for 10! Until she and Brian decided to go bring up their kids here. She left me! Lovely to see her again. Never quite got the hang of respect for her boss, did Claire....I was often referred to as 'The Lucky Bastard'.

Great to catch up.

We got to try Mission's 'Gemstone' from that increasingly famous patch of stones; the Gimlett Gravels. We listed this at £20+ in October. It sold out in minutes.

We moved on to our other long-time supplier here; Esk Valley. With its unique-in-NZ, steep, terraced vines and rambling, eccentric, rough, old sheds its a bit different. But I love it. Winemaker and manager Gordon Russell is a great and impassioned talker. We go up the hills, along the terraces, through the winery, then down the trapdoor into the cellars. As you do. No money has been wasted here. It’s a patched and mended place. They talk of a new state of the art gravity fed winery. But I'll be sad if they lose the old place. We get given a bottle of The Terraces 2002. Worth the trip just for that.

Dinner with Claire, Brian and the children at Crab Farm; not, as I thought a seafood place but a vineyard planted on land which rose miraculously from the seabed during the great earthquake … all covered in crabs.

Early bed; it’s a 5am tomorrow.

Day 2: Hunter's and the Odd Rock

To Hunter's. A very special place for me. And the reason we are here, really. It was Ernie Hunter who really convinced me - and the rest of the world - that NZ had amazing wines to offer the world. I'd been round NZ and thought the wines were nice in 1984? I think.

Then I got a tip-off from David Thomas who I'd helped set up Cellarmasters that there were these SIMPLY AMAZING Sauvignon Blancs ('Savvy's' in the argot) from this big Belfast roaring boy called Ernie. He'd had huge success with them in Oz (amazing … in the days when Aussies ONLY bought Aussie wine).

So … 25 years ago we did a sell-out offer of Hunters and the boy came over and wowed the crowds at the Sunday Times Vintage Festival. Hit headlines. Suddenly the world got interested in Marlborough. An Aussie then set up Cloudy Bay and did the best wine marketing anyone's ever seen.

That wasn't Ernie because Ernie had died so tragically, just as it all began. Jane carried on. I don't know how. But today she was there – Jane Hunter OBE inviting us to breakfast with the family and all her team. There's young James 'Teapot' McDonald, her nephew who made our Sauvignon in Bordeaux with Mark and Jean-Marc.

My boy Henry has come, with Kaye and baby Eleanor to see his mate and what he can learn here about Sparkling winemaking especially. We get a glass of that with our bacon and eggs on Ernie's big outdoor griddle that I remember so well from 25 years ago. My granddaughter, from the far end of the table, sees me, recognises me, smiles and waves. For the very first time. I am smitten like a teenager! She has me under her thumb already.

After a bit of buying work for Dan and Jim taking some pics of me (we try recreate an old pic they have here of me, Ernie and their then winemaker John Belsham (who later became possibly our most successful Flying Winemaker ever). Ye Gods I've not aged well! Then Dan, Jim and me head off for Nelson.

You leave the vines of Marlborough valley and head into hills of pasture and pine. The road winds around and is not fast. No roads are, here. Beautiful though. They are shooting 'The Hobbit' by one rocky creek. (Advertised for 'Extras', but you either had to be very small or very huge and weird-looking).

Nelson – after an hour and half – is a sunny seaside place of bungalows scattered up hills. Views over a blue Tasman Bay. Lots of light.

First visit is Seifried’s. Mum and Dad are in Europe so Chris and his sisters take us up to their house above a little bay in which sits a rock that has become quite iconic in New Zealand. Their dad had the foresight to put it on his wine labels.

'Split Rock' is a big seller for us. The thing didn't look that big from their terrace as we ate our fish and chips and drank their lovely Sauvignon. But when we got on the boat and sailed over … it’s big. Everyone thought it would be a hoot to get old man Laithwaite on to it. So where are Health n' Safety when you need them? Waters deep and cold and choppy. One slip and …! Close run thing. The things I do to amuse my customers!

Didn't bottle out though.

We also did some work.












Then went to see Valley and Gary Neale at Brightwater. Really small producers; 18 hectares, but a VERY impressive wall of medals. This lovely couple keep it very simple. They don't want to get bigger. Just better. And they are doing it.

You visit, it’s just them or their vineyard manager in the shop above the cellars. Basic, but everything so very neat and sensible. They get quite a few of our customers visit. And send us any Brits who aren't Laithwaites – wish more producers were that organised. They are off tomorrow to Auckland to collect the National Trophy for their Chardonnay. We try that wine – named after Lord Rutherford who was from this tiny village. Deserved to win.

I ask Valley where she got her name. Coaxed out the answer. Her Dad played for Chelsea before emigrating! So Chelsea fans will understand. (And that's the second daughter of a Chelsea player I've known. The other was called 'Chelsea'!)

And then back to Marlborough.

Marlborough

First visit in Marlborough; Dr John. Dr Forrest is a big man. A big science boffin until he came back to the family farm. From mixed farming he moved into vines. His father warned him not to. And never to buy the poor scrubland down by the river.

But that's what he bought. Not soil as we know it, just rocks. Greywacke boulders going down who knows how deep were a bit of a challenge even for vines, but turned out the rockier it is the finer the wine. His best wine is called Field of Stones.

He took me to look at the river … water was low; great expanse of rocks rolled down by the floods "vineyards in the making" he said. "We've always swum here. When you come out of the water and lie on the rocks in the sun, as you dry you get that slightly salty mineral smell. That's what my Field of Stones has.” Distilled essence of a very good place. Not like what he calls the modern sweatier style of Sauvignon. His Stonewall wines are also stone dry sauvignon but with a touch of 'tropical'.

At the river the fantails twitter and flutter around you. You are flattered such pretty things follow you, but they are just harvesting the little flies and bugs you are disturbing.

Dr John has built a handsome business. Good visit if you are passing. Frankie the new dog - spaniel/collie will welcome you. I like the loudspeakers fitted throughout the winery so the Doc and his boys can keep rocking along through the long nights of vintage.

Dr John has energy! Five months travelling the world marketing his wares. Not for the fainthearted, this wine game.

Then we go just down the road to Wairau River.

Phil and Chris Rose got into vine growing very early. Montana was this region's first winery and Phil was their first contract grower. They were mixed farmers who switched to wine. They too have done well and have a big following. Also a big family. Five children all busy producing grandchildren and all also in the business. The group photo fills a wall in their new tasting room. They have a cracking restaurant with food all home produced and delicious.

Finally we go up the valley to the higher vineyards and one called Duck and Pheasant because, believe it or not there's a duck and a pheasant living wild around the dam next door. We wait but of course they don't come out today! This is Ant Moore's place. Ant the Aussie lives part here, part in Wagga Wagga, Oz and is a great 'networker' … knows everyone in the NZ wine world. He makes wine for us and also finds us some wonderful deals from his many friends – 'finds' we'd never hear of otherwise.

After, just time for a local beer and pizza before bed at 8.45 and instant sleep.

To New Zealand

Sad to leave on such a lovely Spring day and fly to Autumn. But harvest is about to start in Blenheim and Hunter’s want me to drive a harvester. They were joking I think, though unsurprisingly Henry seems keen.

He's going to learn sparkling winemaking at Hunter’s and elsewhere. Taking Kaye and the baby too. Here in Heathrow lounge we can already see passengers praying they're not put next to us. Eleanor is nine months. Please be a good girl!

The match just ended. So sorry Jean-Marc, Didier and all. Never mind; we had a bloody good party Friday, didn't we? That Vintners Hall is quite something! On the wall they have the charter signed Edward III giving the Vintners exclusivity of all wines coming from Bordeaux and all around. Worth a few bob - or groats - that! No wonder the place is so gorgeous.

It’s been a while since I was in NZ. Trips kept being cancelled for reasons nothing to do with wine. The plan is to go straight to Blenheim and do visits all round Marlborough and Nelson. Then fly up to Hawke’s Bay then down to Queenstown. So no Waiheke, alas, or Gisborne. But we've only got two weeks and if we don't fit in a quick trip to the Sydney Office and RedHeads there'll be hell to pay.

Will and Veronika have moved in to our home to look after the dogs, meaning we have to retrain them off the sofa when we return, but otherwise all's well.

Though still too lovely a day to be leaving.

Last London Vintage Festival at the Horticultural

Shows have been great for us over the years, but no show that we've done has ever rivalled The Sunday Times Wine Club's Vintage Festival held every year since 1980 in the great Royal Horticultural Society Hall, Westminster.

We were only recently stunned to learn that the Hall has now been 99-year leased to Westminster School. Our upcoming 2012 Vintage Festival (April 27-28) will, in fact, be the last show of any kind to be held in that wonderful space.

Sad.

If you've never been there you've certainly seen the place when BBC 1 girls wound themselves down from the great glass roof on lengths of red silk or when the passengers gathered to board the train in Murder on the Orient Express. It’s an impressive and multi-purpose bit of architecture.

We went there after our first Festival at the New Kensington Town Hall ended for me in fisticuffs with the drunken Manager. Not a great start.

But once in The Lawrence Hall as it became, things went swimmingly. And swam on in a sea of wine for 32 years.

There are people I meet every year who have been to every single show. Like me. I've never missed a show. Never even missed a single session. That's 128? Sessions or 'parties' as I prefer to see them. The best parties in London. I mean … plenty wine + friends from all over the world + food and music. And with Uncle Hugh presiding over everything with a glass, a chortle and some shouting (the acoustics were never great). If that's not a party, what is?

I dreamt up the event because I had, after ten years’ work, winemaker friends all around the world. I was always thinking if only I could see them more! And if this one in e.g. France could just meet that one in e.g. Australia they'd get so much out of it. Be fun. And if the Customers/Wine Club Members could actually meet all of them they'd really understand why wine is such a fabulous thing. They'd really benefit from meeting winemakers first hand.

They did.

We always have a vote for Wine of the Show. And, you know, they vote well do our customers. We used to invite all the Great and Good of the wine world to taste everything and select what we then boxed up and sold as 'The Sunday Times Dozen'.

We would get the odd celeb in too. You won't be surprised to learn Ken Livingston was a good taster. But Ronnie Corbett? Great little palate. 'Dirty Den' from East Enders came a few times to pour wine for his then wife Jane Hickinbotham. But mostly it wasn't a celebby thing... mostly it was just us the winemakers and the wine drinkers. And we all liked it that way.

It ran impeccably smoothly. Especially since our John Kemp took it over. It’s quite a logistical challenge but John was always standing there, apparently (but not really) calm in the storm. I think every visiting wine producer must have told me it’s their favourite wine show in the world. And they see many. No drunks. Well, very few. Polite, friendly and interested wine enthusiasts. The growers loved their arduous four-hour stints of pouring and never boring. Much easier than working a vineyard. As for the après party … let's not go there.

Well it’s certainly not over. We'll just be in a new hall next year. But if you're an old hand and you fondly remember Vintage Festivals of yore, be sure and get one of the last tickets for the great old Horticultural (Lawrence) Hall.

See you there.

With the bloggers

We held our first tasting for Wine Bloggers at The Arch. This powerful new force in our World of Wine cannot - must not - be ignored.

The Company decided therefore that I – a man who has spent 40 years trying to avoid journalists (except for my best friends) – should invite them all round for a Blogtaste.

They are so young! Clearly also amazed that I still more or less still function at my age. 'Gravitas' was one word used in a resulting blog about me. Wow! I always wanted gravitas. Never thought there was a chance. But hey, you hang on long enough you get gravitas. That will impress the kids. I jest.

Also, they clearly think I run this business. I wanted to tell them I don't. And in fact, never have. I wanted to tell them how Barbara keeps me in the attic. And only lets me out if accompanied. But she was right there, hovering, just a short kick away. So I didn't.

They mainly came to try some wines of course. Wines from Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria and India which we will release shortly. The party seemed to go well. Couldn't resist going round the Arch opening more bottles.

I think there will be more such dos. Look forward to them.

Another Gold for Château La Clarière Laithwaite

I suppose all wine merchants get asked "what's your favourite wine?" It's what everyone asks me. My answer is always the same: "my own, of course! Château La Clarière Laithwaite". Every wine producer thinks his is the best.

But it's not just my favourite.

Today I heard it just won Gold in Paris again for the yet-to-be-bottled 2010 vintage.

In total my favourite wine has now won 19 Gold Medals in its short existence. Thanks to my team: Henry, Helene and Olivier. It's on a terrific run just now with Paris Golds every year since 2007 – except last year when it dropped to silver … arrrrgh! We was robbed; our '09! Such a superb wine.

In future I intend to ask every customer I meet "Have you tried my wine?" Have you?

A bottle of the 2009 is just £19.99. Can I suggest you add at least one to your next order? We are still the holder of the Prix d'Excellence for the Bordeaux region; the highest honour of all.

Tony L
Chevalier du Mérite Agricole

(Awarded to me, only for the medal-winning performance of our very own Château.)

PS. Confrères get the wine cheaper. Becoming a Confrère reserves you a case (6 or 12) every year. You only take it if you want, you get your name on the Honour Board, and a very warm welcome every time you visit your Château.


Email Helene in Bordeaux for details – helene.dupin@directwines.com.

Château du Bois

For a month now we've been the owners of a 20-hectare property – Château du Bois – just down the road from our place in Ste Colombe. This is the village where it all started in 1965 and where we still live when in France.

In that month we've pruned all the vines and started the recruitment process for a 'Regisseur' – estate manager – to run both it and the smaller properties we already had: Château La Clarière, Le Presbytère and Henry and Kaye's Château Verniotte.

Du Bois is different because it really looks like a Château … like a little fort with buildings on all four sides of a courtyard.

When we wake up in our house, and open the shutters, there, on the hillside in front of us is Château du Bois with its 'fortifications', its little wood, and vineyard terraces climbing to the top of the hill. I've long loved that view. But I had never seriously coveted it. Properties like that always stay in the family.

But last summer Henry said he'd heard that the place had been on the market for three years. The old lady had died – quite a colourful ex-dancer of an old lady – and her three children had all got other lives not involving wine.

But they'd followed the curious local custom that it is somehow shameful to put up 'For Sale' signs! The price, as a result of recession and nobody knowing it was for sale had come right down and was – just about – affordable.

So we got Simon to go in there and get the best deal. He and Clare spent the best part of a day in a stifling lawyer’s office in St Emilion without anything – even water – to drink, going through legal rigmaroles they said would provide material for a whole series of sitcoms on French lawyers.

But the deal was done. However, France being France, there followed the six month period necessary for the fonctionnaire lady to stamp her big rubber stamp.

Then, last month, Simon and Clare had another gruelling/hilarious session and du Bois was finally ours.

The winery was all kitted out in the '80's. It was a good job. It is therefore not 'state of the art' but perfectly useable which is good because we can't afford to do much in the way of upgrade. Because, firstly, we need to replant three hectares at the top of the hill which have been allowed to decay. They should be the best vineyards of all – they are the steep ones, right next door to Henry's best Verniotte vineyards – but they've sadly been let go. Vineyards need constant love and attention.

The plan is to produce a very reasonably priced claret. Not the standard of La Clariere, Presbytere or Verniotte but just what our customers seem to like to drink regularly.

And … like we have always kept the doors of La Clarière and Verniotte open to visitors – mostly the beloved Confrères – we plan to have 'open house' at du Bois. Quite what or how we don't know yet, but it will be good. There are a lot of rooms and big chais. Maybe it'll be possible to stay there as well as come for tastings and events. There are masses of possibilities.

But our four properties combined now make one economically viable wine producing operation. Henry will be in charge. I will be given a broom.

Which will bring me full circle and suit me well.

In the '60's I had a broom when I worked in a big cellar near here. This cellar had concrete tanks four high and looked just like a prison; tanks look like cells, hung with steel catwalks and stairs. One very significant day, sweeping my floor, it started to rain … red wine. Way above me a group of visiting wine buyers were tasting the top tanks. Sip, swirl, spit over the railings … and on to the floor-sweeping Brit student below.

It’s wonderful, now, to have our own wineries. You must all come and taste. Just please watch where you spit.