Bags bulging for Bordeaux!

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View from the Hourcat Sud vineyard towards the 12th Century Cardan church

View from the Hourcat Sud vineyard towards the 12th Century Cardan church

It’s an amazing time to get back to Cardan, as we approach the longest day of the year. Long warm days, short nights and masses of time to make things happen! In short, we can’t wait to be back in Bordeaux. As I look at the France time clock above the desk, I can see that we will be there in exactly 7 days! Yeeeah!

So what’s on the agenda for a small organic Bordeaux wineco, I hear you ask? How many months of work can we squeeze into 3 weeks? What’s top of the priority list? Well the answer (as always) is almost everything! The growing season is tough this year and the breakthrough into a drier pattern of summer weather has still not started. Pascale’s vineyard team is doing an amazing job, as always, to maintain perfect health of the vines and optimal soil conditions under a very stressful climactic onslaught. We keep reading and seeing dire predictions of how climate change will move all the vineyards north out of Bordeaux. Well 2013 will not be the year that sees that change happen. Mid week highs of 21°C are forecast for Bordeaux and London will struggle to make 19, so I am glad for the moment we make our fruit in SW France and not on the South Downs of England!

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The beautiful bright red of Cloud9 CabFranc 2010

   The beautiful bright red of Cloud9 CabFranc 2010

Probably, the highest priority is the assessment (technical name for tasting and drinking!) of the 2012 wines that are currently maturing in the winery. This will be exciting. While the Bordeaux wine world continues to lament and put out bad press about the 2012 vintage, a number of producers are quietly sitting out the storm. If our Cloud9 CabFranc and “new” CabFrancMerlot taste as good as they did in January and are equally as good as the team continues to report, then this will be a very special moment. The quantities are small, but as always, quality for our customers is the top priority.

And finally, we need to get prepared for the new Merlot replanting in Hourcat Centre as we regenerate this amazing south facing terroir and set its goal on creating a premier Bordeaux vineyard block.

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Hourcat Centre Old Merlot block - July 2012

       Hourcat Centre Old Merlot block – July 2012

But best of all is being back in Cardan with our friends and community – the people that make this Sustainable project so worthwhile. Can’t wait..

Lots to do, plenty of passion and only 3 weeks to do it! So let’s close the cases and get on that plane and make it all happen. Plenty of reports, video clips, etc coming very soon to a screen near you. We’re on Cloud9. Hope you are too![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]