“Trois maisons, Monsieur Stannard! trois Maisons!” (Three houses, Mr Stannard, three houses!) exclaimed Monsieur Dados dramatically as he welcomed me into his home. And all before I could barely say “Bonjour” or shake his hand. The Dados family were our westerly neighbours separated by a 50 year old block of vines, living in the old
Paradise Rescued talented organic vigneronne will be tested to the max with 'heterogeneous' Bordeaux Vintage 2017. Bordeaux Vintage 2017 is very challenging. This season Mother Nature is absolutely in control and has delivered some pretty nasty weather shocks along the way so far. Which may explain why the media and blog pages from
This week's blog article is entitled Set your Goals in Concrete which is one of our #LeaderTips from Chapter 2 in my second book "It's Not About the Dirt". Here are some story excerpts from the book together with our first formally blogged #LeaderTips.... At the winery house in Cardan, when you are sitting on the small
Last week's big Bordeaux frost thankfully sidestepped the Paradise Rescued Bordeaux vineyards. No matter which way you look at it, this week’s Bordeaux frost disaster has been a tragedy. Putting pay to many people’s dreams before they really got started and inflicting deeper financial pain on many. And somehow – don’t ask me for
In a famous and celebrated top wine region such as Bordeaux, almost every change in the weather, property sale or first insect arrival of the year is reported with zeal. Many leading wine sales companies and media have their “on the ground” newshound sharing news, rumours and perceptions about almost everything. But then there was
Producing good fruit precedes making good wine I was reading a blog article recently where the author had interviewed a number of seasoned winemakers about what they predicted was coming next in the Australian wine production business. As I read the article, a common theme was emerging. A theme that had me worried
“Aaah Monsieur Stannard bonjour” beamed a Councillor as I entered into the Secretary of the Mayor’s office – the seat of power in our small commune of Cardan, Bordeaux. I certainly appreciate being treated as an equal local member of the community. It feels special and not something I guess that every other business locally
Micro-climate is the local atmospheric or weather conditions that exist in and around a particular block of vines or other geographic area. Micro-climates can vary even within a few tens of meters. In a vineyard, conditions in the middle of even a single vineyard block depend on different vegetation bordering the block, water drainage conditions
It may just be me but it seems that the Bordeaux wine media has been remarkably quiet on the prospective Bordeaux Vintage 2016 vintage. Maybe this is just a calmer reaction following a generally successful and much publicised 2015 vintage, which followed several less good overall vintages. Or perhaps after such a good hot summer, a
Beautiful ripe Cabernet Franc fruit ready to harvest in Bordeaux. Times change, tastes and trends change but quality always shines through. Cabernet Franc is exactly that kind of red wine grape varietal. Its success and brilliance is more often hidden from public view – masked by the modesty of the grape variety itself.
