Welcome to Chateau Lestrille

We always love sharing the news about our friends and partners. Why? Well quite simply it creates a “win win” relationship. Without the kind help, encouragement, advice and support from a number of people and organizations, Paradise Rescued could not have succeeded. We owe a large debt of gratitude to our friends for their contribution so whenever we get a chance; we like to write about the great things that they are doing. We hope this will then promote and benefit their businesses and together we can then all grow stronger.

Time to revisit Estelle Roumage at Chateau Lestrille in St. Germain du Puch, between Créon and Libourne on Bordeaux’s Right Bank. Apart from a wonderful opportunity to taste Lestrille’s wines again – we love their amazing dry white wines and the superb signature Bordeaux Supérieur red wine, Le Secret– it was nice to be able to share a bottle of #Cloud9 (to show what we have learnt) and to hear and see all the other great things that are happening in their business.

Brand Lestrille with Estelle Roumage

The Lestrille wines and welcome were brilliant as always. What I found most interesting this visit was the fact that our discussion wasn’t so much about the wines and wine making technique but more focused around the amazing work they have done in developing brand Lestrille. You may have already noticed in our notes here that I have already used the word Lestrille twice without the “chateau” prefix. You will have seen on Facebook and here how we have shown images of Lestrille in its branded format. We discussed the measured but steady results of building a brand and image and what that means to both our businesses and products. And haven’t they done a great job?

It was therefore no surprise to hear about the success of their boutique shop, how it has gained a lot of passing trade on the main road in St. Germain and how it has tied them in closer to their community with local people visiting to buy their wine! Honestly, why would you go anywhere else?

Boutique Lestrille

Estelle and Lestrille, congratulations. We look forward to welcoming you to the world of Social media very soon. Thank you for your encouragement and support. We think the big winner from all this will be Bordeaux wine. Good luck for 2012, see you again very soon. PS – I can’t wait to see the pink brand logo on a clear bottle filled with your beautiful rosé or wine! Stunning….

Paradise Rescued Facebook Cover Photo

Wow, what a week, what a kind recognition! Thank wix.com. Two and half years ago, we could barely spell Facebook. This week, wix.com awarded us their prize for best Facebook page cover image design. What a great recognition for our brand and reward for the hard work by Tricia Wiles of Sweet Graphic Design On Line for her amazing brand logo design, her vision, photography and set up of the #Cloud9 #CabFranc bottle pouring its clouds into the glass. If you haven’t seen the design on Facebook itself, click the hotlink here.

Now just before our heads get too big, it is worth remembering what our mission was, still is and, I hope, always will be. Winning awards and prizes is nice – as it is both a pleasure to receive recognition and to be able to pass that on to our team who very much deserve it – but it is not our goal. Our mission remains as always to preserve the rural heritage of our village Cardan and to export high quality Bordeaux wine to Australia.

I am now trying to work out how our commitment to quality and excellence got started! Did this all begin in the vineyard and spread as a culture across our small organization? At that stage we had no website, no Facebook, no marketing approach, no label, and 12 potential designs styles for a logo!! Or is it just a question of recognizing the leadership truth that everyone loves to do a great job and be recognized for it? And that if you set a clear enough Vision and Mission and then allow a team to put their individual talents to work, then magic happens? Either way, magic has certainly happened – everyone has contributed at different stages with different skills and individual passion. We are incredibly proud of what we achieved, our wine, our brand and how we represent ourselves as part of the wine industry in both Australia and France including being a part of the beautiful community of Cardan. We will be more proud again to announce a further leading edge marketing initiative in a couple of weeks’ time as we launch Cloud9 into the Melbourne market. Stay posted…

Wix.com is a free online platform that allows inexperienced users to create customized Flash and HTML5 websites, mobile sites and Facebook pages through the use of pre-designed templates and “Drag & Drop” tools. Wix.com targets customers with neither insufficient knowledge nor experience in HTML language to code their own websites.

Three weeks ago, in “From Vine to Wine”, we talked about the opening weather for the season and made mention of the detailed work that Pascale had put into pruning the vines and making them ready for season 2012. This week we are proud to release our latest “In the Vines” video which gets up close and personal with one of our Cabernet Franc vines in Hourcat Sud, the home of beautiful #Cloud9.

There is no perfect human being in this world and similarly there is no such thing as a perfect vine! But we did select this one as it superbly illustrates Pascale’s skillful work and allows us to explain a little more about the pruning process. David Clingin’s new found skill as a video producer has allowed us to insert close up pictures, which better illustrate the details.

In Bordeaux, the single or double Guyot system of training vines is predominant. Named after Jules Guyot, the mid 19^th century French pioneer in viticulture, a vine typically has either one or two main cordons from which a horizontal branch is grown. The buds on each branch burst to provide a vertical stem and at their base a grape bunch at harvest time.

In the video, you can see the trunk of the vine dividing into the two cordons with their horizontal branches, which provide this season’s fruit. You will also be able to see the “short stem with single bud” (there must be a technical name for that!) which will grow a shoot this year which, when pruned back and pulled down horizontally next winter, will serve as the main branch for the 2013 season. We also show a bud or two starting to emerge from the old wood at the top of the main trunk. There is a good possibility that this may create a shoot this year that will be cut back next winter to make the next “short stem with a single stem” from which the 2014 horizontal branch will be grown. This explains why the pruning process is so detailed and needs to be carried out very carefully. One wrong cut and two years of harvest could be put at risk. When done correctly, the pruning sets up that (nearly) perfect vine. Attention to detail is critical at every step when producing a great wine.

We hope you enjoy the video clip. And if you want to see what the vine looked like before it was pruned, have a look at this previous “In the Vines” video! Enjoy.

In the Vines #3 Video still shot

Ch La croix Taillefer Pomerol 2005

We made the comment three weeks ago about how having a great team is a superb starting point for making great things happen. One of the highlights of the recent Cardan, Bordeaux trip was a visit to Chateau La Croix Taillefer in Pomerol, one of the great big name wine producing communes of Bordeaux. What we saw and learnt will have a big influence on the size and direction of our vision for our new Merlot block of Hourcat Centre.

One of the things I really respect most about all of the owners and vignerons that I meet is their humility, kindness and willingness to share their knowledge with other quality focused producers. Romain Rivière at Chateau La Croix Taillefer is no exception to that rule and I have to add makes absolutely brilliant Merlot based wines (95% Merlot, 5% CabFranc). We really got a vision as to how a well managed organic vineyard and winery can produce incredible wine.

Our picture above shows their premium wine and, as is often the case, the value for money from Bordeaux is superb. La Croix Taillefer also produces a super premium quality wine called Romulus, based around Romain’s name, which would have to be one of the best wines I have ever tasted. A 2003 is maturing nicely in our Cardan cellar.

Winery Chateau La Croix Taillefer

Over a two hour period, we discussed almost every aspect of La Croix Taillefer’s operations, learnt about their approach to “minicuvé” fermentation and winery management, organic viticulture, vine density, use of oak barrels, wine maturation, market analysis, harvesting and grape selection…… Whilst we may have difficulty emulating the level of excellence displayed at every step by our hosts, we did start to understand some key variables that we will try and duplicate with our small Hourcat Centre Merlot block. For the first time, I have that vision that we can definitely create something very special from our beautifully positioned block in Cardan. I can’t wait to revisit Romain again in the near future – firstly to taste and buy some more of his brilliant wines but also to compare how close our vision comes to meeting the excellence we witnessed in Pomerol in early April.

To Chateau La Croix Taillefer and Romain Rivière, a huge thank you, good luck for the 2012 season and we look forward to spending some more time (and learning) with you in the future.

Merlot Bud burst - Hourcat Centre

As most of our regular readers will have realised by now, there’s no more passionate to place to be to write about one’s vineyard that when you are practically sitting in it, you have looked at every plant and tasted more wines in 10 days than many sommeliers do in a month. And as our short stay here sadly comes to an end and we say goodbye to our friends, neighbours and amazing team, it seemed very appropriate to bring you the news directly from our lovely vineyards in Cardan, Bordeaux.

So what’s new? The good news is that is appears that all our vines survived the big freeze in February when the temperatures fell as low as -14C for an extended period of time. This was one of the coldest prolonged winter spells in Bordeaux since the devastating combination of heavy snow and deep frost in 1956 that effectively wiped out many vineyards completely. There was lot of discussion and comparison between 2012 and 1956. We survived this time largely due to a combination of less snow, a shorter period of extreme cold, less severe temperatures and ongoing dry soil conditions.

Almost 5 weeks after the cold spell came a week of abnormally high temperatures reaching 25C which “jump started” the vines back into life and triggered budburst well ahead of the usual time. Our arrival effectively finished the warm spell (thanks!) and cool showery weather began. Although not great from a visitor’s perspective, this has nicely slowed down the pace of growth and with overcast skies at night, the risk of further frost killing the new buds and fruit has diminished as the season moves further towards summer. However the ground remains very dry. 35mm of rain during the last ten days will have helped but a lot more spring rain would be nice in order to avoid the near disastrous “heat and drought” event that we saw last June.

Albane and Pascale check the organic progress

All the vines in Hourcat Sud (Cabernet Franc) have been very carefully and brilliantly pruned and tied down. And this week, we organised for the soil between each row to be harrowed and opened up to let some air back into the soil after years of compaction. Next week, Pascale will give the vines a quick “Nettle Concentrate” tonic to give them back some strength after the stress of the previous season. We are proud of the work and amazing transformation that Pascale has made on this special terrain. We can’t wait to see what vintage 2012 brings.

The loving work to recover the 55 year old Merlots in Hourcat Centre has also gone well. Although it was not possible to carry out a full “prune and tie down” on every living vine, we can see a lot of vigour in many of the vines and we are very keen to see what they will produce this year.

There is a lot of excitement (and interesting challenges) ahead in the coming months waiting for us as we return to Melbourne and there’s certainly no shortage of news for a good while yet. Can’t wait to be back in Cardan in September for harvest 2012!! Did you see the daily pictures from Cardan? Have a look and like our Facebook page to see the latest news and images from Cardan.

St. Emilion Primeurs Bio 2011 d'Aquitaine

This week’s blog is not a leadership session. But I do have to say…when you have a great team, great moments and great things happen. And being back here in Cardan has once again reminded me of that.

Our wonderful vigneron, Pascale Bervas has once again done an incredible job in the vineyard in preparing the vines for the season ahead no matter what the weather throws at us and I will write about that next week. Don’t forget to check out Facebook page for the latest photos then you will fully understand that last sentence! Over lunch on Wednesday as we discussed the progress and projects in the vineyard, she let me know that she had been able to secure two passes to Les Primeurs Bio d’Aquitaine. Every year in Bordeaux, there is a series of first tasting sessions – called a Primeur – for the wines produced from the previous vintage, in this case 2011. This Primeur was special as it was open only to Organic (Bio) producers from the Aquitaine region of SW France, featuring 50 of the region’s top organic producers, including newly certified Premier Grand Cru Sauternes Chateau Guiraud. As a first time visitor to such an event, I was like a young child in the sweet shop!

The selection of wines was breathtaking – this was not a “stand and drink” bar, this was serious learning, sniffing, swirling, sipping, chewing and spit it out at the end territory! Pascale took me round the massive tent to meet some key contacts and then we got started on the serious work! We learnt a couple of very important lessons as I talked, tasted and listened to the wisdom in the room.

Primeurs d'Aquiatine 2011 - the inside action

Firstly, I learnt that a significant percentage of these producers have been advised in organic viticulture by our own Albane Bervas, Pascale’s increasingly respected and very capable daughter who is our wine maker and viticultural adviser. We are clearly in the right place to get the best advice possible!

Secondly, I got to appreciate the openness, warmth and “down to earth” (no pun) nature of these owners and wine makers. We too must achieve that humility if we are to join this elite group.

Thirdly it was very clear that organic wine is not a passing fad or “greenwash” “feel good” idea. Ten years from now that tent of 50 producers will be twice the size if not more. Organic wine is the clear way forward and the quality of the wine supported that.

Fourth and finally…..Bordeaux is a much criticised and misunderstood wine region, largely because it is so big and therefore everyone has had a bottle of something from Bordeaux, ranging from a Euro 2 “Bag in Box” up to a Grand Cru. I was privileged to taste some really top quality red wines. Despite their youth and lack of roundness that will come with oak maturation, these wines were better than almost anything I have sampled elsewhere in the world. Bordeaux you are the best!

Now let’s see if we can arrange a visit to one of these producers to really see how they do it!

Partnership

With a small business that spans two distant countries of the world, despite having a great team in both France and Australia, long distance travel is inevitable. And apart from the leadership requirement to be in France, we simply adore spending time in our beautiful commune of Cardan with friends and team there. Personally, I love the travel – the mobile phone is off, I get the opportunity to sample some more “competitor” red wines, I can have quality thinking time and best of all I get to read. One of my mentors taught me a long time ago that if you want to lead, you have to learn to read – and he wasn’t talking fiction!! In the last 24 hours, I got a reminder that leaders also need to continue to learn from Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller’s book “Great Leaders GROW”.  

At Paradise Rescued, we know that as the owners, we have to grow first in order for our team to grow. One of our values is Continual Improvement and Innovation, a second is Sustainability. Both point strongly towards the need to grow our leadership – the distances in our business simply magnify that need.

Great Leaders GROW - Blanchard & Miller

Building successful relationships and partnerships is a key aspect of what a leader has to do. We believe that more can be achieved within an environment of a strong partnership than the opposite, ie continual confrontation. Paradise Rescued always likes to work with partners who want to be there for the long term with both organisations benefitting from working together successfully. That’s why we always promote our partners!

So here are 6 key steps, which interestingly I wrote just prior to watching the Lion King film back in January which inspired one of our most popular blogs.

1. Smile! Yes you read that right, smile! Start a relationship as if you want it to work. How many times do you go somewhere and get the “miserable face” welcome – what does that ever achieve? So start with a smile.
2. Be open. How often in the “commercial world” are we discouraged from sharing reasonable information? If you withhold critical information, how can your prospective partner offer their best solution for your circumstances? Tell it as it is!
3. Look for opportunities. If we want to get the maximum contribution from someone or an organisation, you have to seek out what they might do best for you. In short, ask lots of interesting questions and check out their full capability.
4. Collaborate. The contractor mentality of today’s world pushes us towards “abdicating” everything to someone else on the assumption that they can do it all without clear guidance and information on what you want. Help your new partner to understand where there are your requirements and restrictions.
5. Sustain. As a partnership grows, help maintain that relationship. Affirm and respect what they do well. People love compliments. If a supplier does a great job, tell them so. I can guarantee that next time you ring up with an urgent request, you will get immediate service. Praise people for what they do.
6. Think Long term. How often do we set something up for today and forget tomorrow. Could your partner’s capabilities develop more fully to support you or your business? Could they give you more help and leave you to spend more time on other important activities? What do you want the future to look like?

As we always say – “Begin with the end in Mind”. What do you want your partnership to look like? If the answer is a strong long term ongoing collaborative partnership, then your leadership and behaviour has to reflect that too.

Don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook or follow the tweets on Twitter. Hope we connect again soon. I’m on #Cloud9!

We cover a lot of different topics in our weekly blog, ranging from Sustainability, the Environment, Leadership and Learning through to grape varieties, wine making and the wine market itself. Our blog is also our forum for bringing you an update on all things Paradise Rescued, what’s happening in the vineyards, winery, our wine and general progress reports. We have decided to sub brand this under the name “From Vine to Wine”. So every time you see those words, it will be like our most recent update. We have also created a new topics tab with this name down on the right hand side so that you can continually refer to the latest news and history.

So what’s new? Quite a few things really! Let’s start in the vineyard in Cardan, where Pascale reports that all the pruning is complete and we are ready to get the new growing season under way. With the recent humidity, this year’s main steams are very supple and she will not have any difficulty in tying them down to the lower horizontal wires. We can’t wait to be there in the vineyards ourselves in just under 10 days time to see the amazing work.

Pascale Bervas - our organic vigneronne

In the video clip, we pay tribute to what Pascale has achieved in Hourcat Sud as we try to compare the vineyard now with what she started with two years ago. David2 has helped that comparison by including an image of the vineyard from January 2010 in his production of the clip. As the video shows, the difference is huge. The quality of the vine has totally changed. The organic conversion has been a great success and we are optimistic that that be reflected in the quality of our fruit and #Cloud9 #CabFranc wine.

The French authorities have given us the go ahead to dig up the old Semillon vines on the Hourcat Centre block that we acquired last year. Once the work has been completed, we will plant wild flowers and leave the land unoccupied for 12 months before replanting with Merlot vines in 2013. By leaving the land unused for that period of time will allow any diseases and old roots to fully disappear and let the new young plants off to healthy start.

At the other end of our business, great things are happening too. The beautiful 2010 #Cloud9 #CabFranc has left France now on a container ship and is heading through the Mediterranean Sea towards Melbourne in a temperature controlled container called a Reefer. As always quality is the key. So far, we are also impressed with our selection of transport agent JF Hillebrand who have successfully co-ordinated all aspects of the wine’s journey from Bordeaux to Melbourne. Our cargo is expected here in late April.

Our Liquor License applications have been accepted and subject to police checks over the next four weeks, everything should be ready for business by the end of April! It’s going to be so much fun bringing our special wine to the market here in Australia. Love that wine – I’m on #Cloud9!

Maree Lang

We talk a lot about Sustainability in our media and we regard it as one of the most important values of Paradise Rescued. And like all young organisations, we are learning – fast! This week we thought we would host our first guest blog and we couldn’t think of anyone better to get it started than leading Australian Corporate Sustainability and Innovation Strategy Adviser, Maree Lang. Here’s what she has to say….

“This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the first global summit on sustainability, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio, Brazil. At Rio, the early ideas of sustainable development were aired and debated, and a collective blue print for the future created. The sustainability goals agreed on were ambitious but critical – combating poverty, greater environmental protection and conserving biodiversity as key examples.

Later this year, again in Rio, leaders from the world’s governments, environment groups, community representatives and the corporate world will gather at Rio20+ to measure progress against that first collective action plan. The Rio20+ score card will show that progress has, at best, been slow and the consequences are already here.

Increasingly, the sustainability challenges passionately described at Rio back in 1992, including climate change, population growth, water scarcity, urbanisation and poverty impacts – are now being described as sustainability “mega shocks” or “mega forces” and business is grappling with the potential implications.

Bud burst Spring 2011

These mega-forces don’t operate in the realm of global conferences and talk fests – but for businesses both large and small, they are filtering through to create significant commercial impacts. Governments have reacted to climate change with regulation and taxes, supply chains deal resource uncertainty with pricing shocks, community interaction becomes more complex and insurers fee schedules account for future extreme weather events.

So can an individual business respond to a seemingly unstoppable global mega-force? Is there a case for commercial opportunity or are there only downside risks and costs in sustainability?

The answer lies in finding the “sustainability sweet spot”- the business action that creates a simultaneous and winning combination of financial success, environmental benefit and value to society.

BASF has looked for the sweet spot  – and found it. The multi-national chemical company has used mega-forces as a filter across their entire business and is reshaping the business on a global scale as a result. BASF’s priorities now are simple; tackle resource over-use and the implications of population growth with BASF skills, capabilities and technologies.

Paradise Rescued has laid these foundations too and placed local community relationships and ecosystem renewal at the heart of its vision and business model. Paradise Rescued is aiming to create a great local impact by making a great global wine.

Rio20+ will show that sustainable development progress has been too slow, but perhaps we are learning. Businesses are coming to understand that traditional approaches aren’t relevant any more as climate change impacts, resource scarcity pricing and community conflict dominate their balance sheet and risk registers. Smart businesses have this figured out already – and like BASF and Paradise Rescued – they are taking action.

Maree Lang is a corporate sustainability and innovation strategy advisor and an unabashed supporter of Paradise Rescued.“

Thank you, Maree. If you want to contact Maree or tap into more of her wisdom, here is her email address maree.mlg@gmail.com

Extra reading homework!

Expect the Unexpected: Building Business Value in a Changing World, KPMG February 2012

Review of the implementation of Agenda 21, United Nations, January 2012

BASF Purpose and Key Mega-Trends, February 2012

Chateau Guiraud

First up this week, I wanted to congratulate Chateau Guiraud, Premier Grand Cru Classé Sauternes in achieving full organic certification. This is fantastic to have one of the best French and Bordeaux wine labels helping to set the trend in Organic viticulture. Due to the extraordinary attention to detail and manual work required in the vineyard, organic viticulture is a natural next step for a Sauternes. But somebody has to lead so well done Ch. Guiraud. Three years of conversion under full organic viticulture is required before one can apply for certification. In twenty years from now, organic viticulture and wine making will be the norm, but right now we are breaking new ground together. It is nice to be in good company for our Organic conversion and journey.

Emirates A380 in flight

In the Bordeaux region, wine and viticulture is just accepted as another business and industry. Its size and importance goes unnoticed. For instance, the wine output from the Bordeaux Appellation (Gironde Department) alone is equivalent to two thirds of the whole of the Australian wine industry! Australia is a significantly larger country than France, even though a large part of its land mass is very unsuitable for agricultural use. The RVF’s analysis shows that up to 800,000 people are directly and indirectly employed in the French wine industry, starting with the producers, employees, suppliers and following right through the chain as far as wine merchants, distribution, customs personnel and tourism. The value of France’s exports (to which we have just started to contribute!) is estimated to be € 9 Billion (A$ 11.5 Bn!) and second only in France to their Aerospace business. € 9 B buys about 162 baby Airbus (A320s) aeroplanes or 40 A-380’s!! That’s huge. And that’s before you throw in the value of 12 million wine tourists every year that visit French vineyards and beautiful towns such as Saint-Emilion! Don’t forget also the role that wine plays in maintaining the rural way of life that we all love.

And for this to all work, those three factors have to work – Planet People Profit. Our industry is big, it looks after a lot of people. But we must also take care of our planet – congratulations again Ch. Guiraud, we are right behind you!

We hope in a couple of weeks to bring you a Sustainability update from one of Australia’s foremost experts. In the meantime to follow our news throughout the week, click this link to our Facebook page here and hit the like button. Have a great week.