It was a long weekend in France this week. The sun was out. Soeur Petite picked up her camera and headed into the vines to capture the incredible autumn colours so that we could share them with our fans and the world. The feedback has already been prompt and amazing from both Facebook and Twitter. Thank you Nathalie for the photos and everyone for your support.
For us, one photo more than any other caught our attention and emotions. We like to use the cherry tree in the South East corner of the Hourcat Sud as a reference point for our photos as that allows us to see the progress of the vines through the seasons of each year. This time, Nathalie met two of our young neighbours – Estéban and Milo Merino – playing in the vines. What a joy! On seeing the photo on Facebook, their mum, Ombeline immediately wrote to us saying how much her boys love being outside at this time of the year collecting up the leaves and generally running about, having fun in the open air. For us, this really sums up what community and Sustainability is all about. To know that the youth of our commune can safely play in and around our organic vines, free of health risks from pesticide or herbicide residues, away from the roads, provides more pleasure than we can describe. This really is why Paradise Rescued has done and continues to do what we do. The picture really does say more than a thousand words.
In the vineyard, Pascale is tidying up as winter approaches. Cutting back the vines will not start until early January, particularly as the weather remains fairly mild and the sap has not fully receded into the roots. We hope to bring you a full report next week. Work continues to progress with the labelling, boxing up and exporting the superb 2010 #Cloud9 #CabFranc to Australia. There are a large number of “one off” regulatory hurdles to overcome and we are making slow but steady headway on all fronts. The next step is to appoint an import agent here in Melbourne and specialised warehouse to store the beautiful bottles. Plenty more to talk about as the year comes to a close.