Hello. My name is David Stannard and together with my wife, Maggie and daughter Lauren, we are the proud owners of Paradise Rescued. This is our first “open” letter or “blog”. You may have seen in our Vision and introduction that Sustainable Development is one of our values, which means that we very much want to be part of community where we operate and we want the community to be a part of the success of Paradise Rescued. So, every two to three months, I will try to give you a news update from our beautiful vineyard in Cardan. Our terrain is essentially a block of Cabernet Franc vines in Hourcat Sud close to the crossroads at L’hoste. Below these vines there is also a small area of table grapes – I am sure we will discuss their future more at some later date.
For the part of the winter that we were in Cardan, I would have to say the weather was pretty horrible!! I understand that that may just be an Australian view, but…That is now behind us and our new team (whom I hope to introduce very soon) have cut back and tied up the vines ready for the first season. Our style will be different!! With at least six young children and young families living within 50 metres of the vines, to us it is unacceptable to use pesticides and herbicides. Our cultivation will be exclusively “organic” with a focus on lower quantities and higher quality. I will ask our expert team to tell you more about this later in the year.
In closing this first blog, I would like to thank so many people, both in and around Cardan, across France from as far away as Finland, down to Spain and on into several centers in Australia and the USA. You have either been an encourager, a technical assistant or expert in some part of this new business or just a super friend. I can count more than 50 names so far. To you all, I say thank you for helping to Rescue Paradise.
Talk to you again soon,David