

Who would have thought, with this beautiful, serene morning…
That by evening we’d have a huge storm with some of the loudest ‘tonnerre’ (thunder) I’ve ever heard.
It was suddenly POURING with rain in the strangest directions, the rain lashing at the window before me while I was chopping at the kitchen bench and Lilas asked me if I thought we’d have an ‘inondation’ (flood).
‘Umm, I don’t think so sweetie!??!!!’ .Not necessarily such a big exaggeration either. We had a huge flood in the Minevois in 1999, and I’d only been explaining it to her a few days earlier.
Pretty strange weather, but hopefully not that strange.


It didn’t flood, but we had about 30mm of water. Not a great thing for the vines at this time of year. The grape bunches are now so big and beautiful – and almost there! It’s humid too, so not a great combination. The last thing the vineyards want is to rot.
Our friend at dinner last night mentioned the story of a vineyard in Burgandy, where she witnessed a helicopter hovering over a rain-drenched vineyard, fanning it dry! Those Burgundians.


Not quite the decadence of Burgandy here. Benji’s hoping for some good old fashioned wind and keeping the ‘soucis’ (worries) at bay with a little night poker!

I’ll be back later with the checklist of what they drank!…