wine – The Vigneron's Wife

The Vigneron at work

October 27, 2013October 27, 2013The vigneron's wife

That’s it. The grapes are all in and the Vigneron is content. No more 24/7 reading of satellite images and predicted weather patterns on numerous websites, he can relax and is relieved that this region has been pretty bloody lucky with its weather.

The grapes on the vines looked great and ripened slowly resulting in fruit with a lower baume and high maturity. So, enfin, 2013 looks like a good year! The man is happy.

I came down from the hill rather early a couple of mornings ago and had a peek at what was going on in the cellar. I love the smell in there. Takes me back to when we met. OK squeaky violins time – yes, harvest time is special for me, it was during a harvest, all those years ago, that the V and I met. I was in my hometown, Adelaide and he was ‘the Frenchie’, with little English (come on, admit it), clad in King Gee work gear, a divine Roman nose, working long vintage hours for a winemaker friend – that swept me off my feet.

Fast forward a decade or more, and I am still smitten when I smell the tanks of fermenting grapes in the cellar (oh to bottle this in a jar, a quick whiff and happy married couple all over again…).

‘Les Vendanges’ is a dynamic time and as I’ve said many times before, the village comes alive when the grapes are coming in. A whole year’s work is reaping its rewards and the old tractors are out on every village road, chugging in full force with trailers laden with glistening grapes. Even our baby was born on the first day of an Aussie harvest…

But let me get back to where I started. I was in the village early one morning this week and called in on the V to see what was going on in his cellar. The red grapes are all resting in their tanks and every couple of days they’re ‘pumping-over‘. After a month of this, they will put it all through the press. One more step towards a delightful, drinkable juice.

Here’s some images for you from that morning, in and out of the cellar…

the Grenache resting in wooden ‘tank’

And over the road…

yves 2 — …another neighbour, another Yves – of Chateau Faiteau, the cousin of Domaine Arnaud…(in a village, it’s all family)

aut col — …and the ride back up the hill to home

picking

October 11, 2013The vigneron's wife

Ambroise emptying 'la hotte' — Ambroise emptying ‘la hotte’

Picking at last.

There’s been stops and starts… and now it’s all GO to get the grapes in.

We’re harvesting three weeks later than previous years, but it’s shaping up to be a pretty good ‘recolte’ … there’s a charged atmosphere and smiles all round.

I’ll fill you in on this harvest over a few posts, but here’s a selection of pics from today, in and out of our village.

(you may note some ‘fx’ in the images – my dear old camera is on the blink so what you see are the results of lumping around with a clunky electronic rectangle)

woke to to the noise of the harvester outside the kitchen window

checking out the noise... a tractor cruising down the driveway — checking out the noise… a tractor cruising down the driveway

Meanwhile, back in the village…

chat arnaud — clearing out remains of the *‘pressoir’* (press)

...and the ladies are still out checking the 'raisins' — …and the ladies are still out checking the ‘raisins’

Cheers, Sante, Bottoms Up …to Marieke Hardy

June 11, 2013June 11, 2013The vigneron's wife

OK straight up. I love drinking.

And I love this woman.

She likes drinking too –

“My illustrious career with the bottle began with the person my mother used to refer to somewhat hopefully as ‘your naughty friend’, Lisa Jenkins, implying that without Lisa’s influence I would probably have spent my downtime cross-stitching and nursing sick orphans”… – Marieke Hardy, ‘You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead’

And she is so hellishly cheeky. I loved this book. It’s beautiful, funny, poignant, sexy, delirious, profound – and so, so WRONG.

READ HER!

Marieke Hardy at her book signing for "You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead", at Mosman Library on Monday 19 September (photo courtesy of the Mosman Library) — Marieke Hardy at a book signing for “You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead”, Mosman Library, N.S.W., Monday 19 September (photo courtesy of the Mosman Library)

naked wine wife vigneron naked winemaker pussy #2

October 30, 2012February 8, 2013The vigneron's wife

Oh boy, now I am in a PANIC. Could you please put a BIG ‘P.S.’ next to this part and pretend it was part of the other post???

My lovely friend Jen has just informed me that part of a text I had written and hadn’t finished – a draft – WENT ONLINE!!!?!!! Whoops. I must have pressed ‘publish’ when I meant to press the button ‘SAVE DRAFT’!?!!

See what I mean? I really need to get my head around a computer and its buttons. THIS WAS NOT INTENDED. So now you have had a glimpse (if you saw the first version online before I updated, that is) into some crazy text that wasn’t finished and sounded so smutty (it ended with a polite ‘naked hairy pussy’). Double whoops and I’m sorry!…

So, here goes: part 1 + part 2

(part 1)

I’m a loser when it comes to all things technical. Almost anything in the realm of computers intimidates me – and the fact that I don’t know much and employ the good old ‘trial and error’ method, there are often moments of sheer panic as I wipe out hours of work off the screen… I get those delightful hot flushes of fear all from sitting at a keyboard. So much fun.

I still can’t believe I managed to get this blog working, though I admit I nearly crashed it a few days ago. It was only through the kindness of a person out there in the WordPress community that I managed to keep it on the road.

As I sat in a haze of panic, something did however make me smile: “Naked Hairy Pussy”.

9GAG Lore Butler — image from 9GAG – Lore Butler

(part 2 – …and you thought it ended with a naked hairy pussy)

As I was scurrying around the working pages and forums on my computer when I thought I’d crashed it, I suddenly saw the list of all the keywords and phrases typed by people into their computers to find my blog – or rather, found my blog by accident, with them. It was illuminating! They were all listed under “Search Engine Terms”. Find out more about Search Engine term and ‘optimization’ here!

Naked Hairy Pussy was one of them.

And these were too: (I’m going to link these terms to stuff in my blog where possible, just to give myself a plug – not so sure for the N.H.P. though…)

Adventure Time Naked

Dying Hair with Orange Blow Hairdryer

The Naked Vigneron

Naked Missus

Leeds Wife Naked

What to Have For Lunch When In-Laws Are Here

Vignerons Wife

Naughty Aussie Wife Facebook

Fish in a Can

Julie Andrews

Old Oven Door Handle

Flip Flops Girls Austria