Responsible but not guilty
In signing his name, he thereby wins my esteem… the soi-disant Lionel Lamadon, makes fun of me on one of the French bulletin boards (Iacchos). And I quote:
« Personally, What really makes me laugh in this whole story is the very pompous reference to Thoreau (it’s for us to appreciate the comparison and [...]
Frankly nasty, never happy
In the middle of an avalanche of emails and positive telephone calls, some people and I pity them in as much as I imagine them unhappy, spit out their venom on the Walden project (see HERE). I was expecting it, of course, but the violence and the views taken by some really surprised me. An [...]
No comment
Impossible to keep to myself any longer one of my adventures the other weekend (with the best and most honourable intentions…)
One of my old Parisian friends contacted me on a Friday evening and announced that he was coming down to Lavinia to say ‘hi’. «That way, I will taste your latest wines. In fact, [...]
I have a dream-
From 30th September, 2005
So not much later this afternoon, when I was perched on my ladder, in the process of sorting after the de-stemming, something which doesn’t require much concentration but all the same a certain manual dexterity, a thought of great consequence came to me (it is worth saying it ). In rummaging [...]
7 days to act
Have you seen recently a TV series, screend in France on M6, where a time machine permits a brave man to go back 7 days in the past in order to save the world from catastrophes?
If you haven’t, OK, at least you now understand the principle.
Good, that made us talk about science-fiction, now… [...]
Full moon
Woke at 4.30 am, without really knowing why. Eyes scarcely open, my brain burning with harvesting strategies.
After half an hour of turning this way and that, my mind full of tanks, grapes and possibilities, it’s clear I won’t get back to sleep…
I jump into my shorts and stick my nose into the air [...]
Sensations, impressions, conception-
OK, I don’t know if I am going to succeed in explaining my mood at the moment. Let’s try..
To begin with, I must tell you what one mustn’t believe, as I have believed for a long time, those vignerons who tell you that everything is done at the vine. Those that tell you that [...]
Luxury, calm and pleasure of the well-equipped “vigneron’
I could also have entitled this note « in praise of the banker », I hesitated a bit. Let me explain whilst the press delivers a slow white succulent grenache juice, I have a few minutes to write before returning to put the pump on (I have taken a small photo of the grenache blancs, [...]
It is the return-
After having made a tour of the vines in the rain, I was reminded of this phrase of Jacques Brel which said:
« Talent, is the desire to do something»
This year, fortunately we have an ENORMOUS desire to do something, because we really have to fight-
OK, we’ll talk about it again.
PS Thanks to everyone who asked [...]
Carrefour puts its back into it!
Look, so everthing is clear… I have nothing against supermarkets in general and Carrefour in particular. One, I do my shopping there every week. Two, to reveal all, I even wrote, for several years, the copy for the catalogues «Foire aux Vins». But it was at the time when those responsible for quality liked wine [...]
Man, love and monkeys
OK, whilst I was wasting time trying to find you a good technical explanation of the right and left brains, I fell upon this:
…« man and woman clearly belong to two different species. In this era where one has begun the process of decrypting the human genome, you know perhaps that one can demonstrate [...]
« The one who changed his brain-»
So, you didn’t know? Each year, each ‘vigneron’ even if only a little passionate changes his brain.
He passes from the left brain to the right brain. During the whole year, he has in effect abundantly worked one half (I don’t talk here about women, although obviously they too often work hard;)) of the brain, [...]
Time for jam
Each year, at around the same time, I get out my copper preserving pan and start my «jam week».
This pan has a history. My wife gave it to me, just a few months after we arrived at Vingrau. I understood that day…that she understood me. Because, to give a preserving pan to the man [...]
Mondovino in the open air
Last Saturday the doors were open at Vingrau.
The goal? To permit the village inhabitants to discover the cellars of their village, cellars which strangely, most of them have never visited.
A good-natured day, a light lunch in the village square, once night fell, a free open air projection of Mondovino.
Well, despite the tiredness and the late [...]
The vultures circle-
Received this evening a fax-mailing from a merchant of wines name of DEPOT STOCK. Over and above the poetry that this name inspires, I give you the best passages:
« Specialised in the de-stocking of wine, we buy significant lots of all qualities../..We only buy lots “CRD’ [capsule reprèsentatives de droits], destined to be resold in [...]