The harvest is done and wine is in the tank

Hand-picked with love

OK so this wasn't in the plan!

The vineyards of Château Fongrenier-Flamant were once producing award-winning wines, but had been abandoned for a number of years. When we found the château, we were advised to hard prune the vines and expect nothing for the first year. Some vines would come back, others will have been lost.

Having had contractors working the vines a little through the year, it came as a surprise that we did indeed have a small harvestable quantity of predominately reds on the hillside.

So we set off to do our first vendange and quickly learned that the work on the vines during the year was nowhere near enough, and the picking would be hard (whilst being surrounded by the sound of machine harvesting - grr!). Many walking kilometers (and days) later, with help from the neighbours Jean-Luc, Hugo and Pierre, we had our first harvest completed.

Getting the chai working

The next challenge was getting the chai clean and working. There was no shortage of toys to assist, even though they had also been abandoned for years. So out came the pressure washer, detergents and toolbox (oh and a few mechanics!).

The égrappoir et fouloir, big pressoire and the various pompes were supplemented with me becoming the new best friend of the vineyard equipment, repairs and supplies shops in the area.

After long days and late nights, we have our premiere cuvée in the tank. Not huge, but maybe around 1,000 bottles in a few weeks/months time. Can't wait!

PS: HUGE thank you to Pierre for his extraordinary help (did I mention he had a heart operation whilst we were harvesting!).