Le Couvent Diary

For some months the dogs have been intrigued by the presence of an, until now unseen, inhabitant in the vineyard mazet. A beautiful stoat.

 

 

But yesterday we saw her for several seconds while she dashed about trying to pass us.

Unfortunately it was too quick for me to fire off my camera, so this picture is pinched from It's Nature .   We're thrilled to have Hermine the ermine staying with us and hope that neither of the dogs will have a go at her. I suspect her teeth are fearsome and they may come off worse than she does.

I've been checking out a few facts about stoats. In French they are les hermines and in English stoat are called ermine when they go white in winter. The young in English are called kit. I had a favourite great-grandmother called Ermine and we have a dog called Kit, so there's a sweet serendipity.

It's be good if she stopped using the mazet roof beam as her loo though.

Great, the volunteers are coming, so we'll get tons of jobs done in the vineyard. All we have to do is sit back and watch them work right? No, no and no. Volunteer week is the first time in the year when we re-open the house, so during the two weeks prior to the vollies arriving Ali and I have to get everything ready. Here's a rough breakdown of what that means.

Six bedrooms and their bathrooms are cleaned and aired, beds made up and towels, loo rolls and the like all in place. The big kitchen downstairs takes a day to clean. (We don't use it in the winter as we live in our apartment.) Menus, recipes and shopping lists are prepared for a week's worth of breakfasts, lunches and dinners for up to 16 people. The shopping takes two days. Gas bottles for the cooker and heaters are refilled. The boiler-man has been to service our workhorse that provides hot showers and underfloor central heating.

 

 

 

So far four of the seven lunchtime soups which will be served hot in the vineyard have been made and are sitting in a neighbour's freezer as ours are all choc-a-bloc. The tea, coffee and milk are in the vineyard caravan, Olive, ready for morning breaks. Ali has yet to go and buy the wine. 16 people x 7 evenings. So how much is that then?

 

 

 

Then there's the machinery. Queenie the quad's been serviced and her trailer has a new wheel after we melted the old one to extinction; the yellow muncher vineyard mower has had a new skirt and sharpened blade; the two heavy duty strimmers have been sharpened petrol-filled and oiled, eight pairs of loppers have been sharpened and oiled, as have four pairs of secateurs. Two axes have had the same treatment. Hoes have been tested and five new ones bought. The generator has been serviced. The van's been serviced. The ride-on mower has been serviced. Six containers of petrol and two stroke have been filled. Trees have been ordered.

 

 

 

Yesterday I serviced the chainsaw. It had stopped working and only when I took it apart did I realise a bit was missing. Three minutes of searching in the shingle where I'd last used it and I discovered the vital screw. So now that's sorted out. All the tools have been assembled ready to lob in the van, land-rover and trailers  - to be transported to the vineyard. 15 pairs of gardening gloves and extra protective gear are ready in a box.

Now we just have to sort out a bit of evening entertainment to keep the vollies amused, have haircuts (so it doesn't get caught in the chainsaw) and we're ready. Phew. Sometimes it feels as though we've already done the major part before the vollies arrive! Now just keep your fingers crossed that the weather picks up. It's warmed up quite a bit, but we're having rotten rainstorms and we need brilliant sunshine to keep us all happy. It would be great if it shone on our parade.

It's been a long time since the last post. August has been our busiest month of the season - not only choc-a-bloc with B&B guests, but also with our grape harvest and wine-making. After the heavy rains in April we had a diminished number of tiny grape florets, already reduced by the after effects of the terrible hail storm last September. This summer has also been officially heatwave hot, so the result for us has been a tiny harvest of very early ripening grapes. We ended up with just three trailer loads like this. A ridiculously small harvest from 2.5 hectares.

 

 

We picked during the third week of August - at least a fortnight early. Since then we have moved our wine-making operation to Le Couvent, where we now have a miniature cave, complete with fermentation tanks and all the paraphernalia you need to make wine.

 

 

Thanks to help from several unsuspecting, yet willing, guests and friends we got our meagre harvest picked in record time, over three early mornings, before the temperatures began to soar.

 

 

Since then we have completed the initial fermentation on two of our three cuvées and will work on the third today. After that it's just a question of regular checking that all is OK until the spring, when a secondary fermentation should take place.

 

The good news is that people seem to really like the wine from last year's fated harvest - L'Orage, a blend made on the hoof while we were picking, Syrah, Cinsault & Grenache. But the truth will be known when our lovely Master of Wine pal, Rosemary George , tastes it on Sunday evening. I'm nervous.

With just over three weeks to go before the end of our season, and a fully booked B&B, I'd be lying if I said Ali and I weren't a bit tired. But reserves get tapped at this time of the year, and we have such lovely guests that it's easy to rise to the occasion. We seem to have laughed our way through the summer thanks to some very funny people, especially all the jolly Americans and Canadians who've pitched up at Le Couvent. Thank you all!

 

If you'd like to know how the wine's progressing click the picture below>>>>

 

 

Well, at 4.30 I went to inspect the vines and am happy to say that they looked OK. The skies were charcoal and lightning cracked over the hills. Kit the labrador was scared witless and Flynn the husky thought it all rather a good jape.

On the way home the hail fell once more, but I'm hoping it all holds together. This is a photo of the vine buds.