A March is definitely not in the vines this year. Sadly, the UK government’s introduction of quarantines for travel to and from France was the straw which broke the camel’s back. It was unlikely that I would have been joining Jeff Coutelou this year for vendanges but that is now definitive. I have worked the last six vendanges with Jeff but that run has come to an end. It is very sad.

On the positive side Jeff reports that the grapes are ‘magnifiques’, there is every hope that he will be making excellent wines. A silver lining to the cloud which is 2020. He has a novice team this year, my experience might have been useful but it is not to be.

Jeff has been busy and unable to take his usual break in the summer. Last year’s wines were slow to finish their fermentations, he had to wait for Spring for that to happen. He has given the wines time to settle and mature in the large tanks but, as harvest approaches, he needs those tanks for the 2020 wines. Therefore, the team has been busy bottling and the wines will sit and rest for a few months before they go on sale.

Last week he had a visit from Christina Rasmussen, one of the founders of Little Wine, the website I have acclaimed on here before. Christina sent me a lovely photo of them with Icare and I am looking forward to her report on the site.

Really sad news from the Languedoc with the death of Raymond Le Coq, former owner of the Cave St Martin in Roquebrun. He was the most generous and friendly of hosts and I spent many happy times at the restaurant and wine bar, including the harvest evening when local natural producers got together with magnums of their wines.

On a positive note I was chatting with James Madden the other day. James worked the 2016 harvest with us and now has his own winery in the Adelaide Hills. I reported on this when we stayed with James and his family in 2018. At the time his wines were labelled under the name of Little Things but, due to a large company using that name on one of their wines, he had to change the name to Scintilla Wines. The good news is that a couple of his wines are being imported into the UK. Brunch Wine Bar in Liverpool is the wise importer. As James and I are both Liverpool FC supporters that seems very appropriate.

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James tells me that last year’s harvest is his best yet, he has been busy pruning and is looking for more vines of his own. Exciting times for him and I hope that at some point not too distant I can return to visit him. Meanwhile I have ordered some of those wines!

Jeff will send me photos of vendanges and keep me in the loop. Hopefully I can still report on what is going on in Puimisson so stay tuned.