Morning Harvest

Morning All.

We had some amazing weather in the last few days; it hit 26 on Friday and 27 degrees on Saturday with glorious sunshine. Mike and Daragh were over and we had a wee Port tasting on Thursday night with the compulsory black teeth on Friday morning. The weather today is back to normal for this time of year a little overcast and much cooler, which I expect is welcomed by the pickers (vendangeurs) now streaming through the vineyards.

Jean Claude in La Fauconnerie started the grape harvest last Thursday, and early every morning there is a hive of activity on the roads as machinery and pickers are marshalled into place. Everywhere you look you see cars and vans parked up next to vineyards and the bobbing heads of pickers working through the lines of vines.

The vineyards in front of the house are still awaiting picking, last year over half were done by hand and the remainder by machine.

I was speaking to a number of growers last night and they expect the yields to be well down (almost 25%) on the last couple of years and the quality is excellent.

All the best

Paddy.