From Potager to Loire Valley Vineyard

A pretty hectic couple of weeks has left little time for blogging other than 'micro-blogging' on Twitter where you can now find us at Twitter.com/frenchwinetours if you wish to join in with the tweets. Otherwise we have been pretty much out and about running Wine Tours and serving our delicious Wine Sampling Suppers here at La Grande Maison.

So what has been happening in the vineyard and the potager during this time? Well less than a month ago the bunches on the vines looked like this. Flowering went well in the end and we managed to avoid any heavy rain that might have knocked off the tiny delicate flowers.

Within 3-4 weeks the bunches are looking good and with the cooler evenings it has been the ideal time to go out and work on the few rows of Chenin Blanc that we have in the vineyard. When the vines were pruned during the winter eight buds were left on last years canes so each vine produced about eight vertical shoots. Each shoot usually produces two bunches so there are a total of around sixteen bunches per vine. This is too many for us as we wish to produce quality rather than quantity hence the job in hand. The extra bunches that didn't fit the bill were cut off leaving 8-10 bunches per vine.

It is hard to think that the grapes will be wasted but it will improve the quality and space available for what is left on the vine.

Back in the potager, secateurs still in hand and we have good crops of yellow and green courgettes, potatoes, garlic, shallots, peas and beans. All our produce is grown organically and our meals are based around what is available each evening.

Even the hens are coming up trumps and Vita produced her first double yolker bless her, she always was a hen of many fancies!

Dogs as per usual do their best to help. With the odd bit of baguette snaffling.

Humble Pie H.R.H

They don't look at all guilty do they?

Willow (aka Wills or Mr Beans)