Wine is very simple really.

There's lots of clever stuff that you can do, but it is much more satisfying when it is really straightforward.

In October 2009, we picked all the grapes in the Coume de Roy vineyard. Grenache Noir, mixed with a bit of Carignan Noir and Grenache Gris. All fermented together in a couple of upturned 500 L barrels, and then drained off and pressed into two 225 Litre barriques.

Eighteen months later (ie today!), seven of us gathered with a siphon hose, and few hundred bottles, a bag of corks and a corking machine. We siphoned off over 250 bottles before we started to hit the sediment.

It took us a couple of hours. We set up a mini production line. The children remained engaged (more or less....) throughout. We had to adjust the level in every bottle by eye, and my plan to smell every cork before we put it in the bottle didn't quite come off, but by midday we had finished bottling, tidied up, and headed off to Le Pichenouille with the first bottle. Steak and red wine.

The labels are not printed yet, and the beeswax capsules will need to be done later in the month. Fingers crossed we'll be shipping in August and selling the first bottles in September.

No filtering, no fining, no chemicals, no machines, just gravity and human brains and muscles.

All in all a deeply satisfying activity.....