A picture postcard morning and a day of topping up!

A picture postcard on the Dordogne this morning with a rising mist and a lone fisherman, but things are set to change with a weekend of rain forecast. The leaves on the vine are slowly turning and starting to drop … it will be time for pruning before you know it.

The cold weather has caused the finished wines to shrink and it is incredible how much topping up the barrels require. Today it has been non-stop and we have used almost 3 barrels worth of wine to 'top' 300 barrels!

We do not use pumps to top the wine so we have to carefully siphon the wine and fill each barrel with only gravity's helping hand.

The good news is that the Chardonnays are slowly ticking away. They still need to be monitored very closely and it’s been a long ferment but there is now a light at the end of the tunnel!