2006 - The Verdict

Whisper it quietly but it’s one of the best year’s for wine ever. The prolonged dry spell has had the vines straining every root to find moisture deep in the soil. There are precious few grapes but they are loaded with flavour. Already bankers have been flying in from London thinking of investing some of their hard earned cash in the en-primeur market (wine sold by vineyards before it has even been bottled).

Does this sound like Bordeaux?

Actually it’s 2006 Domaine de La Brillane ( http://www.labrillane.com )just outside Aix en Provence. We visited on harvest day and already the cerebrally-wired owner Rupert Birch was working out how best to market his product. Magnums and Methuselah’s are for wimps, what the City movers and shakers want these days is a personalised barrel. Luckily for Rupert he had a wad (is this the correct collective noun? would plague be more appropriate?) of bankers holding a conference in his domaine last weekend. The plan was to put a big screen up for the Rugby and then spring the prices on the inebriated throng.

I’ve yet to hear how Provence’s first en-primeur market went, but the pictures to the right show just what a good year it was for Rupert’s grapes.

Another two weeks or so until the baby arrives. The hospital in Pertuis is a shining advert for the French health service. We’re going in every week now, and the mid-wives are carefully monitoring Tanya, wiring her up to a machine to test the baby’s heart over an hour long period. Sarkozy’s market reforms are much needed but I am not sure whether the French will ever put up with a health care system like the UK -we can’t afford rooms any more, but how about a corridor to give birth in?

Sebastian and Coco topped the baby name polls, not the rather avant garde Maverick (which I voted for three times). Thanks to all those that voted. Watch this space for what we finally decide.