News 2007
28/8/07 The Harvest Begins
2007 has been a cooler year than last but an early, warm spring sees the grapes maturing at around the same time. The crop is down about 20-30% on last year due to cooler weather at flowering, a dry winter and our own interventions to reduce yields. The quality is very good. Although damp weather encouraged downy mildew earlier in the summer, we were able to keep it well under control and the long dry period before harvest has resulted in clean fruit with intense flavours that promise fine wines.
All
the grapes are being picked by hand by our team of local workers and helpful
friends.
We try to keep to the advertised opening times but you may find us in the middle of picking, crushing or cleaning equipment!
12/07/07 Summer Art Exhibition
We are pleased to be exhibiting the original paintings and pastels by local artists Margret Dibdin and Ken Wheatley.
Margaret, a former science and drama teacher, studied at Bournmouth College of Art and Falmouth Fine Arts before lured to the beauty of Arles-sur-Tech in 2001. Her art is inspired by nature and her love of colour and shape.
Ken trained at Edinburgh College of Art and worked as a set designer for film and TV all over the world for 35 years. Retiring to the Pyrenees-Orientales, he depicts the buildings and landscape of the area in watercolour and oils.
01-06-07 The First Bottling
The
first of June was the date of our first ever bottling. An extremely stressful
operation where all the year's hard work is realised. One mistake and everything
can be ruined. To prepare for bottling we needed to stabilise the wine,
design the labels, choose the corks, the bottles, the packaging and the
capsules. We also couldn't forget to order the little things; pallets, cling-film
and packaging tape. Fortunately everything arrived on time and the
bottling went smoothly. Four of our friends turned up to give us a hand
too which helped enormously.
We bottled Muscat of Alexandria, Muscat de Rivesaltes, One Block Muscat and One Block Grenache, all from the 2006 vintage.
The labels were designed with the help of my friend Jon Harris of Harrisment Design.
07-05-07 Visit of Amersham Wine Club
The Amersham Wine Club visited us as part of their wine tour of the Languedoc-Roussillon with Vinetude. After a talk in the vineyards about Domaine Treloar's particular style of viticulture, in a high Tremontane wind, we retired to the winery to taste some of the wines matched with local produce.
We matched One Block Muscat with a medium aged goats cheese
(chevre) and the Grenache with Bethmale, a rich cow's milk cheese from the
Ariege. Both were specially chosen by Fromagier
du Mas in Mas Guerido.
We then paired two wines with fresh hand-made chocolates from La Cabosse in Castelnau. Lemon milk chocolate with Three Peaks and then Ginger dark chocolate with Muscat de Rivesaltes.
The response to the wines was amazing. Few people think red wine and chocolate go together but the chocolate shop had to sell their entire stock!
Most importantly, everyone had a really good time, including us.
23-04-07 Edinburgh School of Art
The photography students of the Edinburgh School of Art visited the vineyards and winery to take shots for their Roussillon Wine project with Nigel Bradley.
They enjoyed a picnic in the vines followed by a wine tasting and then took advantage of the old equipment and barrels in the winery. For us it was interesting to see the winery as a subject for art rather than just a facility for making wine.
