Over the last couple of months there's been a great deal of progress and soon we will be able to reveal the upstairs of the Old Winery as all the rooms are now laid out. The first fix electrics have
Its been a busy couple of months and thanks to the glorious weather the builders were able to crack on and finished the roof a couple of weeks go. You can just see the new pan tiles on the above photograph taken looking down the river Clamoux from the far bridge.
For the average person I think one of the most confusing things about French wine is the difference between AOC & Vins du Pays. In my experience most people think AOC means top quality and Vins du Pays lower quality. This is not necessarily the case and I think it helps to understand why we have both categories. So we need a little history.
The story begins in the late 1800’s during the devastation of the French vineyards by Phylloxera. During this period production of French wines was considerably reduced and this led to the widespread fraudulent sales of “famed” wines and adulteration of standard wine with cheaper wine. In an attempt to regulate the industry the French Assembly took the decision to delimit geographical areas and to specify where particular wines must be produced. However, it quickly became apparent that France’s famous wines depended on more than where they were grown and this first attempt to regulate French wines failed.
We had hoped the roof would be finished by now but due to the flooding the Languedoc suffered last October most of the builders in the area were helping people fix up their damaged properties so we were happy to
There's a saying amongst wine makers. Good wine is made in the vineyard. They are referring to the health of the vineyard, the vines and the grapes. If you take great care of them, keep yields low and disease at bay and carefully harvest ripe healthy grapes. And providing you don’t do anything drastically wrong during the fermentation process, there is every chance you will make good wine.
Its been a while since we updated our blog on the progress of the Old Winery renovation and that's because progress has been slow. But last week the old roof was taken off and that's given a big boost to the project.
Buying this old building has been a little like stepping into a time capsule. We believe the old winery was abandoned over 60 years ago, probably due to a devastating flood. There is evidence that belongings of value were hoisted up to the top floor to get them out of the water and it looks like the flood was so damaging that no-one returned to try to fix the place up after the water had subsided. One of those things was this fabulous old carriage which is still hanging from the rafters minus its wheels.
Its been an action packed couple of months since we last posted progress at The Old Winery as in goes the concrete block and beam ceiling. This will help to pull the old building together and give us a wonderful basis for the underfloor heating in the bedrooms and bathrooms. Seeing the old beams removed and the concrete ones going back in has been quite exciting.
Progress throughout this month has been in leaps and bounds with Tom and Fisher working hard every day with John our Builder who we have re-named 'The Machine'. He has such strength and stamina, he never seems to get tired!
Work on the Old Winery began in earnest Last week when we were joined by Hannah & Lucas from Colorado and Wendy's son Tom. We found Hannah & Lucas through www.workaway.info a great website for people who want to travel