A very difficult year leading to a painful delivery (our first vintage)

 

 

2016 "delivery"... La Vie en Rose ? I so wish it was... At least, the wine is quite good =)

Dear Friends,

At least, nobody can reproach me to bombard you with blog posts... Well, in fact, I feel very bad not to have kept you informed about what is going on here. After 3 years of happiness (and maybe a bit of naivety), some major bumpers have crossed the way on our path to build this vineyard on the Mediterranean.

The first alert has been the planting of our 2 acres vineyard in 2015 in a parcel co planted with olive trees. Combined to a major mistake to plant too close those beautiful trees, 2015 summer has been hot and dry and I spent most of my time to try to maintain those baby vines alive, especially the ones too close to the trees which finally died (and would have even died with a gentler summer). The way I planted this parcel has also generated issues in using my ancestor tractor and so I had to plow around those 6 000 vines by hand which was no fun indeed.

baby vines watered during the 2015 summer drought

The second bump happened when I broke my elbow, a year day to day from now, actually. Racing against the clock in order to clear a parcel ready to be planted, I took many bad decisions which eventually put me in front of administrations problems

With a broken elbow, after our olive harvest

And suddenly, the magnificent view on the sea created by clearing that parcel turned, in my eyes, into a painful view that reminds me many times a day of my mistakes. I then begun to see everything negatively and criticize all the decisions I took The even more dryer and hotter 2016 summer did not help to see this blue sky (yes it was) but dark. This anxiousness about the weather was not only for the baby vines just planted but for the promise of some grapes from the parcel planted in 2014 which was supposed to produce grapes to make wine as the reward of 4 years of hard work. But those very young vines suffered a lot from the very big drought and the few grapes they produced were very small in weight.

Great view or messy view ?

At this point and as I was constantly suffering from this global situation, which was not at all what I anticipated when I started this project, we decided to consider moving. This recurrent failure feeling was not good at all and I knew that, even with the mistakes I had made, we had well valued this place and that if we could sell it for the the all sweat, pain and worries I endured, I would eventually consider this venture as a learning lesson rather than a failure.

First official harvest at Mas des Brun

 Before putting our vineyard and house on the market, I managed to built a small cellar, bought some used tanks, a press and pump and all my very best friends and family came to harvest September 3rd; from 6 30 to 10 30 AM. We made a little volume but the quality is definitely there. I hope this is a sign that the wheel is turning into better days, wherever the winds will take us...

Most of the 2016 harvest team. "Merci à tous pour votre soutien"

Cheers,

Jean-Marc

Comments

[Rédigé par : Eppicha]

You did your absolute best, and you had the finest people helping you out! It is good to make a decision and then, to follow it. I am hoping you will feel(as I do when I've made a tough decision) so much better down the line, wherever the path for the two of you leads. This note will post to FB, but only to you and Kristin. I hope that's ok.

[Rédigé par : Bill Facker]

Jean-Marc .. Wishing you all the very best in the days to come .. Continue, Brother, Continue - you are a Winner! Bill