Vintage begins at Dudon

Today picking began at Chateau Dudon. They will pick the vines three or four times as the botrytis rot continues to cover the bunches. Had a sample today - delicious marmalade flavours.

A toast to Barsac and Dudon . . . sideways

Note to self . . . don't turn the camera sideways to make a video . . .

Nuts

I remember when I was a 21year-old setting off to see the world mum told me to have roasted chestnuts in Paris. Here, every second tree seems to be a chestnut. We tried roasting them, but made a real mess of the oven . . .

Today's Festival

If there's a festival, we're there. Today's festival was the arrival of the 'Transhumance'. This turned out to be 60-odd woolly sheep, some woolly dogs, their woolly shepherd and a donkey being marched into the village with drums and pipes. They had come all the way from the Pyrenees and we waited for an hour or so with all the other villagers to follow them to the town square and then join in the festival. We ate (yes, again) yummy snails, crushed strawberries, sausages of cepes, chevre, fig, local beer . . . .

The sheep retired (collapsed) under some trees - it was a really hot day. We danced, bought stuff and generally carried on.

A fabulous French feast

How fantastic to spend a Sunday afternoon at Corrine and Christian's beautiful Bordeaux home. Lucky for us Corrine had zipped home from her vintage in Portugal. We shared a feast with her sons, parents and ex-husband and it was magnificent. Clive said he felt privelged have shared some rare and exceptional local, Portugese and Hungarian wines that we would normally not have tried. Harry had a fabulous time with Corrine's boys and au pair who hand-fed him and saw to his every need!! A really great day.

The Festival of the Pigeon

Another beautiful day. Lunch in Sauternes overlooking Chateau Guiraud . . . gorgeous. We then took a leisurely drive to a Pigeon festival in Bazas via a true blue castle (we stumbled upon this one). The pigeon festival was really something - the pigeon is the special food of Bazas (yes, we're talking food again) and to celebrate its 'season' there's a colourful procession through the square. Each village has a colourful costume to represent their regional delicacy eg: melons, garlic, cepes (mushies), bayonne ham, and Bazas bouef. The procession was piped to the town cathedral, led by a confused looking pigeon. . . celebrations followed the blessing of the food in the cathedral . . . ahh such reverence for the food . . . .

Bec arrives!

Bec has arrived to spend 12 days with us. We are stoked to have her here with us and glad that Gavin, Laura and Nell could spare her! We picked her up from the train station in Bordeaux. After 30 hours of travel we're not sure she knew where she was.