Maison Des Bulliats

Ideal to serve when tasting our wine with friends, or any president who might call by is my ‘cake aux olives’. Very easy to make and can leave out the olives if not your favourite things.

In the bowl of a food processor or in a large basin mix together the following ingredients:

250 gm of plain flour
1 sachet of easy bake yeast, found in all supermarkets where flour is sold
4 eggs
1 small glass of white wine, any will do, about 4 fluid oz.
1 small glass of vegetable oil, preferably sunflower, but olive oil is fine.
Some grated cheese, gruyere or any cheese at all [ about 100 plus gm.]
A handful of stoned green or black olives to your taste.
Some chopped cooked ham, a handful, [or little pieces of cooked bacon]

Mix all thoroughly except the last three ingredients. Then add the last three ingredients. If using a food processor take mixture out of bowl before adding the last three ingredients.

Pour into a lightly greased non stick loaf tin, that is big enough to hold 2 pints or 1 litre of liquid.

Bake in a medium to hot oven on middle shelf for about 40 mins, or when a skewer placed in the middle comes out clean.

Serve hot or cold in slices or in little squares, with, of course a glass of the fine ‘prince of Beaujolais’ wine, Regnie, and it will be fit for kings or queens or presidents!

Chefs suggestion: A bowl of home-made chutney may be served along side, or a fresh green salad for a super lunch dish. This evening I cooked some chutney made from the delicious little yellow plums called mirabelle that grow at the bottom of the garden. There were hundreds of them, it took ten minutes to pick a large basket full, let me know if you would like the recipe, any plums will do or in fact any fruit chutney!

Possibly my favourite and most unexpected visitors were pointed out to me this morning by one of our regular lorry drivers coming to pick up an order of wine for Brittany.

He noticed some baby Sparrow Hawks nesting in the dove cotes along the guttering of the outbuildings, long since abandoned by their usual owners.

I thought at first that they were owls but the driver insisted they were hawks. They have been chirping and squawking all day, flexing their wings, crying out for their food hunting parents. Judging by their size, they can hardly fit in the arches of their rented home,the time has nearly come to leave, I was thrilled to see them!

Fred took their photos from afar but hope they might pose for a better one tomorrow! Maybe we will depict the sparrow hawk on future labels for our wine!

Where shall I begin? In the last few days we have been continuing to make arrangements for the vendanges. As I have said earlier, this year we are in charge of the management of our whole production whilst we continue to market the fine Beaujolais wine around the world, taking care of our loyal customers and courting new ones.

Responses have been coming thick and fast to our advertisements for grape pickers and for porters to fill the ‘bennes’, huge plastic containers that will be lifted by hopefully young, strong arms onto trailers, we interview people who can work in the cuvage to furnish the cuves or vats with grapes that will start their fermentation and then be carefully transferred to the pressoir to extract the juice from unwanted matter.

Fred finds a vendange pump at a village ‘porte ouverte’ designed for taking the wine from vat to press. We answered an advert for some ‘Bennes’ and find they are sold but instead we buy the farmers three and a half ton trailer for a hundred euros!  It will be perfect for bringing the grapes from the vines to the cuvage.  The gentle giant of a farmer sadly having to give up his vines due to ill health, looked at least pleased that this faded green majestic wagon would once again be put to work.

Paulo, a larger than life local vigneron called in one day, we had tasted his Regnie in his den of a cave in early June and discussed our needs for the coming harvest.  He arrives with a vigneron friend who would be available to aid the 2007 vinification process, we taste our Regnie together, very positively received.  Paulo sits at the head of our kitchen table, he has a shock of wild curly greying hair and a huge beak of a nose. At one point reaches for a box of matches, opens them, and rather delicately for such a large man proceeds to poke one into an ear whilst continuing his raconteuring and the emptying of his glass! Sylvan, his friend, may well be a possible for us, he has an excellent reputation as a vigneron, a charming manner, round smiley face and strong weather worn arms.

The team from the Quincie co-operative came to inspect our vines with a view to buying half our grapes. They were extremley positive, our vines are in excellent condition. I don’t know why but I had made some Shrewsbury biscuits, like shortbread with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla, which we ate with coffee and were much appreciated. We think they will want to go ahead with us, we wait to hear in a few days after discussion with the President!

Tonight our friend from Morgon arrived with yet another President, or rather ex President of ‘Inter Beaujolais’, the organisation in Villefranche who, amongst other activities, are responsible for the administration and promotion of Beaujolais wines. He could be another expert who is willing and ready to give us his professional advise. We tasted both our 2005 and 2006 Regnie. Fred and I were delighted at his positive response, of course we know its good but it is particularly encouraging to have such praise from a person with his experience and knowledge.

These days I wake up to the Regnie Durette church clock striking six or seven and already there are sounds of activity in the vines around us. The humming, whining, droning of tractors that is pleasantly soporific. It is imperative at this time that the dreaded ‘liseron’ does not take a hold and strangle the vines and their precious bounty. Names of flowers and birds seem to have no resemblance to their English counterparts.

I am talking about that delicate pretty pinkish white plant the convolvulus or bind weed its more aggressive name. It twines and winds around anything vertical in its path, we have to treat it before it takes its hold!  This will be the final insurance that our grapes will be in peak condition when the harvest time arrives.

I have a few strands climbing the enclosure of my little ‘potager’ or vegetable patch, I try to photograph it for you but the rain has been continual and their fragile heads remain firmly facing downwards and their petals closed. Maybe tomorrow the sun will arrive to waken them and ripen the tomatoes too which wait, as the grapes do, for some summer warmth to give a blush of colour and enhance their fruity flavours.

Roses are seen everywhere in Beaujolais, planted for a reason, decoratively outlining the vineyards. If the roses suffer it is a warning that the vines need treatment as they will suffer too, just as a canary sent in advance down a mine would sense a lack of oxygen so saving the lives of humans who might follow.

We keep these beautiful rose borders carefully pruned and weeded.

The grapes are now as big as small green marbles, advanced in their development due to the recent rain.

The local people say that when we see the a blush of colour on the first grape they will be ready for gathering in forty five days.
It is for certain this year the vendange will be early, towards the latter part of August.

The lush green hedgerows are abundant with poppies and the last of the foxgloves. There have been more storms recently but we expect and hope for a dry July and August, these months will really count.