Maison Des Bulliats

While we continue to follow up and organise delivery of our latest orders, to Cambridge university cellars, Holland and Barnsley Rugby club, the vines need some attention too. The pruning or ‘taille’ of the vines must be completed by the beginning of April. It can start as early as after the grape picking in September but usually a little later, often when there is snow on the ground. All over the landscape we see little curls of smoke, from the burning of the cut vines. and groups of people swathed in the warmest of clothig bent low wielding secateurs, it is back breaking work. In our group we employed ,amongst others, a Monk, [well almost] living in a monastry in the village of Villie Morgon close by. He is a delightful, long bearded character and this Easter weekend presented us with a blessed candle decorated with the image of the virgin Maria and lots of gold. He told me that, when finished burning, the end must be thrown outside to nature and not in the dustbin. I will do as he asks. The vines thrive on poor soil, so in a way they like to suffer. However they cannot just be left, no way can we miss a year, as with other crops, they need to be trimmed. The next step is to spray a mild product to prevent the grass growing between the rows of vines. This was done just before Easter, the process may be repeated upto seven times during this fast growing season. Our friends in Morgon have been helping and advising us since the beginning and without them I dont know what we would have done! When I look back at some of the many questions we asked over a delicious glass of their Morgon cru Beaujolais I am reminded of how far we have come, through struggling with the horendous spiders web of the french administration to writing a ‘bon de commande’ an order form with our tarifs and conditions of sale or getting our labels printed or ordering cartons, transport to Paris, Brittany,the U.K or Canada. We were delighted to be able to do something for them recently. To deliver from the U.K a suberb specimen of an S3 Bentley, in beautiful condition with glistening chrome and luxurious leather interior. Fred is a very practical engineer and enthusiast for such pieces of engineering and cant wait to get involved with some of the maintenance! So back to the vines, 75,500 of them which are producing little buds ready to make miniscule flowers. Last year the buds became obvious green shoots by the 21st of April, I noted it on the calander. They say that everything will be earlier this year, it has been so warm and sunny. Then the whole landscape changes to a very different kind of beauty.