The last shovelful of the red skins and pips from the press goes onto the pile for the distillery who collects them. They make industrial brandy out of them.

Harvest always involves vast amounts of shovelling but so much more fun than going to the gym!

The Cabernet Sauvignon are the last grapes to be pressed as always. This year we are repeating our phenomenally successful limited edition idea. So we are using our small press to press the grapes from each little area separately. The final press is running as I write. Wonderful colour and smells heavenly.

All the various wines have nearly finished fermenting. We are taking these samples to the analysis laboratory. They check how much sugar is left amongst other things. Then, depending how dry we want the wine to be, we can choose to let fermentation continue for a bit, or stop it now. Here we are taking our Sauvignon Blanc, our Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Semillon for a semi-sweet wine, Rose and the newest addition - Saussignac to be, harvested last week and about to be put into barrels.

As the hunting season fully takes hold the woods and fields are full of camouflaged figures taking shots at most moving things. Our dog Beano wears a high vis collar when off our vineyard.

Sommeliers International has just reviewed the our 2011 Cotes de Bergerac Rouge.their opinion..

".Nose: rich and ample, dominated by the élevage. Notes of cocoa,roasting. A nice fruity side.Palate: pure first taste. A powerful palate which slowly develops and reaches its peak in the final taste. A well-balanced wine, spicy...

Comments: a beautiful discovery"

Already a great seller this wine is in serious danger of selling out shortly now. We were thrilled by the review though.