Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'I don't know.' We had a copy of the
cadastrale
, or commune map, of our property which
included all the official buildings, but I hadn't thought to look at it.
'If it is you should get planning permission more easily. It looks solid from the photos. I'll
have a look next time I'm over your way.'
As soon as I got home I checked the
cadastrale
and found the ruin on it. I was over the
moon with excitement.
That Christmas, we sold the last of the stock we'd bought. Now the pressure was on to fin-
ish the new wines as we needed some to sell. While the whites and the rosé were behaving
like perfect children, the reds were unwilling teenagers. They had made it through their al-
coholic fermentation but steadfastly refused to progress with their malolactic fermentation
(oftenreferred tosimply as'malos'): theprocessinwhichtart malic acid istransformed into
softer lactic acid. It is a natural deacidification allowed to take place in almost all red wines
save those like beaujolais nouveau, the light red wine that is bottled immediately after its
alcoholic fermentation, but mostly avoided in white wines so they keep their fresh Granny
Smith apple acidity. Sean diligently heated the wines to the optimal temperature, monitor-
ing and carefully timing our equipment which, of course, was far from automated.
Meanwhile, to heat the house we bought a wood-burning stove to augment our struggling
system. After the purchase the installer explained that the old exit pipe was no good as it
passed through the wall horizontally so would never draw correctly. Creating a new exit
would be difficult in our 300-year-old building with walls almost a metre thick. It needed a
minimum of a 45-degree angle so the hole had to traverse about 2 metres of wall. We spent
hours trying to find an elegant solution.
In the roof over the lounge was something that looked like a chimney. It ran through
our upstairs bathroom then stopped, concreted over where it should have come out in the
lounge below. Why hadn't the previous owners used it instead of cracking through the wall
at right angles? It didn't make any sense. Sean climbed onto the roof and verified it had all
the makings of a chimney.
We didn't want to crack through our beautiful ceiling that had taken my parents weeks to
renovate without being sure so we decided to contact the family that owned the property
for fifty years prior to the people we bought from. We had not met Monsieur and Madame
Battistella but we had heard a lot about them. Monsieur Bonny was a close friend of theirs
so I asked him for an introduction.
The Battistellas arrived in a smart new car. A fit and handsome couple, they looked like
prosperous, retired bankers rather than winegrowers wizened by decades of hard work.
