Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
round of golf. My dad could not understand why we were putting ourselves through so
much to follow our dream. He saw the exceptional work, both physical and mental, the
challenges of a new country and the financial stress, and could not fathom what had made
us leave good jobs in the city.
'This house is a corridor of crisis,' he said, 'just look around.' He pointed to the chaos that
accompanies two small children with time-starved parents. 'You can't carry on at this pace.
You'll be dead before you reach retirement. You'll be old before your time.'
I explained that life in a start-up is always tough and more so for us with a new language
and culture as well. He ignored me and continued his tirade.
After two weeks of his harrying and repeating 'this house is a corridor of crisis', I
wondered if we were completely mad. But one evening, momentarily overcome by the ex-
uberanceofacoupleofwhiskeysfollowedbyaglassofHautGarrigue,mydadbrokeintoa
Zulu dance. Ellie, who had been sick, was ecstatic. For the first time in days she brightened
up.
'Dance, Grand-père! Dance!' she commanded. Grand-père, nervous at the Napoleonic
style of his granddaughter's request, continued to dance. For the next couple of days Ellie
kept Grand-père away from his thoughts of the corridor of crisis with regular commands of
'Dance, Grand-père! Dance!'
Ellie was at the tail-end of an ear infection combined with a tummy bug that had left us
with little clean linen. Her bedtime prayer said it all.
'Dear God,
'Thanks you for making Ellie better. Thanks you for making Sophia better. Thanks you for
making Daddy better. And Dear God thanks you for making Grand-père dance.
'Amen.'
An invitation to attend a dinner hosted by one of the major cork manufacturers was per-
fectly timed since we needed to make our decision about which corks to use for our bot-
tling. Bottling was a minefield and the responsibility for each of these elements was with
us. We had to get to grips with it and make the right choice. I took copious notes.
Cork trees only produce enough cork to be harvested at about twenty years of age but they
live for hundreds of years if managed and harvested correctly. The quality of the cork and
the care of that cork after harvest are paramount to good wine. Corked wine, created by
trichloranisole (TCA), a bacteria found in cork, has a nasty smell like mouldy newspaper,
wet dog or a damp basement. Depending on the level of TCA, this odour can be anything
from a faint hint to complete contamination, leaving the wine undrinkable. While there is
