Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 17
French Wine Adventures
Jamie, the neighbour who had rented the winery in our first year, came round for lunch.
'Have you heard that the biggest
négociant
for Bergerac wines has gone under?'
Sean and I shook our heads.
'We have a chunk of our 2006 on contract to them. Luckily it's no longer my problem. I've
resigned. After fifteen years of hard labour in the French vineyards I'm heading back to the
UK. I don't know what I'll do yet but vineyards are booming over there.'
Part of the reason he had decided to go was that the property had been sold. He had read
about the sale through a press release: the owner hadn't even told him face to face. I was
shocked. For ten years Jamie had put his life and soul into that vineyard, going far beyond
the bounds of duty. The property was a small part of the sale of the owner's larger business
to an enormous publically listed entity. The owner must have been under non-disclosure but
still, it was hard for Jamie to stomach. He decided it was time to move on.
'We'll miss you,' I said. Jamie had been a great help to us in our first year. Since he had
moved his wine back to their winery we hadn't seen him much. His news was a big surprise.
We moved on to his other bombshell about the defunct
négociant
.
'How much Bergerac wine went to him?' asked Sean.
'At least a third, maybe more.'
For the Bergerac wine-producing community the news was devastating. Financial troubles
were often behind the injuries and deaths all too frequent in the industry. Winemakers were
overstretched. They were working too many hours particularly at peak times because they
were unable to afford help, and too constrained by bureaucracy. Only a few months before
another winemaker, 3 kilometres away from us, had died falling off a vat.
Our neighbour, Olivier, husband of Myreille who warned me of snakes, assured us that
everyone was up for sale, if they could only get a price that would leave them with some
dignity. The wine business had become so tough that people with generations of history be-
hind them were considering giving up.
We invited Thierry and Isabelle Daulhiac over for dinner. We had dined at their house a
few times: Isabelle was a dab hand at turning out seemingly effortless gourmet dishes like
