Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A few hours later the harvest machine left and there was a moment of peace before I had
totakeSophiatoschool.Jamieoffereduscupsoffresh,puresauvignonblanc.Itwassuper-
sweet grape juice but with the classic aromas of lime and gooseberry and a delicious zesty
finish. We had learned these terms in textbooks and tasting finished wine; now we were
getting to apply them in the process of winemaking. This was why we were here. It raised
us out of our renovation rut and made our dream feel real.
Jamie was a regular visitor from then on, arriving at the winery at least once a day and
sometimes twice a day. His arrival would often be accompanied by noise as he pumped li-
quids from one vat to another or heated or cooled them with our heat exchanger. Just mov-
ing the heat exchanger and associated pumps and pipes to the different zones of the winery
was heavy work. We exchanged few words most days, but having him come by made me
feel less lonely. We were also getting an idea of how much physical work went into making
wine.
Jamie did a lot more than rent our
chai
. He taught Sean how to drive the tractor and was an
infinite source of advice, encouragement and contacts. One of the contacts was the Cham-
ber of Agriculture; we were the right side of forty to get some free help and perhaps some
financial aid under the
jeune agriculteur
, young farmer, banner.
One of the chamber's representatives, Monsieur Ducasse, suggested we meet. I took co-
pious notes on the phone about how to get to his office and he remained remarkably re-
strained as I asked him to repeat everything many times.
Without a single wrong turn we arrived on time, and clean - Ellie was still in the habit of
throwing up on me. Monsieur Ducasse was chunky and dark with serious eyes framed by
bushy eyebrows. He welcomed us politely, clearly taken aback by the arrival of a seven-
month-old to the meeting. I wedged Ellie's buggy between Sean and myself, gave her a
bottle of milk, then explained our situation. Sean's French wasn't up to participating so he
left it all to me.
Monsieur Ducasse's severe look darkened with each word.
'We want to know what help we can get from you since we are new to this business,' I
said.
'What farming experience do you have?' he asked.
'None really... But we both grew up in a rural environment,' I said helpfully.
Monsieur Ducasse's Gallic eyebrows rose.
'But you must have some practical farming experience?' he pressed.
'Well, we had a small organic vegetable patch in our city garden,' I replied.
