Winter is pruning time. For a couple of weeks it’s been horrible outside. Cold, wet, windy. I have to prune quite a few hectares so I really have to use every dry(-ish) day making my cuts. But two pants and several shirts made it work even below -10°C.
There were days though which didn’t allow for any work, you just couldn’t see anything!
There are a few vineyards where I introduced gentle pruning last year already and it’s a pleasure pruning them now for a second time.
But the days are getting longer again and you can feel that spring is not crazy far away anymore. In the afternoon-sun I can already get rid of the jacket. Thank god it is less than 1ha left to do.
A big piece of work were those Bacchus and Silvaner vineyards of which we made the Pat-Nat. They haven’t been treated with a lot of love and they are incredibly strong. But they were lovely to work in the last days due to the weather.
Completely different topic to finish off with: I’m totally behind announcing our next fairs. So I can just say retrospectively that I went to Tabor / Czech Republic in January, where Jan Culik had organized Bottled Alive. It was a truly beautiful little wine fair. And it was a joy drinking & discussing wine with sommeliers from Bratislava to Prague. And with my friends Mirko & Milan of course
A highlight of the year was the legendary La Dive Bouteille in Saumur the week after. It’s one of the oldest and probably the biggest natural wine fair out there taking place in endlessly deep caves. It was really exciting pouring wine in this environment surrounded by the best producers & tasters in the world. I was traveling with my friend Holger who was best person to help out at my barrel here and there, he really knows the wines. The highlight of Angers was the dinner at Chez Rémi in Angers. It couldn’t have been a nicer table with my very good friends Belinda, Basil, Alex and Abel from Wines Under the Bonnet plus Basil’s parents. Thank you so much for the invitation!
Going forward there will be more of Melanie to see! Coming next is Surk-ki’s Weinsalon Natürel in Cologne March 18th/19th. And in May we’ll both (fingers crossed!) return to London again for the Real Wine Fair taking place May 7th/8th. Let’s do this!