A good but very long first day as we all started by 5am to get to Gatwick for the red eye to Lyon. A full flight and squashed between the Scot and the former Yugoslav for a few hours waiting the choice moment to get up for a loo break to annoy my learned colleagues.
A cold Lyon awaited us, but swiftly into the car to circumnavigate the airport three times before the United Nations got involved to tell the international community in the front seats THAT way. Safely cuddled into one of the five back seats I watched the dreary landscape scoot by until we finally saw the murky river with so many wonderful vines on its banks, yes Le Rhone.
Fiona Beckett has recently rated two of our wines on her website Matching Food and Wine following the hugely succesful Wine Car Boot.
Another curious year for Champagne. After a cold, damp winter and a gloomy spring, very chilly and particularly wet, the vines began to grow two weeks later than average over the last decade, remaining two weeks behind throughout their development.
In the recent issue of Squaremeal Lifestyle (Autumn 2013), Ten Minutes by Tractor's 2010 Pinot Noir has been listed as one of the Pick of the Pinots by Jane Parkinson in her article "Pinot Envy".
The string of awards just keeps on growing for Schild Estate’s 2012 Grenache Mourvèdre Shiraz. On the back of winning multiple medals since its release, this fantastic wine has just been awarded a Top 100 Blue Gold medal at the Sydney International Wine Competition, 2014 and is in the running for the Best Value Trophy Award next March.
