Spring continues. Do we see the beginning of the budding of the vines, or are we just imagining it? It’s balmy and beautiful, and how lucky you are if you happen to be a tourist here right now. And how great too, if you are a Carnivaleer, carnivalling away in the world’s oldest, longest, and longest-running Carnival (which started at the end of January) – only in Limoux, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. We’ve seen them perform their slow, monotonous (some could say ‘boring’ though of course we didn’t), soporific dance in sleet, in snow, in rain, and in high winds. Nothing can stop them. But hardly ever have we seen them dancing in full sunshine during the day, and under a soft, benignly balmy, velvet sky at night.
All very well for them.
We could do with some old-fashioned weather.
Monday 4 March
A grand sum of aspiring sommeliers spills out of the bus that has travelled over four hours to get to Limoux from the Lycée des Métiers de l’Hôtellerie, de la Restauration et du Tourisme de Chamalières … which is to say, a well-known hotel and restaurant school about half way between Lyon and Limoges. They’ve come for a Vinifilles masterclass on Vinifilles wines: a shortcut to the whole of the Languedoc in a single morning. Just over a quarter of these young people are women, a quietly heartening sign because there could so easily have been none. And they’re pretty impressive, as they stand up and confidently declare and describe what they discern in the glass.
And by the way, the boys are pretty good too.
Tuesday 5 March
A handful of our truffle oaks has upped and off’d. Just as Monsieur M said they would. Simply got up and walked away.
Wednesday 6 March
Nice tasting in the cellars this morning . We all think back to 2018 with a heavy heart: just mention the year, and there’s this slowly seeping dull ache that slides and slushes all around the body, until it actually makes you feel a bit sick.
But no sour grapes in the wine!
There’s great potential here. And not even the slightest whiff of mildew or hail or unrelenting rain… or sweat, or tears and mindless misery.
Thursday 6 March
Not imagination. Fact. The chardonnay has started budding. A bit before its time. Spring has come too soon or as Shakespeare would have said, ‘in the nearest’.
Friday March 7
Not imagination, but fact: an implement called a Bec de Canard has turned up in our tool shed. The so-called “duck’s beak” is used to plant young trees – and to take them out. Whose is it? How did it get there? What’s it been used for? When?
We ask these questions but it doesn’t quack back an answer.
Wednesday 13 March
And now the cold weather comes.
So does Louise Hurren, founder of the Outsides, a group of winemakers who chose to work in the Languedoc. People like us. Some came with a lot of knowledge, some with almost none; some came from dynasties in winemaking, others are zero generation; some are French, from other parts of France, and the rest are not: all told, their origins cover the globe, basically.
And now we’re mapping them into the Languedoc and Roussillon. In a month or two, the map will be in our tasting rooms, and then they’ll be easier to find.
Friday 15 March
On our way to ProWein! Along with 6871 other exhibitors from 64 countries crammed into ten halls, there to await over 60,000 trade visitors. Mind-bogglingly big.
And we are small.
And why the red bottle? Because of safety in numbers. We’re sharing our stand with fellow Outsider Chateau Saint-Jacques d’Albas in the Minervois, and they make lovely red wines.
So we’re small, but we’ve got it all: red, white, rosé, still, sparkling, dry, sweet. Roll on the 60,000! We’ll be ready for you!
Saturday 16 March
And now we’re really flying. We haven’t even arrived at Dusseldorf yet, and Jan’s already had his first Bratwurst.
We get to ProWein, and the place is in controlled panic, like a theatre just before the performance. Workmen hammering and shouting all over the place, rolls of carpet lying around, mountains of cartons blocking the passages: difficult to imagine that tomorrow all will be calm and in place.
Monday March 18
We had yesterday. Today we’ve got today, and then tomorrow there’s tomorrow. There are 6900 other exhibitors, of which France claims 1650. There are 61,500 visitors from 142 countries. It all adds up to one huge wine fest.
The place is heaving, but not obviously so in the French hall.
It’s ProWein’s 25th birthday, and France is supposed to be the guest of honour – but where’s the party?
Again we question, as we do every year, should we be here? It’s so big! We’re so small! It’s so outrageously expensive! The trams, trains and buses are packed! The hotels are way, but way overpriced! You can’t find a seat at a restaurant at the end of the day! In short: it’s horrible!!
In short, it’s wonderful.
A sun-tanned elegant man wearing a silver moustache and a dapper jacket stops at our stand, arm outstretched. “I couldn’t come without saying hello!” he says, shaking our hands. He’s our amiable, charming importer in the Caribbean, just about the last person we expected to see … and closely followed by Luisa and André, who by all counts should be in Minas Gerais right now, and not in Dusseldorf. USA and Canada follow on, Japan … oh yes, ProWein is definitely unmissable.
And we’ll be back next year.
Wednesday March 20
We’re on tenterhooks all morning. Xaxa is presenting her thesis to the professors at Oxford. She 
was pessimistic, when we spoke last night. “I’ll have to do corrections” she said mournfully , “major corrections”.
There are four possibilities: either you fail, or you have to do major corrections, or you pass with minor corrections, or you pass full stop.
Passing full stop is out of the question.
We go down to our local canteen in the village for lunch, and as we walk out, jan’s mobile rings. He answers and says, “I’m fine thanks, Xaxa … how are you?”
“What?”
“You what?”
“What does that mean exactly?”
“Wow!”
and turns to me and says, “She passed. No corrections.”
Alexandra Patricia Panman DPhil Oxon.
Whereupon Dr Alexandra Patricia Panman’s mother bursts into tears. And does so every time she sees the photograph of her daughter writing her name on the wall alongside those of others who have gone that way before her. What an achievement. How on earth did our favourite harvester, grape sorter, sales rep, global ambassador, instagrammer, wine pourer, vine planter, and daughter manage it?
Friday March 22
The celebrated wine critic Jancis Robinson, tweets a tweet that shakes the world of Rives-Blanques: here’s “an age-worthy chenin blanc that doesn’t come from the Loire or from South Africa” she says.
It can only be Limoux!
And it is. It is our Dédicace 2017, hand-picked and gently fermented in oak barrels.
And it has been selected as the Wine of the Week on JancisRobinson.com
Which is pretty incredible. We are over the moon. Click on the picture to read the full article, which is so laudatory we should be blushing.
It is indeed a very generous review, written by the talented Tamlyn Currin, who has a fantastic way with words and a beautiful turn of phrase.
(And a very discerning palate too, obviously…!)
Sunday 24 March
How does your garden grow? Jan can’t wait to tell and show. We’re walking through a field of old mauzac called Jardin. He has spent a couple of weeks patiently inspecting the vines one by one, propping up and re-tying the ones that have stumbled along the way.
He is extremely pleased with himself and with his work. And with the vines, which seem to greet him with a smile. 
The first weekend of Spring ends on a beautiful, spring-like note, in a blaze of colour.
Tuesday 26 March
Incredible weather continues. The vines are budding throughout the vineyard, even the mauzac, always the last to get out of bed, is waking up and lazily
bumping up little explorative buds, that will break out into little leaves. There’s a brisk wind from the west. It really feels like paradise. It is paradise.
Particularly if you are an old white labrador living in a place like Rives-Blanques on a day like today.
…./to be continued next month