Belated Tribute

A few years ago, Lizzie and Ali bought several hectares of neglected grapevines on a hillside with beautiful views. It's nothing short of awe-inspiring how they've brought the vines back into good nick and are now producing excellent wines. Any armchair vigneron who dreams, yes, I'd like to have a vineyard in the south of France, be warned: it's muscle-aching, back-breaking hard work that can all be for nought if a tornado blows through your vineyard, which really happened in 2008. And it's similar to what they say about owning a boat, but it's a hole in the earth you throw money into. Still, never daunted, the grapes are flourishing and so are the girls.

It didn't surprise me that Lizzie would take to being a vigneronne. She's always had green thumbs, for which I'm grateful every morning. I wake up with a view of her oleanders. Once, when I'd just bought TopTop, I referred to some young shoots in my garden as "growths". Ali gleefully said, "Thank god there's someone who knows less about gardening than I do". So, Ali's the dark horse. Now a dedicated wine-maker, she's spent her last two birthdays like this, spraying vines because it's the best day weather-wise. This year we changed the lyrics to Happy Birth-spray.

The picture below was taken 18 August 2009. I'd helped Ali gather a sampling of grapes to determine the sugar content. Lizzie was shocked the figure was already at such a high level, so all the grapes had to be harvested within the next few days, weeks earlier than anticipated.

A de-stemming machine was late to arrive. So the first day, we did it all by hand. It took twice as long as the actual picking. Thankfully the machine came the next day, and in a matter of 3 days, all the grapes were harvested and in the cuves.

This spring, Lizzie and Ali announced the names of the wines, Cuvée Solèzio and Cuvée Chocolat (guess what it's delicious with). We were honoured to find ourselves on the Chocolat label, showing our grape-stained hands. Right up there with seeing my name on a poster outside a West End theatre. So delighted, though had I known, I possibly wouldn't have worn a luau shirt. Lizzie's just said they're down to the last 3 cases of Chocolat. Hardly surprising. It's sublime. Henny's hiding what we have left. Chapeau to you both.