24th
Chapitre 9: Road Trip
Greetings. A quick entry here as there really hasn’t been a great deal to report that is of any real excitement. A bit of language classes, some work around the Chateau, and much time on the road making deliveries in France and the UK.
Vent begin.
My fucking hard drive is hosed. I have two on my laptop, and am still able to run Windows, but my data drive is about to crash. I lost all my tunes. I repeat, I lost all my tunes. If anyone knows how to copy tunes from your iPod back into iTunes on your computer, let me know. Drag and drop aint happening. My computer usage is spotty at this point until I try and MacGyver this crap together. I tweaked out on the incompetent brokedick from HP and they sent me a new drive, so, you may hear from me again, or you may not.
Vent end.
Michael’s been back in France for about a week and a half now. It’s been great to hang with him and have him explain quite a bit about how to maneuver efficiently here and make the most of my stay. I must say, the wine business is not all that glamorous (or incredibly profitable) for many families at the producer level. Sure there are a great amount of Chateaux that are swimming in dough, but most of those estates have been around for 100+ years and have built a worldwide reputation. Nonetheless, cru bourgeois winemakers are quite content with their lives – they grow grapes, make honest wine, and truly know how to enjoy life. At least from what I have seen anyways.
Since they have only been making wine for the last 4 years, Michael & Helene wear many hats to keep expenses low and continue to grow. They work the vines, bottle, label, and deliver most of the product themselves. They occasionally get help from visitors who have sought refuge in a simpler and more relaxed lifestyle. See Exhibit A – moi.
To keep his French on point, Michael teaches English occasionally to various corporate employees. When he got back, he asked me if I wanted to accompany him to a few and I obliged. Ironically, the first company we visited was Sanofi-Aventis – a pharmaceutical company. Yay, I get to hang with pharmaceutical executives. Seriously though, it was a great experience and these employees found it quite interesting that their company had been a client of mine off/on for a few years in the states. It’s interesting to note that English seems to be the common language spoken between many of the European countries, thus, it is fairly important for these folks to learn it and communicate with their European and North American colleagues. Over all it was a great experience and one that I repeated a few more times at different companies over the last few weeks.
The vineyard work is starting to pick up, as the vines are growing rapidly and it is time to remove the shoots. This is done to ensure there isn’t overgrowth on the vines and that the sap can go directly to the fruit. Last week, the vineyard consultant (oenologist) stopped by and we tasted many of the wines from barrel. Really just a check in to see how the wines are developing and how much more time they may see in the oak.
On the road…
The last week was spent on the road making deliveries for La Gatte. First destination was in West Sussex, ENGLAND. Last Saturday we departed and drove north up to the French port town of Calais. Close to 9 hours on the road before we crashed. Of note, was a magnificent rainbow we spotted outside of Chatellerault on the drive up.
The next morning we drove to the port and loaded the van onto a boat for a 1.5 hour trip across the English Channel to Dover. The boat was gigantic and equipped with just about anything you may need – bar, food, plasmas, shopping, video games, etc. Once we disembarked in Dover, we drove about 2 hours to Pulborough to meet John & Sue Elliott – La Gatte’s distributors in the UK. John and Sue were gracious hosts and had a great day planned. We went to his local rugby club and watched a semi-final match in which his squad, the London Wasps beat down some team from Bath. Shit is brutal. Dudes just getting shredded. No helmets, pads, or protection where you need it most. I got some ribbing about how the “pussies” in American football wear pads. It was all in good fun and I found it quite comical watching brutish chicks slugging down pints and screaming at the tele. We then went back to John’s where I was entertained by his family. His daughter Connie and the two boys armed with guns. I was officially deemed “Big Michael” and was given the job of piggy back rides and being the recipient of rapid gunfire all evening. John and Sue should pencil in future trips to the local police (or whatever they call it), like now. More pints, cider, and champagne followed leading into dinner. Great meal accompanied by an 89 Reisling and a 90 Meyney I had brought. I then crashed at a hotel (sort of) above the local pub down the block for the night. John & I made plans to catch up when I am in London in a few weeks.
The next morning we made the delivery to the bonded warehouse and we headed back home.
We got back Tuesday afternoon just in time to label more vino and head back out on the road Wednesday morning to deliver another 150 cases. Bordeaux > Orleans > Le Mans > Dreux (slept) > Paris > Bordeaux. The highlight of the trip was the “lady” at our first stop. She was all business in the front/party time in the back (aka sporting a mullet) and had a strong resemblance to Roy Munson’s landlady from Kingpin. You had to be there. To enhance your knowledge of mullets, I recommend perusingthe Classifications section at Mullets Galore. Please abstain from having any food or liquids in your mouth during this time. There is a heightened chance of choking and/or spitting your consumables all over your montitor.
Status Report:
Literature – I was out of books for a bit, but just received two by David Sedaris that I will give a whirl. Big ups to sis-in-law Lisa for sending these from Portland.
Cell phone – Well folks, I hate to report that I am now the owner of a cheesy, orange cellphone. With my computer in the crapper, I needed to have some form of viable communication available. I am headed to Toulouse on Monday for the night and thought it was, well, responsible of me.
I am also happy to report that there are two new additions to the family at La Gatte. A friend dropped off a pony (Nicolai) and a donkey (Violette). They’ll be here for awhile grazing in the high grass, eating day and night. Think of them as organic lawn mowers. An area of grass got extremely high adjacent to the vineyard and this is their solution to not mowing it.
Enjoy Memorial Day.
