Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Day 1

Day 1 (16 August 2010)


Landed at Melbourne Airport at 5:56 am. After a coffee break (and a giant muffin!) at the airport coffee shop, I boarded the coach for Ballarat at 7:50 am. Arrived at Ballarat at about 9:40 am and got collected by Jackie, one of the accounts staff at Taltarni. Just over an hour later, we arrived at Taltarni. I noticed the somewhat schizophrenic weather during our drive, one minute pouring and the next bright and sunny.


On arrival, I was introduced to Karina, the Winemaker (who’s also responsible for Clover Hill in Tasmania) and Robert, the Assistant Winemaker. My first task was to help Jaye and Happy top up some barrels of Mataro and Petit Verdot. Jaye had already added some sulphur dioxide to the barrels before topping up. After topping up, Jaye splashed some sulphur water (basically PMS (potassium metasulphite) powder dissolved in water) over the rubber bungs to ensure no potential bacterial contamination. Then I spent some time with Deb (originally from Kendal, Lake District, UK), who was taking readings of the wine inside a huge tank. At about lunchtime, Robert drove me to Maryborough (about 35 minutes away by car) the nearest town where there was a decent-sized Safeway, so that I could stock up on food supplies for my stay at Taltarni. We got back about 2:30 pm. I went to the guest cottage where I would spend the next 10 days, inspected my allocated room and started unpacking. The guest cottage is a 4-bedroom cottage, with an open kitchen and decent equipment, and it’s a 5-minute walk from the winery. By the time I finished unpacking and taking some lunch, it was already 4:15 pm. I went back to the winery and discovered that everyone had gone home, except for the staff in Sales and Accounts!

Lesson #1: Life at the winery is not a 9 to 5 job. They typically start work at 7:45 am, take a 15-minute morning coffee break or as they call it in Australia, “smoko” at 10 am, before stopping for a half-hour lunch at 1 pm. They finish work at 4:15 pm. This means that if you’re working in the winery, then you need to start packing up and cleaning equipment by 3:45 pm. This to me seemed rather sensible as it would get quite chilly in the Pyrenees after 5 pm and I would rather be snugly ensconced in my bedroom, with a good book.