Amazing opportunity, cellar hand wanted
Want a job working for an up-and-coming winery located somewhere in France? Hannah Fuellenkemper has the most amazing opportunity for you…. possibly.
Ten years of The Morning Claret
The Morning Claret turns 10 years old today – so in its honour, I decided to tell the full story or how and why it started, and what it’s done for me since.
My harvest starts in X days & I’m getting cold feet
Hannah starts to get cold feet as she starts her sixth year of harvesting – this time with a proper cellar and all!
Hand harvesting isn’t the half of it
I hate the hoorah implied by ‘hand-picked’. I hate it more round about the fourth-plus week of repetitive vineyard work. At the worst of times in the vines, ‘bored’ is an understatement. But ‘hand-picked’ is a misrepresentation. Not everything is blockbuster work but everything is done by hand — and once you’ve completed one task, in a couple weeks you’ll be back at the same vine again.
Society is dead, long live conviviality
Tonight I will be late for my first drinking-with-someone-on-FaceTime-date which I know because even though it seems like everything is different, some things will never change. Other things are not so the same.
No one makes wine alone
This is what I learned from harvest 2019: Don’t judge a man by what he’s got tattooed on his face (in this case, A.C.A.B) Supermarket salad crates also work for harvesting grapes and are cheaper than caisse I don’t want Read more
The earth is burning, this is not a drill
Today we ran out of water which is just as well because it provided the first line to a piece I’ve been putting off since since the mercury overdosed on too many degrees. Call it procrastination, meltdown or depression, but Read more
Fear and pruning Part 2 – Don’t strangle the vines
Hannah explains why just one wrong move with the secateurs could herald disaster for the vineyard
Fear and pruning in Beaujolais
Hannah continues her winemaking adventures, but as she enters the 8th week of pruning in Beaujoalis, starts to suffer from increasing doubt about whether she’s made the right choice in life.
How I ended up living in Andrea Calek’s barn by mistake
Hannah continues her adventures in France, trading in a winemaking apprenticeship in Banyuls for Andrea Calek’s estate in the Ardèche.