Most of the wine extracted from this vineyard, seventy percent actually, is sold to large bulk purchasers at 30c a litre. It costs the owners about 25c a litre to produce. Not much of a profit in that. The remaining 30% is sold from the vineyard. Recently, to increase their profits the owners built a Cave, or, what we call, a Cellar Door. This is a smart long modern building that can be used as a warehouse and a wine tasting venue. The owners now need to encourage busloads of tourists to their Cellar Door, attempting to recoup the costs of their outlay.
Above the Cellar Door they have included a Gite: with 3 bedrooms. This they are attempting to rent for short term vacations, even overnight, if a busload of tasters is tempted to stay. To make ends meet, they also offer Camping Cars an Aire space on their domaine, charging them but a couple of Euros for water and electricity, if needed; otherwise there is no charge and no requirement to buy at the cellar door. They have purpose built separate alcoved hardstanding spaces for a handful of visiting motorhomes, with horadateurs wired for power and plumbed for water.
Diversifying, they have planted two medium sized fields bordering the Aire with Grapes du Table: as no other producers in this area grow these and they would like to corner that slice market -- if only in a small way. All of this is new and operational in the last four years. Attempting just to make ends meet. Diversification is the key they believe. They are hoping, within the next twenty years, to be able to recoup their expenditure: perhaps, even make a bit of profit.
Postscript: We have since spent much time chatting to some publicans in Essex on this topic. Typically, a publican, there, pays almost £60 for a 10 litre cask of French blended wine from his wholesaler, that he then serves to his customers. So, some middleman between these producers and these retailers is really making a killing!
oooOOOooo
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| Fields of gold |
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| We are the only ones parked here tonight |
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