We’re not giving up!

Thursday April 8. The night was fatal for the 2021 vintage. Despite the outbreaks, despite the sleepless nights, despite our prayers to Sainte-Catherine Laborde, the weather gods got the better of our vineyard.

That night, nearly 80% of the estate’s vines froze. The days that have passed have been dedicated to saving the remaining 20%. We’re not going to lie to ourselves, that night of April 8 sounded like a guillotine for us, as well as the entire wine-growing community of France, which dedicates most of its soul to producing wine against wind and frost and heat.

More than ever, we must support each other, mobilize our community to perpetuate this know-how that the world envies us.

REBIRTH IN PAIN

The history of Domaine de Brau is written in an ink made of hard knocks.

Brau was created in 1852. We were then in the midst of an epidemic: the third cholera pandemic. Nearly 250,000 victims in France.

We took over the Estate in 2020, in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic. A clin d’oeil that we could have done without. But it had to be done with!

And anyway, in the process of taking over Domaine de Brau, we were starting to get used to all sort of hurdles . In a (very) short period of time, we experienced confinement, several bank withdrawing their support, and on top of that, a Brexit …

So many windows and signals opened up for us to renounce this perilous enterprise. After all, we could very well stop everything and go back to our original occupations. Some golden bridges having opened in the sector in which I built my career, I could very well start on a new attractive professional challenge without too much difficulty.

The problem is that in the Brau team, we certainly do not have the same profile, but we share the same crazy spirit: wine freaks, vine lovers ready to get into a challenge and move forward with one aim, to make a wine estate prosper. Real madness.

And to hell with TedX and personal development apostles, persistence is not necessarily the best solution. But in our case, it was the only one. We must constantly raise our heads to keep Domaine de Brau afloat.

And so we fight. And we take great pleasure in renewing ourselves. Each failure, each blow is an opportunity to imagine alternative solutions. Get up to move forward.

And when you take a step back, you realize that you are on the right path to entrepreneurship

FROM THE HEART AND THE WORK

Last week, I discovered a similar pathway, which Mother Nature has charted for us. This road is that of the world of agriculture, which has always faced climatic hazards.

The reality of a farmer is to go through several months of work, several months of rising at dawn, back pain, stress, polar cold, sweltering heat, wiped out at night. And the worst thing to experience is this feeling of utter helplessness. Like so many others, we have fought all these nights, countryside David against weather Goliath, makeshift arsonists to seek that degree of salvation which allows the buds of our crops not to freeze at dawn.

On this road I met my fellow winegrowers from Cabardès. During our last assembly, I felt in them an extraordinary force of resilience.

Far from the clichés of whiny farmers, fed on subsidies of the European community, as portrayed these days in the media.

No, I am living it now and can testify to this incredible capacity of the agricultural world to fall down and start again. This episode of frost 2021 reminds us once again that France is no longer a country of peasants. Once the compassion had passed, we could read here and there the disparaging comments of some against the means put in place by the winegrowers to counter the freeze.  But who can criticize someone trying to save is livelyhood ? Save something that will allow him to project himself in the future, however short this last one is ?

So yes, farmers have swapped pitchforks for tractors. But let us keep in mind, during these times great debates on health autonomy, that it is these same tractors that guarantee us even more vital autonomy, food autonomy.

The production of raw materials, essential or not (although the current period shows us that the non-essential is quickly becoming so) must be explained.

The sum of effort, work and energy put into producing quality fruits, vegetables, meat … must be valued.

New winegrowers as we are, our initial mission is now even more obvious and necessary:

Produce wine with respect for the ecosystem, affordable quality products, contributing to good times of togetherness.

The hundreds of messages received from our friends, clients and partners warmed our hearts like a straw bales warms the grapes in the early morning frost. We therefore set out again in our vines, to pamper them, to preserve them, to offer you fresh and delicious organic varietal wines.

It is certain that this ordeal will mark us forever.

To illustrate this period, I keep in mind the advice of a winegrower friend.