gharbour
Posts: 371
Joined: 4/30/2010
From: Savigny les Beaune, France
Status: offline
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Bonjour!
This series of posts is the continuing saga of a father helping his son (Nicholas) and daughter-in-law (Colleen) realize their dream of starting a winery (www.MaisonHarbour.com) in Burgundy, France. The adventure started in early 2013 with the renovation of a 300 year old winery in Savigny-les-Beaune, France, in the heart of Burgundy. That part of the adventure was chronicled week by week on CellarTracker and you can catch up with those earlier posts through the links at the end of this post. If you haven’t read them I think you’ll find them quite interesting.
Well here I am again, about to commit to a series of new posts that will bring you complete circle with the “Summer Adventure in Burgundy” posts I started in 2013. I know many of you have continued to follow Nicholas and Colleen through other sources. Now two and a half years later the time has come to start delivery of their first vintage. Nicholas and Colleen decided that they could use this opportunity to meet many of you face-to-face and hopefully make some new friends along the way. Accordingly, Nicholas has asked me to keep him company on an eight day, 3,224 mile, 54 hours of driving, odyssey up the East Coast across to the Midwest and back to South Carolina delivering wines, holding tastings, and meeting wine lovers. I have decided to post along the way and I hope that you’ll find it interesting. Here’s a peek at our route.
Nicholas arrived in the States on May 4th flying from Lyon to Greenville and we’ve been preparing for the trip and waiting for the wines to arrive. The wines arrived by boat in New York on April 29th after an 8 day crossing of the Atlantic and were unloaded on the 30th. After spending the weekend in customs (in their refrigerated container) they were delivered to the shipping company on May 4th - the same day Nicholas arrived. They had to wait at the warehouse there until a temperature controlled shipment large enough to fill the truck was consolidated. During this time Nicholas called twice a day to see if they knew the status so that we could plan our trip. We were told they had been shipped and would arrive here the 8th. But there was no confirmation from the driver and they can’t track it. Here it is the 8th and we think they will come the 11th or 12th. But no tracking is available. So we’ve planned to leave the 14th. Giving us a little leeway and Nicholas time to send orders we can’t personally deliver, by UPS.
I found it amazing that Nicholas ordered a toothbrush from Amazon Prime when he got here and had tracking info on it that afternoon with delivery in two days. But for a shipment of 150 cases of wine, no one could tell us exactly where it was or when it would get here. That’s with an industry leader in wine shipping! I’m not saying they are bad just that the contrast in businesses is quite dramatic.
We’ll take my SUV and we’ve calculated that the wine we need to bring along will just fit.
Of course while we’re driving we can easily maintain the temperature but Nicholas wanted an extra level of protection so he bought this unique portable air-conditioner to ensure we keep a nice cool temperature for the wines.
Along the way we’re looking to do tastings, dinners, meet ups, basically see as many people as we can and have a good time. Nicholas has started to contact people and is currently working on tastings in Philadelphia, Boston, and Madison. If you have a suggestion or want to see if we can stop by, please PM me.
A Bientôt
Gary
2013 Series "Summer Adventure in Burgundy"
Week 1 - The Story Begins
Week 2 - Departure
Week 3 - Work Begins
Week 4 - Shopping for Equipment
Week 5 - The Douane
Week 6 - Beautiful Premier Cru Grapes
Week 6.1 Savigny En Tous Sens
Week 7 - Disaster Strikes
Week 8 - Starting Again
Week 9 - Vacation Time in France
Week 10 - Vacation Ends and Work Resumes
Week 11 - New Floor Concrete Pour
Week 12 - Summer Adventure in Burgundy 12 - Cave Repairs and Soutirage
Week 13 - Power Outage
Week 14 - Gevrey Chambertin
Week 15 - Another Brick in the Wall
Week 16 - Les Vendanges Approches
Week 17 - Big News with the Vendange
Week 18 - La Vendange est Terminée
Week 19 - Combe Au Moine - Back in the USA
Week 20 - Bonus Post Pressing the Reds
Post 21 - Winter and a Year in Photos
< Message edited by gharbour -- 5/11/2015 6:46:21 PM >
_____________________________
Gary Harbour
Chez Nos Coeurs
Savigny les Beaune
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