After a decade or so of combining writing about wine with working a number of harvests for other wineries - in Bordeaux, Chile, the German Pfalz and California - I had decided to try to make my own.
As I say in the book "My fortieth birthday and its trusty travelling companion, the mid-life crisis, were heading inexorably my way. What had I done with my time?...I had decided to stop watching life from the sidelines, burying myself away like a mole [as a wine writer]. I was going to use the advance money and travel opportunities I’d get from writing [the two Discovering Wine Country travel guides featured above] to find, finally, a place where I could make my own wine. If I didn’t make a change now, I felt I never would."
The blurb on the book's jacket (which I didn't write, honest!) describes me as "a well known (if slightly scoffed-at) advocate of biodynamics, which recognises how using medicinal plants, minerals, manure-based compost and even lunar cycles can produce better wines without costing the earth."
I rented a small certified organic vineyard in France's pristine, mountainous Roussillon region, farmed it using biodynamic methods, and produced around 6,500 bottles of red wine from the 2007 vintage. The wine - Monty's French Red - was sold exclusively in the United Kingdom by Adnams (www.adnamswines.co.uk).
The story of how I made my first wine was also turned into a six-part, observational documentary television series filmed by TigerAspect Productions for Britain's Channel Four (first screened in autumn 2008). This is the book that goes with it.