Author: nicholas

For the past month our lives have been filled with exams, papers, and presentations and it’s all coming to a close with the end of our courses. I can’t say that I’m too upset about it. Of course I will miss the camaraderie of my friends in the CCIV and the amazing trips and experiences we had together but wow I am exhausted. I think Nick feels the same way as his classes are finishing up at the end of this month.

Our exams covered topics such as viticulture, oenology and wine making  soil and geology, tractor driving, legislation, export, tasting, geography and the history of wine. No one subject was easier than another. You might think a blind tasting test would be a breeze. Try writing a two page description of a wine, challenging. I also presented a market study on the world wide trends and usage of screw caps and natural cork which was very interesting since its such a hot topic right now.

With the end of our classes we are both very anxious and excited to begin working more on Maison Harbour and getting the cuviere and caves ready for the upcoming harvest, which is just around the corner. Nick will have a little more time to commit to Maison Harbour right now than I do.  This is because a part of my program is a 4 month internship, which I started a few weeks ago at Maison Champy.

After many interviews and emails I decided to work with Maison Champy for my internship because they offered a position working on the development of their direct sales. I thought this sounded like a great opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of a winery and to develop a better understanding of the industry.  I started just a few weeks ago and so far things are going great. It’s been really interesting to get an inside view of the workings of one of the oldest and most well-known négociants in Burgundy, and they make some really great wines. We shared couple of bottles with friends last weekend, the Beaune 1er Cru Champs Pimonts 2008 is drinking amazingly right now!

It’s the start of a new season here in Burgundy and the start of a new chapter for us. We were so lucky to have such great teachers this year, make such wonderful friends and have the opportunity to learn so much.  I guess soon we will have to give away our official status as students… but we will always remain students at heart!

These past eight months have been so enriching and inspirational for Nicholas and me. If you haven’t been following us on our blog I’ll give you a quick update. Since last August we have been enrolled at the prestigious wine school in Beaune where Nicholas studied viticulture and oenology and I studied the international commerce of wine. We have come from knowing little to understanding the rich complexities and nuances of wine making,  the business of wine, and the important historical and cultural events that have come to influence and shape the world of wine today.

As we conclude our studies we begin a new adventure officially establishing our winery in Burgundy. We took a big step last Friday when we signed for our new home and the base of our winery.

The house is located in Savigny-les-Beaune, is a few centuries old and was once the home of a winemaker. We hope to restore the house and winery to its previous glory and find out more about its history. It’s perfect for making wine as it has a beautiful vaulted wine cellar, a cuverie and two barrel rooms. We have decided to name our home and winery Maison Harbour.

We are equally excited to announce that we will be officially launching our new website,www.maisonharbour.com. The new website will allow you to keep updated with our progress through our blog and will detail information about the winery. Apologies to our current blog subscribers at www.bottlesense.com but you will have to re-register onwww.maisonharbour.com to receive updates as we will be no longer be posting on thewww.bottlesense.com blog.

We can’t begin to explain how excited we both are to start this new adventure. We hope you will follow us on our new website and look forward to greeting you at our winery one day.