Wine Making in France

Chateau Monty, Channel Four TV Review

Monty Waldin a well known and well respected wine critic gave himself a year to create organic, biodynamic wine from a 5.4 acre vineyard. The vineyard sits in the shadows of the Pyrenees near Saint-Martin-de-Fenouillet, east of Perpignan , France . Monty along with his dog Harry and Brummie assistant Lindsay Bisset are the stars of the show. Lindsay is a total novice to biodynamics and wine making but she is enthusiastic, open minded and above all very amusing.

It does make for quite entertaining viewing, mainly because Monty, who is something of a stereotypical posh wine critic is rather put in the shade by the peripheral characters such as plain speaking Lindsay. ‘I think he thinks I’m a bit of a blond bimbo’, says Lindsay. ‘He’s probably right’.

Monty will be farming biodynamically, for most of us who haven’t a clue what that means he explains, ‘Biodynamics is harvesting cosmic planetary forces into your vineyard, into your plants, to make them receptive to beneficial energies.’ What this seems to involve is stuffing cow manure in to female cow horns and doing everything according to lunar cycles, don’t worry the French also think he’s ‘mad English’!

One of the best episodes is when the late Bill Baker, a colourful wine critic appears on screen. Monty tries to woo the fantastically eccentric Englishman who clearly thinks Monty is bonkers. Monty walks amongst the vines and explains lunar cycles and to quote Bill Baker, ‘it’s complete hogwash, pie in the sky’, obviously not a fan so far. However when they head back to taste the still fermenting wine Bill becomes a lot more positive after tasting. His feedback is just what you’d expect, ‘should be delicious as long as you don’t cock it up’ and laughs bawdily.

This TV series is pretty easy viewing and similar to reality shows that have gone before. We are led to believe that if this little venture doesn’t work out he could be left in financial ruin. The reality is something like on the latest children’s cinema trailer where ‘moderate peril’ is flagged up, that always raises a smile with me. He is renting the vineyard not buying it and let’s face it the marketing his previous five books will get from the exposure plus the spin off book can only mean he’ll be quids in. However should you want to save Monty from ‘moderate peril’ then you can buy his book from all good book stores and his wine at Adnams for £7.99. Of course there has probably been a bit of a rush on since the show aired, but by all accounts it’s really rather good.