WE OPENED A BOTTLE OF "GRAVES" TODAY. Letter from France Week 28 11 July 2022

Yes we have a proper cellar on the property, again all by accident as our whole coming to live here has been.

There is a small house here and a huge barn, a metal built barn, high and wide, easily big enough for a couple of large combine harvesters.

In one corner, the Fresneau family who built the property in about 1967, built a “cave”.

Every self respecting French family living in this wine centre of France has a “cave”.

Ours is half below ground and half above as the water table is relatively high, this being part of the old alluvial plain of the old river Loire.

What they did was excavate and line the hole with concrete blocks. Put in a concrete floor and then keep bricking up until a good headroom was achieved. 

Then they put a thick concrete roof on the whole thing and pushed the soil or in this case, sand, back up level all around the structure.

It is fully insulated inside and there are good steps going down and stout wooden doors. 

The family left us all their wine racks (sufficient for 400 bottles) and there were stands for the barrels that M. Fresneau (Pere) as he was called locally, used to make his own wine and appero.

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