So 2010 has dawned and with it a new decade; Happy New Year to one and all.
There seems to be a tone of optimism in the air – certainly it is being peddled by the UK media. It makes a change, certainly, from the steady trickle of gloom in 2009 (and on that note where has Robert Preston gone?) and let’s hope it is justified. The general election campaigns appear to have started (David Cameron’s email today told me that there were under 150 days to go until election time) and banking bonuses are still in the headlines.
While a lot of people seem very pleased to see the back of 2009, for us it was a year of consolidation and planning. If the noughties was the digital decade, maybe we were late onto it but we did get there and thank goodness we did. Sadly my old S2 Land Rover didn’t as terminal chassis rot called time…
PLC online made its debut and we are very pleased with the results – and seemingly so are our satisfied customers. If a New Year resolution for 2009 had been for us to sell champagne to buyers from all the 7 continents of the World, I would have thought it impossible; as I write we are still waiting for a buyer from Antartica to test our skills….!
We also took our hamper range at Frisky Partridge online and were almost overwhelmed by the success. One client was very pleased with the bespoke internet offer for their business which we created – judging by the surge in champagne that was needed to quench the order flow – and we have had invitations to take the online side in several new and exciting directions.
And onwards we march. Personalised champagne online will be even simpler and even better when the new version of our label maker hits the www towards springtime. Our traditional corporate clients will each have a bespoke micro site and be able to order online if they wish. Embracing technology has certainly made our business better: more efficient and more focused, yet perversely also more personal.
What about the bubbly itself? Well, 2009 was a super vintage and the champagnes will be delicious when Park Lane start shipping them in 2013. The region at the moment is 
suffering with the same chill that the UK is – except that it is forecast to drop below -10c later this week. The vines are hibernating at the moment but prolonged temperatures of extreme cold can seriously damage the prospects for this year’s harvest. In January 1985, the temperature barely rose above -25c for several days and nearly 15% of the region’s entire vineyards needed replanting – 5,000 hectares in total; these frosts were retrospectively known as the “frosts of the century”.
Aspersion anybody? Aspersion irrigation really; so called because it comes from the traditional meaning of aspersion being to sprinkle with water, as in baptise. When spring frosts threaten young vine shoots, some Champenoise Vignerons spray their vines with fine jets of water so that the bud itself is actually protected inside a mini igloo from the very cold air currents; more of an April fallback but nonetheless interesting.
Apologies for the silence throughout December but the whole team was running extra fast as the hamster wheel of customer requests just seemed to spin faster and faster and faster – right up until the 23rd!
There will be lots more to come from us as this year unravels. Please do keep the suggestions and feedback coming – and thank you all for your support thus far. Bon annee.
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