At the moment we have Florent (nickname Flo) from France assisting us in the Haute Cabrière Champagne Cellar.

Florent from France (third from the left).

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Flo studied at the oenological college in Reims and has worked in cellars both in Champagne and Burgundy. This makes him ideally suited for Cabrière.

Florent comes from Champagne in France and he has worked under Laurent Fresnet at Henriot Champagne House. In fact, as far as history goes, it was Laurent who created the first ever Ratafia. But he was made famous by his escargot dinners in 1993, made from bags and bags of snails he hunted down in vineyards.

The weather is just glorious and warm! I feel Summer coming on, and not a moment too soon. There is only so much rain a person can take.

We’re soon going to start discussing the 2009 Franschhoek Champagne and Cap Classique Festival. We’re planning on conducting a full online tasting of our Pierre Jourdan range - and I think we might even get my father (the famous Achim von Arnim) to conduct the tasting. It’s been a while since he’s appeared on the blog and I think you could all do with a healthy dose of use von Arnim men.

While you wait for us to get going with our Cap Classique tastings you can watch this little piece I put together. It’s a different piece of the farm, one that the majority of visitors never get to see.

Our esteemed leader (and general wine visionary), Achim von Arnim, had quite a bit to say about the fact that French Champagne was served at Zuma’s inauguration.

Pierre Jourdan - the Franschhoek Cap Classique - is every bit as good as its French counterparts; plus it costs a fraction of the price. All we have to say on the matter is, “Go Achim”!

You can find Achim’s interesting, at at times funny, interview here.

We promise that the weather at the Franschhoek Champagne and Cap Classique Festival will definitely be better than this twoddle. We’ve put in a good word with the powers that be and, after some tough negotiating (it cost us a case of Belle Rose [6 not 12]), we arrived at meeting of the minds.

So if you were planning on entering our competition to win The Greatest Prize Ever you can do so without worrying about the weather.