We’re Pumpjack & Piddlewick~
A redhead (Piddlewick) with a fun loving attitude and a quirky sense of humour, living with an eccentric, mad scientist oenologist (Pumpjack – he who makes wine). We have been travelling the world for the last few years, making wine in such places as Northern Spain, New Zealand and California. However, enhancing other peoples plans and lifestyles was not enough for us. We decided to take the leap, and Follow Our Dreams.
Armed with only 3 large suitcases and not much else beyond a positive outlook we set ourselves up near Chablis, in Burgundy, France. The first dream was to make our own wine. But, first… we had to learn French, get to grips with a different culture and then find a vineyard.
We’re just over a year in and The Dream is slowly becoming a reality. We generally can make ourselves understood, we’ve been meeting people and consequently we were offered a vineyard to manage at a nearby Château. Okay, the vineyard had been neglected for many years, but we realised with some real effort it could be turned around and made to produce, we hope, a decent wine.
So with one dream started, we decided to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit and expand our horizons. We would put our creative juices (or should that be ‘wine’) to the fore by branching out in to other areas close to our heart.Piddlewick’s turn. As a zany ginger, who supports the art of letter writing, real food/proper cooking, wildcraft, and the odd upcycling, I wanted to take my passions to another level by developing my interests into gifts that could be sold. I had always wanted a shop, to make something tangible that other people might like. It started after dinner, with Pumpjack cutting up one of the myriad of corks we have collected, slicing it into thin pieces with our one good, although antique, knife. And thus, the birth of our cork cards took place and the first fledgeling steps of our shop on Etsy began.We are a cottage industry ~ literally we live in a cottage ~ and we hope to stay that way, at least in spirit and location (though we would also love if our dreams develop into a goodly amount of money). We work surrounded by 3 chickens, a cockerel, 5 ducks, 3 rabbits, at least 2 red squirrels, a hedgehog and the odd owl. It can get delightfully busy.
We continue to expand our ideas (and thus our stock), along with our hopes and dreams. No idea gets turned away, though we may shelve a few. Now we are adding in this Blog, a diary if you like, of our adventures, our Dreams and what happens next. We hope you will enjoy the mayhem, and follow along with us.
Pumpjack & Piddlewick 