(sing e usines witH Mercedes 814
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"WE GO down there, do the business and get back."
For Mike Mudie, sales director of Mercedes-Benz truck dealership Oldacre Services, "doing the business" means bringing back the Beaujolais in a commercial quantity, off-setting the cost of the annual trip. Because the Oldacre vehicle was not taking part in the official race the Beaujolais Nouveau could be loaded on Wednesday November 14 and be at the French Channel port ready to leave the country at mid night the same day, the earliest legal time.
This was the seventh year Oldacre Services has made the trip and Mike Mudie and his Tewkesbury branch general manager Richard Bond have used all sorts of Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles, from a Unimog to a 38-tonne gcw artic. This year they took one of the new 7.5-tonne gvw 814 boxvans, plus old friend David Hockley and me.
Running empty down through France on Tuesday November 13, the 814 flew along the autoroute. Its six cylinder, naturally aspirated engine develops 100kW (134hp), well above the class average for 7.5 tonners, and endows the 814 with a generous turn of speed. On rough brim to brim readings the fuel consumption on the unladen south-bound journey was 16.7 litres/1 00km (16.9mpg).
When we awoke next morning the fog that had set in the previous evening still shrouded the countryside and was reinforced by an insistent, depressing drizzle, it was just four kilometres to the vineyard in the tiny village of Fleurie, about 15 miles south of Macon and just off the A6. Mike Mudie half-expected to see a queue of lorries outside the small vineyards of Quinson Fils, but we were relieved to find that a Luxembourg-registered Scania 112 artic was the only vehicle there at 9am and it had already loaded.
After some discussion with Quinson's foreman our order for 250 cases of Beaujolais Nouveau was brought out on pallets by forklift and we handballed it into the back of the 5.2m (17ft) Breda Leigh aluminium box body fitted on Oldacre's 814 demonstrator.
Having sorted out the various vat and customs documentation the Quinson foreman invited us to sample the Nouveau, drawing a glass directly from the tank. How did it compare with last year's? He gave a typical Gallic shrug which translated into a so-so rating.
11am. Time to leave. As we made our way back through the countryside towards the A6 we passed several other vineyards including the well-known Piet where there was a long queue of cars and lorries, mostly British.
Our payload totalled 3.75 tonnes, which took the 814 up to its 7.5-tonne gvw limit. This naturally dulled the Mercedes' previous day's performance, but I still found it to be a real flyer. It would easily hold 70mph on the flat, which corresponds to 2,750rpm in the direct top ratio of the fivespeed gearbox. This is just outside the start of the redshaded area on the rev-counter.
The gearchange is very carlike in character; its gate is close and the lever short. Power-steering is standard and the traditionally large Mercedes-Benz steering wheel gives a clear view of the dashboard where the rev-counter occupies the central position, giving it prominence over the tachograph.
1pm. After a stop at a hypermarket to take on supplies we pulled off the A6 into the town of Beaune for lunch on the combined advice of Mike Mudie and the Michelin Guide. This town marks the northern edge of the Beaujolais region and so is a Mecca for the more serious Nouveau racer.
Although not long by French standards our lunch fell well outside the fast food classification and it was 3.15pm when the 814 once more nosed its way through Beaune's congested streets. Perhaps we should not have stayed quite so long.
4.30pm. We pull in for diesel at services on the A6; we have come 131 miles from Fleurie. It is raining even harder now and the spray is really flying on the A6. Whoever named it the Autoroute du Soleil? Richard Bond is at the wheel now and the 814 is romping along. Paris is 125 miles away.
6.30pm. We hit the south side of Paris, deciding to skirt round the eastern side of the city on the Boulevard Peripherique. Even at this fairly late hour the Parisian traffic is heavy and we are in the middle of four lanes moving at walking pace.
7.30pm. At last we leave the Peripherique, diving under Charles de Gaulle Airport runways and picking up the autoroute signs for Lille. The speed goes back up and the rain still comes down. Another 190 miles to the Channel.
10.45pm. Boulogne. In time for the midnight ferry when the wine can legally leave the country? No. An agent at the port tells the Oldacre Services men that they should have been there at least an hour earlier; the agent who was due to complete the T-form has gone home and the ferry has started to load. We have come 458 miles from Fleurie.
At 11.50pm we are told there is just room on the ferry for the car that has accompanied us on the trip. I take it onto the ferry and am dwarfed by 23 artics, all full of Beaujolais Nouveau. I arrived in London at 3am on Thursday, among the very first to return, but carrying a mere six bottles.
After spending the night in Boulogne the Oldacre Services men get the T-form completed first thing Thursday morning and get the 814 on the first ferry out of Boulogne which was at 10.45am. They spent a further three hours clearing customs at Folkestone and eventually arrived at the del livery address — a wine shippei in London's Blackfriars Road — just before 5pm.
Our Nouveau was a little less nouveau than some.