FOR the past four years the spiritual life of monks at an abbey in southwest France has been rewarding, both in the chapel and in the modest home brew distillery which produces a range of syrups and spirits for commercial sale.

These entrepreneurial clerics have been exporting 100,000 litres of vodka a year to godless Russia but must now draw on all their marketing and managerial skills. Newly introduced protective measures have made the Russian market uncompetitive for some imported brands of the Russian's favourite tipple. The monks, as befits their vocation, are philosophical about losing their biggest market. Father Chabrel, who runs the abbey's distillery, says, in classic management speak, that "we will take the opportunity to refocus production ". Sounds like he needs the French equivalent of a Business Expansion Scheme.