Grape Harvest

The harvest is the reward for a year of working the vines, mother nature’s offering, a gift from heaven and the fruits of relentless work. There are twelve months of labour through the four seasons and in the end this grape on which we have lavished such attention leaves in small hampers for the trip towards the cellars.

The grape harvest is beautiful. Where we are, it comes when the end of summer is approaching, not yet Fall so the afternoon are still hot but the morning are already fresh. On some mornings a tinge of pink covers the grapes and the leaves.

We harvest the grapes from the 20 th of August to the 20 th of September . There are 7 different types of vines to pick and each one at their optimum maturity which needless to say is quite a headache. Firstly, the white grapes at the end of August then the red and finishing with the Carignans or the Mouvrèdres. We collect in only 13 kilo hampers to take maximum care of the harvested grapes.

Direct pressure is put on the white grapes which are then passed to the cold before being put into barrels.

For the red grapes the picking is accompanied by a sorting at the vine or in the cellar, so as to avoid mashing anything but the grapes worthy of elegant, fine, balanced wines. It’s a very important stage toward high quality.

We are lucky to work with old vines which give us a quality of grapes worthy of the great wines. After the work, in the cellar, it only needs a few adjustments and to be well looked after. All the quality has already been defined after the grape harvest.

The work at the vine represents more than 80% of the final quality.

The grape harvest is also a party. The students arrive, the nieces and nephews, the neighbours and friends.

From whatever country and of whatever colour, the grape harvest is a cry which comes from within. This year was my seventeenth grape harvest of which the last five were my own. Lots of memories, lots of encounters.

Technically it is wearing, physically its hard and on certain days the nervous tension almost touches on paroxysm. I am lucky to work with competent and efficient people. The operation is team work, the land doesn’t work without me. It is the sum of the skills which makes the wheel turn or not turn. The wine is everything and the atmosphere during the grape harvest contributes to the quality of the wine.