Work and Play

Suddenly we're into autumn. Summer clothes have now been pulled out of the wardrobe and folded up ready for putting away. And we're back into rain mode, which isn't good timing as the vendange isn't over for some.

We were in vendange mode last Monday at Domaine de la Commanderie. Terrific day. There were about forty of us in all - a different scale of operation from the vendange we were helping with last year, where there were about fifteen of us. Arrived at 8am along with the rest of the gang, all of whom were regulars. Everyone was milling around having coffee and cake and then we piled into the vans and set off.


The vans didn't have windows so I'm not sure exactly where we were, other than somewhere in Panzoult. Having arrived, we were each given a grape picker's basket (panier), clippers and instructions as to which rows of vines were working on.

Work

There's something really satisfying about being in the middle of vines, surrounded by gentle chatter and bursts of laughter. This team were fast, efficient and, obviously experienced. We were initially a little slower, but quickly got in the rhythm of rummaging around in amongst damp vine leaves, bending, crouching, stretching to get at the grapes, which we were cutting by hand. You get damp and sticky. 

Grapes don't always grow in a shape or position that is easy to harvest. Some of them very inconsiderately wrap themselves round the wire climbing frames and are fiddly to get off. Others  hide behind the vine leaves. A tactic which does not survive the beady-eyed. Whether a large and perfectly formed bunch or something smaller, any grapes that look in top condition end up in your basket. What you must ensure is that leaves don't get in there as well.

Pickers work on both sides of a row of vines and each side may have three or four people harvesting it. Forty people collect a lot of grapes, and quickly. A tractor with trailer and large containers was moving parallel to where we were working and edged its way along as we moved up the rows of vines. At regular intervals a call went out for everyone to push their baskets through the vines to the tractor, where the grapes were then poured into the containers. The empty grape baskets having been returned to us, we started picking again.

We worked until about 12.45, then we handed back the baskets, kept the clippers, got back into the vans and returned to the domaine for a quick bite. The weather was looking very dodgy. After about half an hour we drove back, but to another parcelle of vines and started picking straight away. We'd been going for about twenty minutes and then the rain started. It just got heavier and around 2.30pm we were told to stop. So back we went to the domaine, to have something to eat. 

Play

Not sure if you call it a late lunch or an early dinner, but it was delicious. The cave at Domaine La Commanderie had been laid up for the meal and a wonderful log fire had been started. Whatever horrible things the weather was doing outside, there was no chance it was going to spoil the mood inside the cave.

Lots of chatting, laugher, nonsense, wine and great food. It doesn't get much better than that.

Brilliant time. Here's to the next.




P.S. Chanel who took the super photo of Mike, is in the 'Play Collage' - the image immediately above the bottom thumbnail of wine bottles - Mike with Chanel.