Vendanges! - Grape Expectations - page 67

popped up armed with the largest water gun I had ever seen. Joel showered the boys and
everyone else liberally then laughed hysterically and drove off, leaving us giggling in his
wake. I would look at him through different eyes next time he came round to police our
practices in the vineyard. Perhaps it was his way of coping with pre- vendanges stress.
With Sean's folks on hand I could tour the vineyards and sample grapes with Sean and
Lucille. This helped to calm my rising angst and also offered the opportunity to see and
understand the fruit of our labour.
After the year of work the vineyards were like old friends. Upper Garrigue, the vineyard
that Cécile and Sean had carefully monitored every week as our indicator for the health of
all our vineyards, was the most manicured and would be the highest yielding of our merlot
vineyards. Cimitière merlot was concentrated like our old vines in Hillside. The two caber-
net sauvignon vineyards, Gageac and Lenvège, were far less ripe, about two weeks behind
the merlot, while the whites were the most advanced: sweet and aromatic.
The 'ban des vendanges' , the name for the official opening of the harvest for our AOC
Bergerac, was declared. Despite this official opening, which changed each year with the
weather, the development of the grapes was slow and each laboratory maturity analysis
came back with 'review in a few days'.
ThewaitingwasexcruciatingbutIalsofeltveryalive.Therewassomethingaboutharvest
time that was at once tense, exciting and invigorating. Perhaps it was that a full year of
work in the vineyard depended on this critical period, or perhaps it was more profound and
ancient than that: a connection with the annual cycle of life that has nurtured man since his
first days on earth.
A heatwave followed by a few days of heavy rain changed everything. The heat ripened
the grapes and the rain put them at risk. From 'review in a few days' the analysis came back
with 'harvest tomorrow'. We were thrown headlong into the vendanges hurricane.
We booked the harvest machine for the next morning. Sean kicked himself for not har-
vesting the whites before the fresh deluge despite Lucille's hesitation. Choosing the day to
harvest is a critical matter; a few extra days of 'hang time' on the vine can make a world
of difference to the end product and that was the risk we took. Now Lucille was concerned
that rot might set in.
I had written everything down in a flow chart but despite my preparation I was terrified.
This would be our first day of working with the winery equipment. Everything was huge
and dangerous. I tried to lift the lid off the press on my own and couldn't do it. Sean yelled,
'Just get on with it.' I tried again but it wouldn't budge. Sean was aggressive and had no
time for someone who couldn't keep pace. I felt inadequate. John came to my aid and we
successfully lifted the lid off the press together so I could do a final clean and disinfect the
inside.
We had the advice of Lucille but we had to make the day-to-day decisions and do the
work. We were essentially going it alone. That afternoon Ad and Lijda, a Dutch couple we