Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tasted totally different. Hillside was more intense and cool, while Garrigue was fruity and
hot. So far our yields were well below what we had hoped for but the quality and concen-
tration compensated.
Another weekend passed inablurofwinery work.OnTuesday,while Sean didthe winery
pipe dance, I ran round the cabernet sauvignon vineyards collecting sample grapes to take
into the laboratory for analysis. Later Lucille arrived with the analysis and told us we
should harvest the cabernet sauvignon the following day.
'We won't be ready even if we work all night,' said Sean. 'The sauvignon blanc needs to
be moved out of the
garde vin
to make way for the cabernet sauvignon and that alone will
take a couple of hours with the cleaning and sterilising required.' A
garde vin
is a vat with
a floating lid that offers more flexibility as the volume can be adjusted by changing the
height of the floating lid. This
garde vin
was nearly 4 metres tall and only about a metre
wide, making it relatively unstable in comparison to fatter, shorter vats. We nicknamed it
'Tower'.
'Can't we wait until next week?' asked Sean. He had a bad cold and wasn't feeling up to
another harvest day.
'We must get the grapes in,' said Lucille. 'More rain is forecast. If we wait, the rot could
set in.'
We took her advice. We didn't want to risk our precious cabernet sauvignon. I called Jean-
François to book the blue monster. He promised to call back as soon as he had a slot. The
next day he confirmed for the following morning. We were in the harvest hurricane. There
was no respite. Nature was calling the shots. Sean emptied, cleaned and sterilised the
garde
vin
then we spent hours wrestling the harvest pipe onto the top of it. I was terrified that
it wouldn't hold with the force of the grapes coming through, and having been whacked
by the pipe once before I was nervous, but there were no other options. I was still having
nightmares about Ellie and the underground vat. Sean had a bad sore throat. I went to bed
totally shattered.
The blue monster arrived just after four. At 3 metres high with fiercely powerful lights it
was great for game-viewing. As we drove down through the vineyards a hare loped non-
chalantly down the row in front of us and veered off into the next row then a deer took off
into the shadows. I pointed out the markers and waved goodbye to Jean-François.
Our first load came in and we hooked up what we called the Serpent pipe then watched
nervously as Sean slowly increased the revs. The first few grapes shot over the
cuve
(vat)
onto the winery wall but the pipe stayed in position and Tower remained stable. After
a minor adjustment the load went in smoothly. All the cabernet sauvignon was safely in
Tower before dawn. We felt a deep sense of relief that it was the last time we would see
the blue monster that season. All that was left was our Saussignac to hand-harvest in a few
weeks.
