Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 10
Of Fingers and Foresters
I grabbed a bundle of clean tea towels and the car keys and helped him into the car. Then
we were flying along the Route des Coteaux. In spite of the high speed it was the longest
drive to Bergerac ever. Sean was remarkably calm but cursing his mistake prolifically; he
had accidently stuck his finger into the exit pipe of the harvest trailer with the auger going.
It was another strike due to fatigue.
'Perhaps we shouldn't be doing this,' I said as we passed the Barses' turn-off. 'It's too dan-
gerous. Your health is more important than making wine.'
'But I love it,' said Sean through gritted teeth. 'Now is not the time to discuss this,
Carolinus.'
'But is it worth it?' I asked. Trips to Bergerac Hospital, the death of our neighbours and my
nightmares about Ellie were taking their toll.
We got to the now familiar urgences (A&E). It was a mere three months since we were last
there. Sean was taken away. Fifteen minutes later I was told to go home as he would be in
hospital for the day and perhaps longer, depending on the surgery.
I felt desperate on the way home. Sean had been in charge. I didn't know how John and I
would cope now Sean was off the team. The whites still needed to be cooled and the reds
needed to be pumped over. I couldn't contemplate where to start. I didn't know which pump
should be used for what or how the Kreyer refrigeration unit worked. I left a message for
Lucille asking her to call me to prioritise the work, then I called Jamie and asked him to
stop by. I walked into the pressoir and John said, 'So what now, chief?' which heightened
my panic.
We started with the pump-over of the Hillside juice. Pumping over is the method used to
extract flavour and colour from the grapes when making red wine in Bordeaux and Berger-
ac. A proportion of the juice is pumped from the bottom of the tank and sprayed over the top
of the tank. The juice extracts the colour and tannin from the grape skins as it trickles down
into the main body of juice and it keeps the cap wet, thereby preventing it from turning bad.
Hillside was in our semi-underground vat, the one I was having nightmares about. The vat
lid was in the middle of the floor of our pressoir , presenting a hazard even when the vat was
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