You Don't Want to Do That

Ever since we’ve been in France, I have wanted to help with the grape harvest (les vendanges) during the fall. At every winery we visited, I’d ask about their harvest and inquire about working for a day – just a day. Each time we met someone in the village, I told them about my desire to work during the harvest. Every time, the response was the same, “You don’t want to do that.” They would go on to explain that the grape harvest is very hard work, back breaking work with long hours. Still…I was undeterred. It was something that I wanted to experience, and so I persisted. It was my French teacher, Catherine, who was able to connect me with another student, Irene, whose husband, Antoine Kaufman, manages an organic vineyard nearby – Chateau Duvivier. Chateau Duvivier was one of the first organic vineyards in this area. Today 10-20% of the vineyards use organic methods. The wines produced here are sold mainly in Germany and Switzerland. Chateau Duvivier is owned by many shareholders who have the first options to stay on the property. The chateau itself is a lovely building of pale pink stucco with green shutters shaded by plane trees and surrounded by beds of lavender and set in the vineyards. It's a captivating place. Antoine very graciously permitted me - an unknowledgeable American - to join in their harvest which is a critical time for their business.

So, why did I want to do this? When we arrived in Cotignac, the vineyards consisted of dry, gnarled stumps sticking in the ground. We didn’t know at the time that the spacing between the rows was uniform to accommodate the harvesting equipment. We watched as buds developed that grew into bright green leaves. Clusters of tiny grapes came next which we watched grow and ripen over the hot, dry summer months. Now the red grapes are a deep blue-purple, the white grapes are a mottled green-gold, and both are plump and sweet. The nights are becoming cooler, the leaves are turning reddish brown. You can tell its harvest time by the steady stream of tractors on all the local roads with trailers bouncing along behind that you can hear before you see them.

Before I knew that I would have an opportunity with Chateau Duvivier, we were watching other harvest operations. Some are done by hand and others my machine. We realized from the noise that something new was happening in the area. It was like a soft low rumble, humming in the distance. I mixed up the two words – rumble and hum – came out with “rum.” The “rum” was coming from the harvesting machine. Mike says the machine looks like something out of War of the Worlds. It straddles the vines and has big teeth that pull off grapes…somehow – and it moves fast. I don’t quite understand how it works. There aren’t many machines due to their expense. We were told that some vineyards pool their resources to buy a machine and share it during the 2-3 weeks harvest time. The machine dumps the grapes into a tractor drawn trailer which takes the load to the local cooperative. Through some formula of weight and sugar content, the farmer is paid while the grapes are combined to become the area's local wine. We watched the process at the cooperative in Cotignac and Federic showed us how machines separate the leaves and stems from the grapes and then press the grapes leaving behind a sticky pile of pits and skins. With a few months to ferment it’s bottled.

We also visited Carpe Diem, a local winery that harvests their grapes by hand. We’ve been by there several times trying to catch the pickers in an area that was easily accessible. The staff was even kind enough to call us. We finally saw their team of pickers in action. There were about 12-15 men and women picking away and hoisting the plastic buckets brimming with grapes into the back of the tractor. They let me cut a few bunches, too. We followed the tractor to their cave (the buildings were the grapes are processed into wine) and watched as they unloaded the grapes and started their wine making process.








All of that was great information and fun to watch, but I still wanted to literally have my hands in it. Be careful what you wish for! Mike dropped me off at Chateau Duvivier at 7:30AM. The sun was just appearing over the hill tops on a morning that was cool and overcast. Here I met Antoine and the other pickers. There were about twelve of us. All but me were young and experienced. That should have been a clue. We were all bundled up in sweat shirts, hats and jackets – mismatched knowing that we’d return grubby at the end of the day. There were no manicures here!

Antoine explained the technique to me as the others loaded into cars and tractors for the short ride to where we’d pick white grapes. You pick in pairs across the row from each other. You put one hand under the bunch of grapes, clip the stem with the other and the bunch neatly falls into your hand and you drop it into the bucket at your feet. Easy – right? Hmpt. As with most theories, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

First, in order to see the grapes, you have to brutally rip off some of the leaves – those precious, verdant things we’d watch grow. Then, as I soon realized, grapes are vines, meaning that they entwine themselves around things such as the wires running through the rows. Rarely would a bunch neatly fall into my waiting hand. More often I had to struggle to disentangle it, squishing grapes between my fingers, and sometimes dropping them. The other trick is to clip the stem and not your finger or the finger of the person picking opposite of you – not as easy as you might think with leaves hiding everything. Also, grapes tend to grow in dry, arid places. The other plants that grow in similar terrain include thistles and prickly wild berry vines. I remembered this as I kneeled down and felt something sticking me through my pant leg. It was a wild berry vine. Since this is an organic vineyard, no pesticides or herbicides are used and plants are encouraged between the rows as they keep the soil soft and healthy. That’s great for the soil but I had to be more careful where I put my knees. And the clipping goes fast! My full bucket was whisked away and replaced with an empty one. No one stopped until the end of a row – a very long row- was reached. The buckets were dumped into rectangular plastic tubs and stacked five high into the trailer. The tractor would move to the next set of rows and we’d start again. Between four and five rows were worked at a time – the best I could tell from my little vantage point. We stopped for a short break at mid-morning. Everyone gathered into small groups around their cars for a snack of baguettes, camembert, water – and a smoke – rolled while they stood. In a few minutes, everyone was back at work. I was relieved when lunch time rolled around and we had a longer break. This time, everyone gathered on the grass under a large tree and broke out whatever they’d brought - more baguettes, cheese, pastas, cans of mackerel and pate, rice and fruit. Antoine brought by some bottles of wine which was very popular with the crew. The sky grew more cloudy and a wind blew in making it cool enough for a jacket – a good thing once the work commenced again.

The crew obviously knew what they were doing and they patiently tolerated me. I quickly realized that my textbook French was going to be of little use here. We were able to communicate adequately for them to instruct me on the main points. First, I was cutting the wrong grapes. We were only to cut the grapes on the main stems. The others were not yet ripe and would be used later. As two people worked one side of the same row, we would clip and skip over the other person, and on and on down the row. Apparently, I was skipping too much and missing some grapes. So they had to find a way to tell me about that. I’m sure they are still talking about remedial picker! Finally, I think they gave up and let me pick where ever I happened to be. No one complained, I just kept busy and did my best to keep up with their fast pace. I think I did okay but I’m no pro.

And, so, it went like this – rip leaves, stoop, clip, drop, clip disentangle, stand, haul bucket, rip, kneel, clip, drop, clip, drop, pick up the bunch that missed the bucket, stand, stoop, clip the bunch I missed, drop, stand, move. If you’re attentive you’ve already picked up the stooping, kneeling, bending and standing parts. After one row, I realized why they were all younger than me! Still – I was determined to stick it out and do my part as best I could. Blessedly, it was a short day! Yippee! We finished at 1:30PM – or at least, I finished at 1:30PM. Antoine sent the group to do other things in the vineyard and brought me in for a tour of the cave – bless him!

Mike came to pick me up in time for the tour. We met Rebecca who runs much of the operation and she showed us around. We saw them sorting the grapes we’d picked that day to remove over ripe and not ripe bunches that would have impacted the flavor of the wine. It's a busy time so Irene was on hand as well to help with the sorting. A machine separated the grapes from the stems and sent them to be pressed for white wine. Rebecca showed us the stainless steal vats used for the red wines and other vats for the white wines. We saw the wood and concrete casks that age some of the wines before bottling. The big treat was tasting the wine that Rebecca had made herself – her first cask. I got to taste it straight from the cask! Wow. AND – it was great – a deep, garnet red that filled my mouth with rich, silky flavor and a lingering fragrance on my tongue. My day at Chateau Duvivier was almost complete. Before we left, Irene gave us a bottle of freshly squeeze juice from the grapes I'd help pick that day. We couldn't wait to get home so we took swigs straight from the bottle! As we were leaving Antoine presented me with a bottle each of their white and red wine. I'm looking forward to tasting their well-loved finished product.

I went home tired and achey, covered with dirt and mud, fingers sticky and smelling of grape juice and earth, and a heart full of my experience. I am thankful to Irene, Antoine and Rebeccas for offering this experience to me. Harvesting grapes may not be a profession in my future, but to miss an experience like this…well, you don’t want to do that.