Vendanges 2006

Copyright 2007 Caroline Wardle Feely

The Run Up

The transition from the quiet start in early Spring to the unbelievable speed and chaos of late May was shocking. The vines can grow 70 cm a week around this time. As users of organic methods, we protect the vine before the risk rather than after. The ethos is preventative rather than curative. This means that the vines must be sprayed with biodynamique preparations or with sulphur and copper before the rain to protect them from fungi like mildiou and odium. The pressure was on for Seán with keeping up the level of protection on the new growth.

From there it was helter skelter into summer, the most stressful time in the vineyard.  Everything must be done at once. Treatments, ploughing the soil in every other row, mowing the grass in the opposite row, épramprage (removal of the unwanted shoots on the vine leg and head), elevating the vines to the next level of growth, trimming the vine canopy with the ‘shark’ a frightening aparatus that consists of hundreds of flailing knifes. We kept track of development of the floraison (flowering) and subsequent grapes which were changing almost daily.  They progressed at a rapid rate. From tiny hard green peas to soft sweet grapes over a few weeks.

The days were gorgeous – long and hot. Sometimes too hot. In the ‘canicule’ (heat wave) temperatures reached 45 degrees in the courtyard. We worked from 5.30am to 11am as it was too hot to be outside in the afternoon.  For the last few weeks upto the harvest we slowed down. Some hand preparation like leaf removal and bunch thinning was done but the rest was upto the vines.

Early September

Caroline, our consultant winemaker started her regular visits. We toured the parcels tasting, observing and taking samples for laboratory analysis every couple of days. The grapes were nearing ripeness but not quite ready. Each analysis came back ‘review in a few days’.

On the 13^th September the message changed. After ten days of heatwave the sauvignon blanc white grapes were ready. But the floodgates of heaven opened. We waited two days for the rain to stop.  We booked the harvest machine for 5am on the 16^th September. Despite having started the cleaning and preparation of the winery three weeks before we were still frantically busy in the winery and working all hours available. Cleaning, sterilising and cleaning again.  On the night of the 15^th the forecast was for more rain the following morning. We didn’t want to harvest in the rain but we were worried that the rain could start rot in the grapes. We decided to hold off until Sunday the 17^th.

On Saturday afternoon a Dutch couple arrived and offered to help us with the harvest. They had helped out during a harvest at our property before. We couldn’t believe our luck.  I did a pass through the white parcels with them to remove any bunches that had signs of rot. We found less than one per row. Our vineyards were incredibly clean despite Caroline’s (our consultant winemaker) fears.

That night our detailed forecast predicted the rain would stop during the night. The strong winds forecast would help to dry the grapes. It was due to be a cool day so we confirmed the harvest machine for 10am leaving the grapes a few extra hours to dry.  I went in to bed at 10pm. John (Seán’s Dad) and Seán worked until midnight getting everthing in the the winery. Ellie woke up just after midnight vomiting shattering our plans for a good rest before our first harvest day.

A few Days in Vendanges 2006

Sunday, 17^th September: I was scared. I had run through the process a hundred times. I had memorised my flow-chart of exactly what needed to happen when but I was terrified. The machinery was huge, heavy and unfamiliar.

Seán backed the first trailor load expertly up to the winery. He looked like he had been driving tractors for years and not for less than ten months.  Seán started up the pump on the trailor. There was so much noise with the tractor and the trailor going that we had to communicate with sign language. Nothing was coming up into the press. Seán increased the revs. Nothing happened. I paniced. We signed again. He increased the revs again. We repeated this process several times. Grapes and juice suddenly exploded out of the pipe with such force that they completely overshot the press. Our precious harvest splattered around the freshly cleaned winery. Frantic motioning got the message back to Seán and he decreased the revs. The rest of the load went in smoothly. We had got through our first vendange thrill.

As each load arrived there were a thousand things to do and check at once. Dilute sulphur dioxide had to be watered onto the grapes in the harvest trailor. Then carbon dioxide gas had to be sprayed over the juice in the press tray and also into the vat the juice was being pumped into. Sulphur dioxide and enzymes had to be measured then carefully poured into the press tray as the juice ran through. The juice level in the press tray had to be monitored continuously and judiciously pumped to keep air bubbles to a minimum. As soon as another load arrived we would start the whole frenzied round again.

The carbon dioxide gas and the sulphur dioxide liquid are to protect the grapes and juice from spoiling on their trip into the vat. Our vines surround the house and winery so they have very little distance to travel. When they get to the winery they are pressed or pumped into the vat immediately rather than having to wait. This is good for quality. The less time grapes have travelling or sitting waiting the better for the end result. We can therefore use less sulphur dioxide than would a large operation with more travel and more waiting time. This is critical for organic wine which has a lower limit on the amount of sulphur dioxide than conventional wine. Despite the bumpy start three harvest trailors and two press loads later we had nearly 2000 litres of sauvignon blanc juice.

The day flew by in a frenzy of cooling the sauvignon blanc and preparing for the harvest of the sémillon and older sauvignon blanc that was planned for the following day.

Monday, 18^th September: We started harvesting our sémillon so early that the moon was still high. The ‘blue monster’ as John dubbed the harvest machine hummed into the courtyard before 5am. I ran down through the vines indicating markers to Jean-Francois, the harvest machine operator and an owl swooped down over us.  I felt wild and free running on almost no sleep, strong cups of Barry’s tea and adrenalin. Yesterday I was terrified.  Today I was more confident but still nervous as this was our most important white grape day.  The heady scents of sauvignon blanc and sémillon were intoxicating and provided a foretaste of what was to come in our sémillon sauvignon blanc. I got to the end of the parcels and waved goodbye to Jeán-Francois before jogging back to the winery.

By early afternoon we finished our last press. We had close to 6000 litres of sémillon/sauvignon blanc. It tasted delicious. Seán drew off a few jugfulls for us to enjoy. He then turned his attention to the pure sauvignon blanc which needed to be drawn off its heavy lees before it started fermenting. The rest of us cleaned the equipment.

The following day more rain was forecast. Caroline arrived to check the wines and to tour the vineyard.  

‘I think we need to harvest the merlot as soon as possible’ she said. ‘Vignerons on the valley floor are facing ‘un vrai catastrophe’.’

When Caroline said ‘catastrophe’ it meant something very serious.  This harvest clearly was not for the faint-hearted.

I recalled Cécile, our vineyard consultant’s incredibly sage advice not to deleaf. We toured the merlot parcels anxiously, walking up and down looking and tasting. The Garrigue parcels were beautiful and tasted delicious, full and sweet. The Hillside and Cimitiere were a little stressed but tasting the better for it. The berries were smaller and more spaced than Garrigue. There was more ‘couloure’ (missing berries), providing space for air to pass between the grapes. The berries tasted very concentrated in spite of the rain. There was not a sign of rot in any of the parcels. The grapes were ready.

But we were not. It was Tuesday. We hadn’t prepared the vats required for the red. We were expecting more than a week between the whites and the reds which in normal conditions was conservative. Caroline said the latest we push it was Thursday. More rain was forecast for Friday. I called Jean-Francois, the ‘blue monster’s’ chauffeur and booked the machine.

The night before the president of the Saussignac appellation assured me that this was the most difficult vendange he could remember. Normally there was a week between each of the varieties and the harvest took place over four weeks. This year, because of the way the weather had fallen, it was all happening in the same week. We were getting a baptism of fire.

We worked through the day cleaning and doing the final sterilisation of everything in advance of the merlot harvest. All the components, trailors, pipes and vats, needed to be sterilised again.

I felt like I was on a high-pressure technology project. We were working crazy hours and under intense conditions. The difference was the element of danger associated with the heavy machinery we had to use. The upside was a camaraderie was developing between the three of us.

We did a final check that everything was ready and got to bed at midnight. Luckily Ellie was better and we had four hours of solid sleep.

We got up to the most beautiful starry morning. Despite our low sleep levels we were very motivated. This was our biggest day. We had four hectares of precious merlot to bring in. At five am sharp the blue monster hummed into the courtyard. I climbed up to hitch a ride to the merlot parcels so I could show Jean-francois what we were picking for the day. That momentary trip was magical. Riding high on the open wing of the harvest machine looking out over our starlit vineyards arched over by the infinite velvet sky. It was pitch black save for a million stars spangled across the sky.

I ran back to the winery which was lit up and buzzing with activity as Seán and John did the last preparations. Unlike white wine red wine is left on its skins for its fermentation. Its more work overall but the initial harvest day is a lot more calm. Seán arrived with the first load of merlot. It looked like a trailor load of perfectly formed blueberries with no foreign matter to be seen. We were more than delighted with the quality of the harvest machine's picking.

On the 9th trailor load fatigue was setting in. Dad Feely, Seán and I tried to get the monster serpent pipe onto the trailor and it took a life of its own reared up and whacked me and John around the head as if to say – ‘I have had enough’.

We had had enough but there were still two more trailors to get through. We sat down for a few minutes until the world stopped spinning. Fortunately neither of us was seriously hurt, just a little bruised.

A total of eleven harvest trailors later we declared victory and went in to have some lunch then fell asleep for a few hours. It was a long morning with just three of us. We were ravaged with the exertion and the stress that had been in the week. I was elated and also relieved that we only had one hectare of cabernet sauvignon and the hand-harvesting of the saussignac dessert wine left to do.

Copyright 2007 Caroline Wardle Feely