Professional Grape Picking....

For the last 5 years, I have spent the end of September and beginning of October in a little village named Neac, in the Lalande Pomerol region near Libourne. I work for the Chateau Vieux Chevrol assisting with the Vendenge or Grape Harvest. Chateau Vieux Chevrol produces a classic Lalande Pomerol rouge.

It is truly a great wine made in a very traditional manner. The grapes are picked by hand and no chemicals are used in the culture of the plants. The appelation control is very strict in France about whata winemaker can and cannot do to make an authentic wine. There is no watering of the vines allowed. The natural rainfall defines the grape.
Grapes do best in rather poor soil. The composition of the earth they are grown in determines why the same variety grown in different places will make a completely different wine. This is why a Graves is different than a Medoc or a St. Emilion, or why there is a Pomerol and a Lalande Pomerol even though they are all grown within the same geographic region of France.
The varieties grown at the Chateau are Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The soil of Chateau Vieux Chevrol is alkaline clay and sand. The landscape is broad and flat, a surreal sea of green most of the year with the steeples of the village churches and the wineries rising out of it like ships. There are hills in the distance, you can see St. Emilion on its hilltop over looking the Dordogne River Valley where Edward the Third of England built his tower and England held the region for a few hundred years.

St. Emilion also has a Subterrenean church, hollowed out of the rock cliff. Years later in the Renaissance, a magnificent bell tower was built at the top of the cliff.
Each year when the grapes are ripe and seem to be at their peak, the Vendenge begins.
At Vieux Chevrol, the crew is fairly diverse bunch. Jean-Pierre Champseix is the owner and he has been keeping hand written records of the weather and growing conditions since he was a teen.


There are French locals from Libourne and some of the small villages in the area. They have grown up with the traditions. There are Algerians and Moroccans who live in the area as well and of course French from the overseas territories like The Reunion Islands. Then there are the Dutch, some who live in the Dordogne and love to have the hard outdoor work for a few weeks and those who drive all the way from Holland. Then there is me, the American, who inexplicably keeps coming back! Also each year, there are occasionally New Zealanders and English. We get paid in Euros or the option of a bottle of wine an hour. The wine is the best deal, because it last for years and its real value increases with age. The Lalande Pomerol reaches its maturity in 6 years and could get better, but usually it is not bought to be kept much longer though at dinners we have had had 18 and 20 year old bottles that have been amazing.
The wine is fermented in vats.

A crust develops over the fermenting wine and it has to be aerated from time to time. A by product of the fermentation is Carbon Monoxide and it's not too good of an idea to lean over the vats too long.
The wine is then transfered to a stainless steel tank and then put into oak casks to age. The casks are very handsomely made, there are many barrel makers in the Bordeaux region. After a year in the casks, it is bottled. It takes 2 years for the process from picking to bottle.
Next year, the 2005 wine will be available and from all sources, it will be one of the best of the century! Last year, when we were picking, you could tell everything was right. The skins of the grape were thick, full of tannin and the grapes were concentrated, full of sugar. Also, due to the weather, there was practically no rot. All this combined to make what looks like a very collectible and eminently drinkable wine! 2006 was good, but not as good. 2004 was a good year as well, but there was so much rain and there was such a record harvest, the grape skins weren't as thick and the grapes were'nt as sweet.
Most of us slept at the Chateau, but the locals all drove in each morning. Wake up a 7am, a good breakfast then we meet to work at 8. This year there was a lot of rain so there were a few days of slogging in the mud, the clay turns to boot sucking muck pretty fast. I spent a few years cutting grapes, but now I enjoy being a porter, which involves carrying huge plastic basket on my back and having the cutters dump

the grapes into it. The basket can get pretty heavy, then we climb up a ladder and dump the grapes gracefully into the tombola, a trailer pulled by a tractor where there are grape sorters who constantly monitor the quality of what is picked.
The above picture is the very graceful Dirk Aarts dumping grapes perfectly into the tombola.
Cutting grapes involves working fast without injuring yourself, leaving the unripe grapes and cutting out the rotten ones. It's pretty brutal for the first three days as you are in a crouching position all day, after that you get numb.
Though it is hard work, everyone gets along and jokes are flying in Dutch, French, English and Algerian. After a while, we all know a little of each others language. My French improves by leaps and bounds each year and my jokes get a little more easier for everyone to understand.
We eat lunch together at noon at the Chateau. Excellent food and of course, the table wine is Chateau Vieux Chevrol. A break until 2, then we go back and work until 6 pm.
Then around 8, the workers staying at the Chateau have dinner. Some nights we have a guest lecturer who supervises a degustation, where we learn about different wines and how they are made. This year, we learned about Porto and Sherry. We also had a grand paella with everyone invited and drank Spanish Rioja!

Usually the Vendenge lasts for 2 weeks, we work on Sundays. The grapes must be picked. Then, suddenly, it's over. Just as it gets easy. I feel I could haul tons of grapes everyday for the rest of my life. I am suddenly having very complicated conversations with my coworkers in French and able to speak better than I have ever done before! It's time to get paid and go home. The Dutch are loading up their vans with cases of wine. We are all saying goodbye and exchanging emails and promisiing to be back again, next year!

Frankengrape aka Microdot