Photo by Alain Antier (c) 2009
It's been a good year for grapes in France. Which should mean some good French wines will be better, and some of the great wines will be exceptional. "Everything worked together well this year." said Madame, as she bent down over a grapevine, and swiftly cut a cluster of the plump purple Mourvedre grapes. "We had a good spring and summer, hot, with no rain. Le Mistral didn't cause a disaster this year. The grapes, they are good." She examined the carefully held cluster in her hand critically, before nodding emphatically and putting it in her large and old-looking wicker basket. She went on to say her family owns these 14 hectares of vines, along with a couple of other, smaller ones as well, and "Mais oui" - they are part of a cooperative where smaller owners band together to create the AOC Bandol wines. She also asks not to be identifed by name, for the obvious reasons having to do with workers, and taxes and accounting - and "bien sur" (of course), I agree.
The weather has also been cooperative throughout this harvest season - it's 27 C this afternoon (80.1 F.), and there's a light breeze to help beat the heat. The air is ripe with the smells of the vineyard... a strong earthy scent, along with cinnamon and leather and a hint of strawberry, or maybe cherry - and one will be able to smell and taste them in the wine, too.
The 9 workers plus the tractor driver have been handpicking the grapes in this field since 8 a.m. Madame estimates that it will take them 2 days to finish, and then they'll move on to the next field.
One of the workers jokes with me that if we had come a little earlier we could have had lunch with them, although, he says, looking at me under heavy eyebrows, I should have brought cake with me, since there's still some wine left. (Madame tells him sternly that he's had enough wine already and doesn't need any more cake!)
They continue their work as we talk - bending down to cut each cluster some using the traditional knife - it fits in the palm of the hand and has a wicked sharp curved blade and wooden handle. There's a right way and a wrong way to cut grapes... To do it right, you cup one hand under the cluster of grapes and using your other, slice upward at an angle through the stem attached to the larger vine. It's backbreaking and repetitive work here in Provence, because the vines are grown closer to the ground - to help protect them against Le Mistral. So workers spend as many as 7 or 8 hours hunched over - cut, drop, step, cut, drop, step... The younger ones prefer sitting on their haunches and duckwalking instead of bending over. And yet, for all the work under the hot indian summer sun, they seem to enjoy it, and there is much talking, laughter and jostling around - either to be in the photo or adroitly move out of the way...
Not all the grapes are harvested by hand any more - many of the larger fields use an automatic picker. There is much laughter and joking going on under Madame's watchful eye of course, but they are serious about getting the grapes cut and put into the large wooden wagon attached to the back of the small green tractor as quickly as possible.
Harvest season has been bountiful this year, and we are at the end of another cycle... Looking west, the vines become an endless sea of green, with a wave rolling up and over the hills in the distance, but here and there, I see a crest of red and orange, as some of the leaves are beginning to change, and soon all of Provence's vineyards will be wearing a quilt of red, yell and orange. Many wine growers have already completed "les vendanges" - the harvest - and work has begun to crush the grapes and start the process to make the delicious varieties of wines which will be gracing many tables in France - and around the world - for many years to come.
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