Family Harvest

Crushing the grapes on the spot

Wine is a family affair for a lot of people in french provinces : Many people, farmers mostly still own a few rows of vines and make wine from them for their own consumption. A couple of days for harvest with friends and family is a lot of fun and at the end, there is wine for the family, for the farmer and those who helped pick the grapes. This tradition has been going on for centuries and it survives today. Here is a story shot in the Loire about another side of the wine culture, far from the industry and commercial hype.

Picking in buckets
If you have the opportunity to travel through the different wine regions of France, you will notice these small vineyard plots here and there, sometimes just a couple of rows, sometimes a mere 10. They may not be as well tended and square as the large estate's, they are small plots kept by local farmers or older people with connection with the local wine culture. When harvest time comes, all the work is done by hand, and you may fall upon such a scene like I did by chance in the Loire : a group of people harvesting and crushing the grapes on the spot when it used to be the norm 50 years ago. I'm quite sure that this part of the wine production is under the radar for the official statistics in France.
These are not garage wines with all the sophistication that goes with that word, but some divine surprises do happen sometimes with the resulting wine that never reach the tasting rooms or wine critics' knowledge...
The lone back basket

This is in the Loire Valley along a small road that we spotted activity in a small vineyard with fields around . We walked 200 m on a dirt path and saluted the assembly who was joyously working . Family was helping the owner , some of them came long distance accross France for the weekend harvest , seemed like a yearly ritual that none would miss .

Grapes are being crushed After each full basket , grapes are manually crushed like it was done a century ago or more ... Here , Gamay fréau grape variety , a colored gamay wich is very tannic . It is said to be very appropriate to cook a rabbit with . Part of the ranks here are with Pineau d'Aunis grape variety , and also hybrids, 54/55 . Checking the Gamay Fréau

The Gamay Fréau is also called "Gamay a Jus Rouge Teinturier" , it is now a rare type of Gamay . Next stage is fermentation , for about 15 days , then it goes into stainless steel vats . Michel (his name) invited me to come back next december and drink a bottle . I'll not miss that ...