Family harvest in Joigny (Burgundy)

Harvesting the Pinot Gris of Joigny Joigny, Burgundy
We're in the western-most wing of Burgundy, in a region which was also thick with vineyards before the phyloxera years in the late 19th century. In the vicinity of the town of Joigny along the Yonne river, the vineyards covering the steep slopes of the Yonne (north side) were used to produce a then popular wine named vin gris. According to its History, the Vin Gris is said to have a 1000-year fame behind it, and the king Louis XIV made it his favorite wine in Versailles after having discovered it by accident in 1704. From that time on, the farmer who made this wine was authorized to sell it without paying the usual taxes.
The Vin Gris (grey wine) is a blend where the Pinot gris plays a central role. It looks like a rosé and its aromas and mouthfeel are very different from the rosé wines of the south of France. This pale rosé is made with Pinot Gris, a redish grape variety with a white inside. It's also blended with several varieties : Tressot, Sauvignon and Côt. Thanks to Michel Lorain who created in Joigny the famous gastronomic restaurant La Côte Saint Jacques (now managed by his son Jean-Michel Lorain), this almost-forgotten wine has made a vibrant come back on the table of knowledgeable amateurs. I met Michel Lorain in 2008 as I discovered the wine and I had the project to visit his estate and make a story about the whole thing including himself, but I waited too much and alas I've heard that he sold his winery.
But it was probably written somewhere that I would stumble on the Vin Gris one way or another, and I was invited by Gérard (pic on left), who is part of the wine-tasting group I joined a couple of years ago, to take part to the harvest of his private vineyard (pic on right) near Joigny.
Let's remind that this slowly-resurecting wine region is very small : there are 100 hectares in the Bourgogne Appellation over here, of which 13 hectares in the higher-valued Bourgogne Côte Saint-Jacques. And the share of the Pinot Gris on the whole surface is still very small.

The vineyard Gerard, who has roots near here, works in Paris and comes on weekends, enjoying the quietness of his country house. Several years ago, he got the opportunity to get some horticultural land where he planned to grow a few things (he got this love for growing things from his father). Then it happened that some of the parcels he bought had some planting rights with them, meaning he could grow a vineyard with the full appellation potential attached, and he decided to jump on the opportunity to make wine for the pleasure of it. This has been now the 7th year that Gérard is in the trade, sort of, and he is finetuning his expertise vintage-after-vintage, with no other goal than to make wine for his family and his friends. He gets the help of a friend (also named Gérard) to look over the vineyard and the chai when needed if he's not there himself.
The steep, one-block vineyard is exposed on the south, with a view on the town of Joigny in the far. If the 2 friends can share between themselves the vineyard tasks like the sprayings, the pruning and the grass management, Gérard asks his friends and family (including wife and children) to volunteer for the harvest. It's all done in a weekend and with the good food, the wines and the fun, you don't feel like you really worked that much. This story is about this harvest gathering near Joigny.
The vineyard makes roughly 25 ares (0,25 hectare), divided into Chardonnay on the right, Pinot Noir in the middle and Pinot Gris on the left. Gérard2 holding some Chardonnay I joined Philippe and Carole in Vincennes near Paris and we took us little time to make the 150 kilometers to Joigny. When we arrived saturday morning at around 10:30 (a bit late, sorry), most of the folks were already at work in the vineyard, in the Chardonnay rows to be precise. We were given shears, grabbed a couple of boxes and climbed to the vineyard. Here you can the other Gérard (let's say Gérard 2 to distinguish him from Gérard, the vineyard's owner), and Bruno, Gérard 2 holding a particularly-beautiful Chardonnay grape cluster. I had never took part to a harvest although I saw a few of them, so it was interesting to see how you feel on the other side. I was given the instructions, particularly about the need to take down the rotten grapes, as in 2011 there has been lots of rot, of the bad type, because of the very rainy summer. In this regard, this private harvest was very professional, we all took the time to cut off the damaged grapes, putting into the box something as healthy as possible. For me, the challenge was also to be able from time to time to grab a camera and make a few pictures without soaking it with sticky grape juice, and I tried alternatively the plastic gloves or using a small bottle of water to rinse my hands clean. Not easy.

On the picture on left, you can see how we were busy most of the time sorting the bad rot (grey rot) from inside each grape cluster. Sometimes it was so badly and overwhelmingly damaged by the rot that you had to cut the cluster in two to make the sorting easier, especially that these grape clusters were very compact and closed, with no air ventilation between the grapes. This explains probably why the rot developped rapidly. In some instances, we couldn't but discard the whole cluster. There was often an earwig hiding in the grey rot, incidently, which was not particularly funny to deal with, even if we're not kids anymore and aren't afraid of this strange-looking insect. there were plenty of ladybugs too, as well as bees, the latter keeping going on the grapes in the boxes (it had been a long time I haven't seen so many bees, I feel reassured that they're still around).
The pic on right shows the packed-silex (flintstone) nature of the soil here, underlining the interesting minerality of this ancient terroir. Grey rot (or grey mold) & earwig This is grey rot, or grey mold, on Pinot-Gris grapes that we harvested the following day. The three varieties growing on this block (Chard, Pinot Noir & Pinot Gris) were hit by this disease. It is the result of a very rainy summer, it is caused by Botrytis Cinerea, and it can ruin the future wine if not separated from the healthy grapes. It must not be confused with the noble rot, which a very positive type of rot. Here you can see the earwig which often hides among the grey-mold affected grapes. For this particular grape cluster, there are just these few grapes at the top that could be OK, if they're not somehow already spoiled by the rest of the grapes.
Thanks to our strict following of the guidelines, we still managed to fill the boxes with quite healthy grapes, I begin to understand the challenge faced by experienced pickers working for demanding growers. Piling the boxes in the shadow Children can help too, this is the way you transmit the grower culture and the passion for wine making. Carrying the boxes in the shadow when they were full was also part of the effort to get healthy grapes to the chai, as a hot summer day can ruin months of efforts and care in the vineyard. This saturday (sept 10 2011) was a hot day in France, and working on this slope was particularly difficult at times. but we tried to keep the boxes in the shadow, first under the row, and then along the hedge on the side of the block, where the van would take them to the chai a few kilometers away. Hauling your boxes down the slope to the shadow was not the easiest part, and I had to force myself a few times to go back up there and collect a few boxes that I had spotted sitting idle and full. Workers' reward : the buffet The pickers' lunch in the vineyard is probably the best incitement to enroll volunteers year after year. Gérard's wife Claudine, helped by a few friends, has cooked and prepared a few delicious terrines and patés, and we all enjoy our treat and the break in the harvest, especially that the temperature is rising and that the afternoon will be really hot. As you can see it's a multi-generation thing, with enough children to have a chance to pass to a few of themm the baton of the adventure of wine. Quench your thirst The vigneron pours his own Chardonnay. It's cold, it's crisp, and I don't balk at refills, in spite of the prospect of getting back to work under the sun. Being treated with the previous vintage of the wine you pick the grapes of is the best gift you can get from a grower, and we all accepted the refreshing wine gladly. Gérard also poured a few bottles of Pinot Noir and of the iconic Vin Gris of the region, the one made by Michel Lorain. The peppery rosé was an advance taste of his own future wine, as we were to pick the following day the first harvest of his Pinot-Gris plantings. This is the Déjeuner sur l'Herbe, vineyard style, and the magnet of this day for sure. Employers everywhere, take note : if you serve good and tasty foods (as well as wine) to your employees, there's a good chance they'll work in a much better mood and that productivity will increase. I enjoyed particularly the excellent terrines and rillettes prepared (if I'm right) by Claudine, Gerard's wife. Add a few loafs of fresh and crunchy bread, a few glasses of wine including some vin gris de Joigny (the rosé from Joigny) and you have here a treat that could even have tempted the patrons of the iconic Joigny restaurant La Côte Saint Jacques... Chardonnay heading for the chai Time to go back to our grapes. The boxes of Chardonnay are loaded in the van and someone, probably Gérard, will drive them to the chai, a side building along his country house. It will be pressed and poured into a fermentation vat. You'll see that in the next post. Picking the Pinot Noir The afternoon was quite tough and very hot, forcing us to drink lots of water. At one point several of us including me had to wait in the shadow that someone would bring a container of water. After finishing the rows of Chardonnay we began to pick the several rows of Pinot Noir, which we finished the following morning (when this pic was shot), happily under a cooler temperature. There had been a rainstorm sunday morning but it didn't last and we could finish all the vineyard before lunch. Picking the Pinot gris After picking the Chardonnay and the Pinot Noir, here comes the Pinot Gris, which we picked on sunday morning. this was really exciting because this was the first harvest ever for this variety on Gérard's vineyard block. He had planted a few rows of it 4 years ago and the vines were too small until last year to consider making a separate Pinot Gris cuvée.
Not bad for an amateur grower/winemaker if you think about it : three Burgundy varieties, and one of them being a rebirth with deep roots in this corner of Burgundy. Pinot Gris was probably much more widespread in Burgundy in the times when monks were spreading the civilization of wine in the region. Like in the other French regions, several interesting grape varieties have been left on the side of the road, and this revival in Joigny is welcome.
Michel Lorain who was the pioneer at reintroducing Pinot Gris on the front seat in Joigny, made his Vin Gris as a blend of 4 or 5 varieties, but there's no real fixed compulsory rule (historically at least), and it's probable that the pale rosé favored by the King Louis XIV was made with a large majority of Pinot Gris. Pinot Gris on the vine I was particularly impressed by how compact these grape clusters were overall, be it the Pinot Gris like here, but also the Chardonnay and the Pinot Noir. Even if I often wandered in the vineyards, I had memories of more aeration between the grapes, like what you see commonly for table grapes. I understand why grey mold had it easy to develop, with the grapes so tightly packed on the stem.
Aeration is really the key to avoid the diseases and grey rot, and I noticed that there was much less occurences of grey mold on the last row on the west side, the one which gets the best of the breeze. Speaking of the vineyard management, Gérard isn't farming organic, he's already busy (when he's in the region) learning the basic maintenance of a vineyard, and an organic farming would mean staying there year around which he can't do because of his job in Paris. But if I take into account the high incidence of grey rot this year, I don't think that he sprayed excessively. Celebrating the end of the harvest The harvest is coming to its close, the last boxes of Pinot Gris are being brought down to the van and it's time to celebrate. First, don't think that the pickers waited for this pivotal moment to pop up a bottle and pause with a glass : I have the impression that every time I'd look down the slope I'd spot a few people (not the same of course) resting with a glass of cider or Chardonnay in the hand. I didn't indulge in these pouring pauses myself because I was afraid I wouldn't make it to the end, but the closing apéritif was another story and I wouldn't miss that.
That's when I discovered another non-commercial drink made by some other people here : Bruno's cider. Bruno (pictured here with a mug) brought his own cider today, he is making a very beautiful cider on the most artisanal way, and he even makes several types of ciders, all using old varieties of apples that he gets from farmers he knows. What we're drinking here is two years old and it's delicious. He makes it in casks like you would do for wines. The varieties of apples are : Chataignier, Sebin, Petit locas and Avrolles. The Avrolles apples are very important, he says, to get a good cider, this is a variety that is riping later. Bruno and several of his friends ordered 1,7 metric ton of apples to a farmer, enough for each to make a full barrel of cider, the total pressing volume making as high as 1200 to 1300 liters. They're working together like we're all doing here, and they share the precious liquid after then. The apple juice ferments in the casks, with the bung partly opened to let the gas go out, and after then they seal the hole in a way that there's still an exchange with the outside. In the following march, he begins the bottling with a sugar addition, and the cider begins to be ready for drinking by mid july.
This unpasteurized cider lets itself drink very easily, with everything well connected, the bubbles, the aromas, the substance... The big bottle is from a cuvée where he added some (natural) blackberry extract, and the cider has notes reminding the Kriek, a Belgian beer with a surprising fruit aroma. The other one is "nature", nothing else than apples, and it's two year old. It's great to drink somethink like that, quite different from a cider found on supermarket shelves. I'm wondering if the reason people drink less cider could be the fact that much of what is sold in shops has lost the touch with the real thing.

How to sort out the rotten grapes I forgot to say this : believe it or not, I managed to cut my finger while picking with the shears. I'd been told about it and knew in advance that it was a danger but still made the mistake to hold the grape cluster in the back while cutting it. Happily, in spite of the bleeding this injury proved to be relatively superficial and I survived... Carole, me (holding my G 12) and Gérard (picture sent by Gerard #2) The vineyard at the end of the day...

The following post will be about the winemaking and press part of this story

Comments

[susan Kiely]

I was wondering if i could help or work with you over the summer? I live in Dixmont just up the road from you! can you email me I will have a chat more with you then. I pass your vinyards often ! I am just looking for some work at the moment! suzy