Pouillé-sur-Cher, Touraine (Loire)
That's it, the picking has begun a few days ago in the Loire, namely in this corner of the Cher valley and Touraine. Paul Gillet and Corinne of Les Maisons Brûlées spent the day picking the grapes in a large parcel below
the farm. Here Paul chats with the
pickers as they help load a few boxes of Gamay on the tractor. The domaine is farmed organic/biodynamic,
its wines being vinified without correction and the owners are active in the small biodynamic group in the valley, doing preps in common and learning with fellow growers. Here is a visual rendering of what it's like to pick in a small wine farm...
There isn't much grape to pick compared to a normal year because there has been loss due to frost, sometimes there's a single bunch on a vine, but otherwise the summer was quite dry and sunny, with even some kind of drought overall (the Cher river is very low for example) in the region although it's OK for vines. The weather was sunny and mild that day, but the previous day there was a peak of 36 ° C (96.8 F) in the area, everyone who could afford stayed indoors. Paul says he would have delayed the picking if the heat had lasted longer, the maturity anyway doesn't move forward under real high temperature.
I had parked the motorbike near the farm (this was a nice weather to ride) and walked down the parcel, that's where they were supposed to be busy picking but I didn't see anyone and called Paul; actually with the light slope they were all hidden by the bump in the middle of the vineyard and I ended finding them, a happy group of maybe 15 people including Paul, Corinne and their son Léo (I was to recognize a few people there too). The grass was high and I put the end of my pants in my socks because you can get ticks in the outdoor.
Ben Nerot was there, Emily having stayed home to take care of their little child daughter (and of her new brewing business which is doing fine). He was in charge of collecting the boxes but was also picking in between. The straddle tractor in the background in another gem of a vintage tractor : an Italian-made Slanzi, looks terrific (see video further down this page). Here on this large parcel they'd pick both Sauvignon and Gamay (the gamay may go into the pet'nat Maisons Bullés Rosé), putting the boxes of Sauvignon in the blue van and the Gamay on the back of the straddle tractor.
This is one of the things thare are said to repel roe deers (who eat lots of grapes at the periphery of the parcel). You just leace some sheep wool here and there and it's suppose to put off the voracious animals who seem to have a crush for organic grapes...
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