The Vendange Begins

Saturday, August 27
The vendange begins. The first day of the grape harvest was a about 4 days ago and it has started slowly. Last year it was much more sudden.
The weather has been very hot and muggy this past couple of weeks. A big change came yesterday with a cold rain that had been predicted for several days and it finally came giving relief from the humid uncomfortable weather – the kind that you are sitting inside perfectly still and you notice your hair is wet. Today is very cool but sunny with a fairly strong cool, actually cold, breeze. I suspect if this kind of weather continues for a few days the harvest will become full blown very soon.


The grapes certainly look ready to be picked. They are dark purple and look full of juice. The large clusters are making the vines sag with their heavy load.




The first grapes to be picked are the green ones and since this is not the favored grape variety here, the beginning of the vendange isn’t much noticeable. As soon as the reds come in, the harvest will be deafening and delaying traffic everywhere. Here most of the grape picking is done by machine and they are very, very noisy driving back and forth to the coop and doing their work in the field. Some of the finer vintners, like Des Trinites where they held the winery dinner last week, do pick entirely by hand (but this is the exception).
The other sign that the vendange has begun is the grape debris on the side of the road where it has fallen while being hauled and the faint fragrance of fermenting grapes which actually smells quite good.







Here is a brand new looking grape picking device driving down my street. Most of them aren't so shiny and look like they've been used for many years.