We make so little Presbytère (our top wine) that we do vintage in a day. Henry is in charge … luckily, this year. (After yesterday when he managed to gash himself on the machinery and I had to cart him off to hospital. With my mad family I know that Robert Boulin A&E very well! He got patched up well. But took quite a few hours. Being a Sunday we'd prepared a big late lunch/early dinner cooked in the village's old wood fired oven; what a meal to miss!) Anyway today. The pickers set off at 8. Barbara and I, sister Helen, friends John and Lindsay, Kaye's family, Scott and Shane were the International Sorters.
We started at nine when the first fruit arrived. I didn't get picked as a picker or sorter. Got the solo job of shover. Stand by the vat encouraging the grapes down the chute with something like a croupier's rake. But bigger. That's all I did all day. Just me and the grapes. All the others out in the sun, laughing and carrying on harvest-style . Me, alone in the dark, talking to grapes.
But not too bad. Very sunny. It got hot out there. I was cool inside.
Then there was lunch. Bernadette did lentil soup, grated carrot/cucumber, lasagne, cheese, tarte au pommes, and we opened a Presbytère 2007 - which is lovely, the nicest '07 I've tried and the vintage to be drinking now. Also a sample of the 2009, just bottled. Biggie. Need to wait for that one.
Then communal supper. Lovely sausage and veg dish by Kaye. These simple, stress-free meals with loads of folk around a big table and wine, water, then coffee in the same tumblers. They are the best meals all year. The nicest meals aren't about food so much as friends. And wine.
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