Harvest 2013 were expected a few weeks more than usual at chateau des Moriers, in my family, north of Beaujolais (Fleurie). Autumn arrived and grapes started singing. A warm morning, the 30th of September, a group of 25 grape pickers from 10 different nationalities arrived for a week of gymnastic in between the small vine trees (1m20). We were getting used to early harvest, but autumn, what’s more normal finally for harvesting?

The vine trees are pruned in a gobelet form so that the grape picker can easily turn around it to pick its treasures. The full grape are sorted out when picking and carried away in small boxes to the tank room. It’s important to not harm them so that they arrive in an intact bunch in the tanks where crushed the one against the other they will start to ferment. It’s maceration semi-carbonic. Grapes were plenty but smaller than usual with quite a thick skin, we should have tannins and fruit but we wait a bit more to tell you more at the chateau.

This year, our dear employee, cherished by the whole family since 30 years, got hurt. It’s my aunt Catherine, oenologist and leaving at the chateau, that took the winemaking in hand. My dad, the winemaker, and my uncle, his precious help, gave all their strength and ingeniosity for everything to go perfectly in the tank room. It was comforting and magic to see them work together, listening to each other and concentrate. It’s already a great vintage!

The other new thing in the group was the affluence of vegetarians from other lands. With a British-Japanese friend in the kitchen to who I was teaching lyonnaise cuisine that includes a lot of pork, it was a real exercise to satisfy everyone’s taste. Cooking, at home, it’s giving love, so we had to accept that some wouldn’t speak the same language of feelings, and to learn how to give otherwise. Finally we were all drinking the same wine, voilà something that made us bond!

Between light and clouds, the week in pictures