Wine Harvest at Alsace

"Un seul, deux seul, trois seul, sil vous plait!"

"Qu'est ce-que seul est masculin ou feminin?"

"Vide!!!" "Deux vide!"

Vendangers (harvest in French) started last week in France across the wineland from Bourgogne, Champagne, and up north to Alsace.

The riping season is later than the previous years due to the cold winter and summer with a blast of a sudden cold front with snow this Spring in which there was a warming lands night across wine year with winegrowers putting candles one after another xx length to heat up the land, in blossoming later than ever while many wineries lost more than 50% of their grapes this year. 

"Les Vendanges" has been on my list since last year when seeing some friends posting their unique grape cutting experience last year on my social media that it went on my "to do list" while in France.

Thinking maybe it'll be my first and last year to do the vendages(as vendanges dates are unpredictable while when we work in corporate it's not easy to get time off), I thought it'll be ideal to find a region, a kind of grape that I am interested in, in which leading me to find domains at Alsace.

I've grown up drinking sweet wine at my godparent's house. My siblings and I all learned drinking at our godparent's house with their cabinet full of wine(and mostly sweet wine) ranging from Canada's sweet wine, Germany's xxx and Gxxx, France Alsace's Riseling, and to Bourgogne Beaujolais. It was a rule to let us drink as much as we want at home to avoid us going out drinking with friends at a young age without knowing how to indulge in moderation. Obviously, this sum up where the sweet tooth came from. 

There are quite a few websites in France that list domaine in need of grape pickers. Not going the traditional way, I opened up Alsace vin de website, reading the 51 Grand Cru and trying to find each domaine one by one. It took me 2 days to realise I am a crazy woman and that I've made a contact list of Alsace region wineries. Eventually, I found an article of a wine journalist in sharing his experience of 100 great wine he tried at Alsace. Out of the 100 delicious wine, there were some overlaps with winery having more than a bottle on the list. The 100 wine filter out to an approximate 30 domaines in which I mailed these domaines about my objective, and reasons for coming. 

Some replied, some didn't. Those that have replied told me their team is complete(full in French), or due to no accommodation it was impossible to host me. Second part of realising is that this is a very local villagers activities, most harvesters come from the surrounding towns or villages and they don't need accommodation like I do, or some domaine have spacious space nearby for camping. On the other hand, it's also a good pocket money for students during the summer time, however this year harvest started late in not seeing much students across the wine field.

In despite a challenging researching start, there were some replies that really touch your heart. 

"we are complete, but i see you have an interesting work experience, you seem to be very curious and passionate. i wish you could find a nice family to host you."

"i am so happy that you specially chose alsace to harvest and that you like our region wine. i am sorry even though i cannot accommodate you, but i would love to take you on a one day tour to see our harvest."

After a year and so of self-isolation with 2 condiments and curfews. I don't know about you, but sometimes I forget there are people and nice people out there, and of course in forgetting how to socialise, but I sort of felt that in despite this fucking pandemic, the world becomes more humanity than ever(hopefully).

I always believe "all we need is one shot, just really one shot that bring us to the destination we want to arrive at."  One day I received an email from Sophie asking if I can work in France etc, then a few days later a delight cheerful voice message arrived in my phone accompanying a mail that said she had arranged all the logistics. 5 days later, I found myself on a train at Paris Gare de l'Est to Alsace to be with the Barmes-Burcher.

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Another reasons for doing vendanges is to be immerse in and understand the wine savoir-faire. Behind the scenes of craftsmanship have always enchanted me more than the comparison of a bottle value. All bottles are crafted from artisans with the heart and soul of nature. Each bottle is a unique drink from the land.

Vendange itinerary 

07:45 

Gathering time

08:00

Head off to the vineyard chosen by the winemaker to pick

09:15-09:25

A short 20 mins break time for breakfast in the field 

09:45

Driving to a new vineyard if this patch has all been picked or we continue with our work

12:45

Approximate head back to the domaine around this time

12:45-13:50

An hour of lunch time with a plat, a dish of cheese, and cake homemade from the Barmes Mamie (mamie is grandmother in French)

14:00

Back to the vineyard again for a nice sunbathing with the grapes 

16:40-17:00

Off work time

Quality not the quantity 

Barmes-Burcher is located at Wexxx at Alsace, a short 30 mins walk next to the renowned most beautiful villages in France, Eguisheim.

Early this September they were awarded 3 stars for France 2022xxx (2022 the best wine in France guide) among other 5 peers, in total only 6 wineries were chosen from out of thousands of domaines in France. But that's not why I came here. I recalled I put five little stars besides Barmes-Bûcher on the Alsace wine contact list that I made, I cannot recalled why but I did read all the websites carefully and somehow this place gave me a special vibe and made me felt there is something is special about them. 

Every morning Maxime would use vine tester to test the maturity of grapes ripeness, nonetheless with his more than 10 years of experience in the field, he knows his land pattern of which kind of grapes(cépages) to pick and the kind of wine he wants to make first. Maxime is the decision maker of the winemaking. This year we kicked off with crémant in cutting Pinot gris, Pinot blanc, chardonnay, and guxxx. My favourite Riesling is actually not ready yet to pick. Cutting and tasting the rawness of grape at the same time before fermenting and wine mixing was an experience that I'll never forget to observe the terroir in live- why there are some grape tree full with leaves but no grapes or some have more than the others, the colour of the grape(as I was a bit confused at first with Pinot gris being gris but come as a white wine category), the nature effects in having mildew this year, observing the leaves, and seeing how many tanks of grapes we cut in resulting how many bottle of wine can be made this year.

It was quite surprising to learn the rolling hills of vineyards are not belonged to one family. It's actually a mix of different domaines grapes and different varieties of grapes. I was surprised to know how each wine growers can recognise their own vineyard. I guess it's their kid and they know who is theirs immediately like recognising twins in able to distinguish who is who.

With losing 50% of his grapes, I asked Maxime would he changed the recipes of his wine this year, what is he going to make out of this 50% less of grapes? He shared it'll be the same, however it's more of a decision making of how many bottles of wine he planned to make for a certain type, as it is crucial to have the basic bottle, and then the special particular bottle. Each yellow tanks of grape can produce 5200cc of grape juices, by seeing how many yellow tanks are brought back from the field, he calculated how much of cépages juice he can have and evolved into his next planning stage. Wine making is a serious bubbly math problem. 

A special bottle name came across my lens while doing wine tasting with Genviere and other Belgium guests on the sunny Saturday afternoon. "Maxime XX" was named under the year Maxime was born with a cold winter and spring into making a xxxx. After that, whenever it's a cold year, a bottle of Maxime xxx would be seen in the Domaine Barmes-Burcher wine list.

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Biodynamic 

There are mainly two ways of wine picking: by machine or by hands. Some wine growers have grapes but they do not have a winery to make their own wine, instead they sell it to the wine corporation for production. Those that sell their grapes to corporations mostly have their grapes cut by tractors(still would have some in cut by hands) for the speed and those wineries that are family-owned mainly cut grapes with hands in respect of the land. Biodynamic is a word seen a lot on wine bottles but what does it really mean?

Every little details count in wine making from plowing in spring and summer by horse or by the tractor, the differences show in the heaviness footprint pressing on the land. The lunar calendar that closely engage with the moon and the energy of the earth's water decide when the wine growers plant their seeds and when to fertilise. Fertilisation are strict with no pesticide. Herbs and teas making are what's irrigate to the Barmes soil. Everything is natural and I truly can see it or directly felt it with all natural seeds got stuck to my clothes.

Les Vendages cours de français intensive 

Out of 25 of us in the field, there were only 4 people that can speak English. Most vendangeront were retired French mom and dad. 

It was like playing musical chairs in mixing us up in different pairs during cutting and everyone presented(introduce in French is present) themselves numerous times until we all know each other from the back of our hand. 

I thought it was funny there was me who looks the absolutely foreign. There was Maria from Italy and Alberto from Portugal in which were asked several times of their stories as they speak French with an accent, obviously I am sure I speak French with an accent too(I believe it's a nice one as I learned French natively from French in learning from scratch after I moved here). Uncertain how many times the name Alberto have been twirled into an Italiano Alberto until we realised it's Portuguese Alberto, and Maria was just so sweet in sharing her little adventures from a small village from the south of Italy to Milan, and then married a French man settling at Colmar. I would always remember chatting with Maria as she asked me if I have been to Italy and I shared with her my travel adventures in Italy. And one time I was so excited in explaining a story that I guess she can't understand and have this shy awkward smiling face that Ilian who speaks English helped translated our talk. 

I spoke my toddler French, everyone helped me with my messy conjugating and sharing tips of remembering some words efficiently(a demain et a deux mains... seriously I've not linked these two and two together), I learned to speak much confidentially in French and was not shy away to put myself in the French countryside. I guess the excitement of going to vendanges put back my nerves about going to the countryside which is 100% French. I even chatted with the two neighbours who played domino every afternoon until 18h in going back home to cook dinner. Monika and Jacqueline may have asked my life inside and out and also reminding me to be "attention" where ever I go. A 74 year Dad would pushed his wheelchair around every evening from 17:30 I think, I always encountered him in the wine field around 19. We chatted a bit of course in wondering what this Asian girl is doing here. He shared he had lived in Paris for as long as he can remember and move to the countryside in the village after his retirement. 

There was a joke among them about me being "une stage pour une semaine" and I think it's also "l'intensive cours de français pour une semaine."

I guess if I am here for the full 5 weeks vendanges, my French would progress in a unique way. 

Many of my friends asked if I have backache and how do I feel in doing vendanges.

It's quite a therapeutic experience for me as I live in a very suffocating city, Paris where the stress and anxiety level is high(even higher than London in where I lived for 2 years), thus jumping on a TGV to be 3 hours away from Paris to be in the French countryside in learning about the terroir closely, the savoir-faire of wine, tasting grapes in raw, being in the beautiful countryside and seeing the views and meeting people who inspired me inside out had me forget the ache that I had. I love cutting in the plateau than the hillside, and it's actually some good time to do some squat isn't it?

The devotion to the terrior is what I believed in making a good wine. The lively energy and hospitality I received from the Barmes-Bûchers showed me wherever you put your passion in, it'll respond you back greatly, and from here it's the hilly grand cru and vineyards that bring us a bottle of life to the table. 

Santé!