Green harvesting the vines in the south of France
- Categories :
- Wine
- Gourmet Odyssey
- Languedoc-Roussillon
- Allegria
As we walked through the vineyard, we learnt about how the year has been shaping up so far. With the alternating rain and hot weather in May and June, the vines have seen some mildew form on them, and we could see the tell tale spots on the leaves, and noticed that some of the grapes had also been touched. Mildew loves hot and damp conditions.
We arrived in the Mazet vineyard, where the Gourmet Odyssey adopted vines are located. The Syrah vines are less susceptible to the mildew and fortunately there was hardly any trace of it on the leaves. After taking a few photos, we learnt about the work that has already been done to prune, de-bud and support the vines using the training wires as we continued our walk through the vineyard.
So armed with a pair of harvesting secateurs, we cut the bunches of un-ripened grapes from the vines. Sacrificing this tiny harvest this year will help the plants become stronger in anticipation of better harvests later.
After the effort, the reward. During lunch prepared by Delphine, we tasted different wines from the winery.
We visited the cellar after lunch to discover the vinification hall where the grapes are received at harvest time, and the barrel room where the wines age before being ready for bottling, but we’ll talk more about these aspects during the Harvest and Vinification Experience Days.
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