This is finally vacation! We are staying 3 nights at a chateau winery. We are one of 2 campers here and will sleep next to the grapes. We did a wine tasting this evening which was very interesting. Before that we took a walk down this tiny village lane. We came across a tractor harvesting the grapes. The owner of the farm was one of the only English-speaking people we’ve encountered in France so far. He stopped his John Deere to talk to us and to explain the harvest process. The tractors are so cool. We tasted his Merlot grapes - really sweet and yummy. He educated us a bit on his grapes and the harvest process. So cool!
The grapes hanging down remind me of udders on a cow. The tractor drives on the vines (the machine goes on both sides of the vines) and shakes the grapes loose. The grapes fall in the basket but the stems stay on the vines. Then they use a conveyor to bring the grapes up to a big tub. Then they are emptied into a big wagon. The man we spoke with has 100 hectares (every hectare is nearly 2.5 acres - I had to look it up). He and most of the bigger farmers around here grow merlot, Cabernet and Malbec as reds. They grow savignon as white. I hadn’t realized Malbec was grown outside of South America. He told us it blends very well with the other reds and makes up the Bordeaux typical wines but isn’t good enough to drink straight. He drives his grapes to a co-op where they buy the grapes from him. His farm is big enough to get his own label on the bottle and is sold in Carre-four, a big grocery store chain here).
Our camping place did a wine tasting tonight for us. We tasted roughly 8 wines and 2 grape juices. The wines cost on average $5-7 each. And when we bought 6 bottles, our overnight was free. The campgrounds all charge extra for electricity and water. In total we paid $48 for 6 bottles of wine, 3 nights of camping and water and electricity all 3 nights For US prices, that is a total deal! But for French and German pricing, that was just “ok” pricing. We’ll have to keep looking for the bargains I guess.
The owner of our chateau told us the tractor would harvest her Sauvignon grapes tomorrow The tractor is expected to be here at 5:30am. I definitely need to find my earplugs tonight!
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