Slurp! 12 - harvest, Otober 2009

So. That’s finished.
Last Wednesday 14th of October the sun set for the last time on the grapes.

On that day the last grapes were picked.

The harvest 2009 is safely in the barrels. With a troupe of 50 Dutch Winetigers we worked like titans. It became the best harvest that we’ve ever had.

The wagon with the troupe of cheerful Dutch harvesters lurched up the hill towards the château, where castlecook Bernard, with accurate forethought, put some snacks.

Bernard made an improvised Christmastree out of the empty bottles from the night before and in preparation he ignited the last resting place of the agneau on the grillade.

We wouldn’t have made it without Bernard. His daily surprising culinary spoiling has pulled our knackered bodies through many a weak moment during the harvest.

That afternoon the breadbaskets were refilled, the cheese lay ready and stinking and the castle-fridge was stocked with all of life’s basic necessities.

Now, for the first time this week, the harvesters get to take off their ball and chain and while doing so many of them let out a sigh of relief.
Because we vinify the grapes from our mini-vineyards separately we had to, in all haste, order new cuves. Unbelievable in the land of the French, but they were delivered that very same afternoon.
So that the freshly harvested juice from only a few hours ago could relax.

In the evening the party got going. At dinner every grapehero got his own bottle of wine.

Which brought some of the female harvesters so such exaltation that it led to postnatal affection- dissonance.

Until deep in to the night we laughed, sang and partied and naturally no one went home empty handed.

When night falls and the wine farmer starts looking for his bed, the pasty is still in full swing in the harvesters’ hall.
But the next morning many of them had to wipe away a tear or two at the inevitable goodbye.
Us too. Thank you Aad, Arjan, Aswin, Bas, Cor, Daan, Dennis, Diane, Dirk, Eric, Eric, Gillina, Gillina, Guus, Harm Jan, Harry, Ineke, Irene, Ivar, Jeroen, Jo, Jonathan, Joost, Joost, Karel, Manuela, Marco, Marion, Mark, Mark, Karel, Guus, Niek, Niels, Pip, Roel, Sebastiaan, Siska, Sjoerd, Sylvia, Ton, Wilco, Wilco and Yaron.
We can hardly wait for the harvest of 2010.

Every vendangeur got a small souvenir. Monster-harvester Yaron opted without hesitation for a barrel of Château de la Garde 2006.
While Yaron tried to get the barrel into the truck of his Fiat Panda, the slightly bewildered tractorist Jean-Marc drives the empty bottles to the bottle bank. What these Dutch people manage to put away even rises about the head of this Frenchman.

The beautiful pictures in this report were made by harvester and wine-tigress Diane (www.studiodenuyl.nl). De blurry and moved pictures were made by the wineboerhimself.

This was our mini-report on the harvest. For a live day-to-day-report (in dutch) cliquez ici.
To go back to Slurp! 12, cliquez ici.