Les vendanges

I confess that having been on holiday for a week, I am in catch-up mode at work, and I didn't have time to participate. But S went out to help this afternoon, and I followed an hour later to take some photos. Here's J-L hard at work as a porteur -- the pickers empty their buckets into his hotte, and he carries it up the ladder and tips the contents into the trailer.

Technical note: these Syrah grapes are destined for carbonic maceration, so they are transported in large plastic crates, rather than being tipped straight into the trailer. This prevents them getting overly crushed on the way to the cooperative. Machine harvesting is a no-no if you intend to do carbonic maceration, because the grapes get too mangled by the machine, bursting the skins and preventing in-grape fermentation.

Carbonic maceration prevents the wine getting excessively tannic, which is a good thing if your grapes are Carignan, which are very high in tannins. On the other hand, high tannin means the wine will age well, so it's all a balance.

Bonus blip: a closer view.