Pech Rouge (Day 1)

We got into this beachish city Monday night and settled into our tiny bungalows.  I am sharing a room with Analyia who is Bulgarian.  The beds have less than a foot between them in our room! It is not that bad but it is funny to talk about.

Any-who, our first day of real class was today.  We started in the research vineyard with Grenache Noir.  We had to sample 3 rows in 4 different ways and compare the results to each other.  After, we had picks those 3 rows.  I have a greater respect for the people who can hand pic a row in the time I can hand pick one vine.  That shit is hard.  You have to bob and weave around all the different shoots then find the clusters, cut them, get them in the bin, find more, but leave the "secondary crop".  Damn. 

That took the whole morning.  After lunch we got to see a machine harvester and learn how they work.  There are plastic arm type things on the inside and they hit the vine from left to right, then right as the vine stops on the right side, the machine hits it right to left.  With this change in momentum, the clusters fall of the vines.  This way of harvesting is a lot faster than hand picking and can have cheaper labor costs, BUT it is violent on the vines.  The vine sap flow can be damaged with this type of harvesting but if the vine can get a good amount of water after the harvest, it will have an easier time to recover.  If not it could be permanently damaged.  

We also learned a lot about different trellis systems around the world, and different varieties throughout France.  The guy talking to use about it was so passionate about everything he showed us that it made me even more excited about what I was doing.  I will make a whole other blog about this subject later.  There were a lot.

Lastly, we had a Chinese wine tasting.  We learned a little bit about the Chinese wine producing and market.  ()().  We also got to taste 5 Chinese wines, one white, one rose, and three reds.  They all were interesting.  I was not really a fan of any of them but I am glad that I tried them.  They might be an acquired taste too, so drinking more would increase my liking of it…I don't know.

P.S. I saw the moon reflecting over the sea tonight and it was so beautiful and peaceful.  It was hard to capture in a picture but I loved it! Almost as good as a sunset/sunrise.