In Saint Emilion
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| In one
of the underground cellars in the town of St Emilion |
In a
crowded wine shop |
Time
for lunch. L'envers du Decor is a bistro-type of restaurant... |
...that is owned by the owners of Chateau Soutard |
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Chateau Cote
Montpezat
Cotes de Castillon
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( château côte montpezat ) |
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| A view
over the town |
Taking
a rest at the Cafe de la Poste |
Bordeaux is also popular for rallies. Here's the Morgan Club taking a
rest. Another time it's the Ferrari Bunch |
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The
cuverie is kept shining clean with plenty of water |
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| After
the first fermentation the juice (fermenting must) is separated from the
skins and pips |
Here's
the free run juice being strained trough an industrial size strainer |
The
must is then pumped into a new vat |
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Taking
a sample from a fermenting vat... |
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| ...
and testing the density |
The owner,
Dominique Bessineau |
Taking
a tasting sample of grape must |
M
Bessineau |
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| And
trying how it tastes |
The
cellar ghost |
A
middle aged vine with guyot simple |
Some
people remove all growth between the vines. It is becoming common to
keep grass and other plants, but here it is unusually much |
Another good example of guyot simple: the vertical part is kept from
year to year. Each year one horizontal branch is tied up along the wire
and from that a (varying) number of vertical branches are allowed to
grow |
Chateau de Vigiers
Bergerac
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In the vineyard
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| A
charming golf chateau that also produces its own wine |
The
18th hole |
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Vines pruned high. An
unusual 'taille' on the Medoc side but more common on the right bank |
Probably
Cabernet Sauvignon (or maybe Merlot) |
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Mechanical harvest
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| Some
rather rotten grapes |
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It is
unusual to see this much space between the rows. In most cases much
closer planting is recommended |
There
are both advantages and disadvantages to mechanical harvesting |
The
harvester approaching |
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| You
can see the bunches on the vine |
The
mechanical harvester straddles the row |
The
green plastic 'teeth' is the flexible conveyor belt that collects the
grapes |
Inside
the mechanical harvester you can vaguely see the 6 or seven rows of
horizontal bars that shake the vine so that the grapes fall off their
stems |
Here's
a little bit better look at the shaking bars |
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| A view
from the back: the green conveyor belt carries the grapes up and tips
them into the containers on both sides |
This
is how it looks when the mechanical harvester has passed: no grapes left
but the stems are still there |
Once in a
while you need to empty the containers |
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Mechanical harvesting results in only the grapes being brought in to the
cuverie (and a few leaves, and other MOG). And if you didn't know, MOG =
Material Other than Grapes, e.g. snails... |
And
then you tip the grapes into the cuverie |
In
comparison, this is how manually harvested grapes look: more intact
bunches brought in, which then need destemming |
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