Fruits of Labor

It was an educational adventure last Friday when I joined the wine class and headed to a vineyard about
45 miles away, in Gabian.  Gabian is in the Languedoc, there are 22 regions in France, each unique.  Emmanuel Pageot and his wife Karen each have over 25 years of knowledge in the wine industry.  The countryside of vineyard is broken up into plots, rented or owned, some in poor
condition, some ideal.  Emananuel owns 11 different lots, none side-by-side but in the same few square
mile region, each a different variety of grape.  He owns and farms independently 7 hectares ( 1 hectare = 2.47 acres).

I was there to take pictures for the school's web-site although I did a fair share of labor in the afternoon with a hoe and burned the collected vine twigs.  Ash from the vines being burnt adds free potassium and carbon to the soil.  I was so exhausted at the days end I was tripping over my own feet.  When I relaxed at night in the bathtub I found a grape vine twig in my hair.  I don't like being this close to nature!

When I first arrived at the vineyard I walked miles, taking photos of Emmanuel's vineyard and anyone
that was in site.  I notice lots of shotgun shells discarded on the ground, I thought there must be ducks,
no lake in site, but the shells were ones that hold pellets, that is what duck hunters use, the pellets
fan out, this increases the chance of a hit.  I discovered that the farmers were hunting wild boar that
destroy the vineyards.  Long ago farmers intentionally bred pigs with boars for more animals to hunt and
made a mess of nature and these wild boar, ugly, terrifying "its" are out of control multiplying.

On to another pleasant bit of vineyard knowledge.
I asked Emanuele (nope, he didn't appear at all annoyed) why no irrigation.  I needed to grab my spiral notebook for this answer.  First there is enough rainfall.  Second, if you produce fine wines from small yields you must create an incentive for the roots to go down so you don't water from above.   In the fall and winter you cut the vine roots in each row with a heavy plow.  In the spring and summer you switch to a lighter plow to cut the superficial roots.  This way the deep down moisture isn't wicked to the surface.
In this area there is an extinct volcano, Cadables.  Volcanos throw out fresh material from within the Earth, this
helps renew the nutrients found in the soil, creating fertile soil.  Not unlike an iceberg, much more of a
volcano is below the surface.  If a volcano is extinct its unlikely to erupt again as there is no lava supply. Of course there are exceptions, my personal favorite, Fourpeaked Mt. in Alaska, it erupted in 2006 and the previous time was 8000 BC!  Think of Pompeii.
More, hold on, this is educational, we all like wine, don't we?
Emmanuel bought this particular plot with vines that were 35 years old.  I questioned why, thinking that young fruit trees are the most productive, doesn't this also apply to grape vines?  He told me that vines can live 50 years or more if you take care of them properly and don't expect much.  In addition, older vines produce grapes of higher concentration due to the smaller yield.   The highest yield is when the vines are between 8 and 10 years old.  Tiny buds were on the vines, each bud would be two clusters.
Finally, every row, in one year rotations, is left to rest, this helps build up the organic matter.  He sprays lavender on the vines, a natural bug repellent and it adds a hint of the flavor to the final product.
So next time, look into that glass of wine, take a smell and a taste and don't complain about the price
of wine, there is a whole lot of labor in the fruits of wine.