The grape picking season is well underway in France although our region, the Correze, is not known for wine-making and there are very few vineyards. Indeed the Correze is known more for it’s Limousin cattle, chestnuts and for apple growing.
Most of the wine produced in the Correze is in the south around Brive, now more famous for it’s rugby club which has a large number of English players.
As well as these wines the region is known for Vin Paille which translates as straw wine, so called because the grapes are left to dry on straw matting until around Christmas time before being pressed. The resulting wine is sweet and usually drunk as an aperitif or with foie gras.
We have been busy picking our grapes this week, officially the grape picking season starts in September and can run right through until November although as with everything in France a great deal of red tape is involved and picking cannot begin until authorized by the local prefecture. Undoubtedly there will be quite a few Brit’s coming over for the harvest as you can often get seasonal work with free accommodation and sometimes wine thrown in. It is back-breaking work as each person is expected to harvest around 1 tonne of grapes a day but no doubt the wine helps.
Our two grape vines, which have been trained along two different barns, were being busily attacked by wasps and birds so we decided it was now or never as we have found in previous years that in just a couple of days the whole crop can disappear.
The two vines, one green and one red were both planted about 10 years ago. This year they provided us with about 5 kg of grapes which is a very acceptable crop. The red grapevine is the least productive but is a standing joke in the family as it was purchased, under much duress from our then young son, from the casualty section of a local garden centre and given very little chance of survival. It now reaches to the top of the two-story barn and round the side despite being carefully pruned (hacked down) every year.
Evidence of the ‘vendange’ as the grape harvest is called has already hit the supermarkets with rows of different varieties for sale. Here every grape has a large sign stating the name of the variety. The taste can vary greatly whereas in the UK we get a choice of red or green seedless… of course don’t expect the grapes here in France to be seedless, if they are they will be imported and the French are very patriotic when it comes to buying French produce. We do our best to help out by consuming suitable quantities of French wine…hic.