Merlot Harvest at Château Latour
Monday the 12th of September marked the start of the 2011 harvest at Château Latour. Ben and I were at the château just before 8am in order to have the breakfast provided to give the pickers and carriers energy to get through the day. Ben and I have been carriers or "porteurs" for most of the week, but both of us have had a chance to pick too, myself for most of the weekend. Latour is one of the châteaux that has recently switched to a "cajette" system, whereby the grapes are transported in small grey boxes instead of large crates in order to avoid damage to the skins. Every carrier has a team of four pickers who load boxes full of grapes onto their "porte-cagettes" on their back. We then stack these onto palettes on the back of a tractor before they are whisked off to the château to become one of Latour’s three wines – Grand Vin, Forts de Latour or Pauillac.
Ben Browett picking by the tower
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This job is tough, especially on the shoulders (four boxes on the back feels roughly the equivalent of 50-60 kilos), and by the end of the day we are always ready for our dinner, also kindly provided by the Chateau. Although our bodies may be sore, the clear progress made through the week and the camaraderie amongst the staff and pickers at Latour urge the mind to make the body keep working. We finished the Merlot harvest at 4:30pm on Sunday 19th September, after 7 days of consecutive picking. As we have moved through the plots we have seen all kinds of weather, the sun showed its force in increasing temperatures into the 30s until Thursday, before rain, thunder and lightning on Friday and then overcast weather with small showers on Saturday and a bit of everything on Sunday.
Thomas Parker picking Merlot
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The volume of grapes picked is quite staggering to see. With our team of 40-50 pickers, we get through several thousand cajettes a day. We must remember that it takes many boxes of grapes just to make one bottle of wine, the work put in at the vineyards matched by those turning the fruit into the best possible product for its customers. The selection and checking process from the pickers is designed to get the very best grapes in order to make the best wine. For example, any green, pink, rotten or botrytised grapes are immediately removed by the pickers by hand before being placed in the boxes. Each bunch is clipped by hand by pickers, who check for these faults before continuing. Both Ben and I have done our bit to ensure that only good grapes are collected from the boxes that we collect.
Cagettes on the back of a Porteur
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The work is tough on the lower back, and I have a new found appreciation for all the work done by the pickers, seeing how much effort they put in, reflecting the whole ethos of the Château to make the best wine at every stage. The grapes are then also double checked by sorters at the château. Drinkers of Latour’s wines should know that the grapes used in all levels of their wine are picked to a very high standard, and that any bad grapes that do slip through the net at this stage are removed before the fermentation process.
Ben Browett in the vineyard - Winery, tower and Chateau behind.
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With the Merlot finished this week, all eyes look towards the main constituent of Latour’s wine - Cabernet Sauvignon. Having spoken to Frédéric Engerer a few times this week, it seems we will be making an immediate transition on Monday by picking the young Cabernet, and starting with treble the number of pickers and carriers on the older Cabernet Sauvignon on Tuesday. He is using his experienced mind, taste buds and instincts so that he can find the perfect ripeness of the grapes in order to have the right balance of sugar, tannin and acidity. In terms of harvest dates this causes a shift, as we may well pick the last grapes from the last vine before the end of September. That being the case, the harvest will finish approximately two weeks before the 2010 vintage (bearing in mind that 2010 started a week and a half or more later). This is no reason to panic, the quality of grapes that I have seen so far has been very good, and wine producers throughout Pauillac seem to be quietly confident that this will be a good vintage for Bordeaux.
Thomas Parker - Porteur
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While working at the château, we also found the time to accept the very kind offer of dinner from Jean-Charles Cazes, at Lynch Bages. Along with fantastic food and a relaxed atmosphere at the Café Lavinal (in the small village of Bages), we were fortunate to be treated to 2008 Condrieu La Doriane from Guigal (which Jean-Charles had brought with him), a wine that perfectly portrayed the best that Viognier has to offer. He also gave us a very instructive little blind tasting of reds. Lynch Bages have, like us, already finished their Merlot harvest, and will be picking the Cabernet the same week as Latour. He seems quietly confident that 2011 will be a good vintage for Lynch Bages, but didn’t give too much away at this stage.
Lunch for a grape picker
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After an exhilarating and exhausting first week of the "vendange" we are preparing for another busy week of picking as we start on the Cabernet Sauvignon although I’m sure we’ll find some time to visit a château or two when we’re not working...
