When most 18 year olds set off on their gap year, the first port of call is typically Thailand in which they will tell you they hope to find themselves by embarking on a trip of sexual discovery, casual drug use and perhaps getting a tattoo that says "hope" in Thai as a manifestation of their multicultural experience and thus development as a person. Indeed, the first thing I did on my gap year is called effeuillage and a quick Google search will tell you that it’s the French for striptease. However, in oenological terms it is also the name for the much less salacious process of leaf removal. So instead of deflowering, I was instead deleafing which allows sunlight to reach the grapes on the many vines of Domaine de Chevalier. I was told that this is the worst job of the vendage, partly due to the diminutive size of the Chevalier vines. Our group spent the entire 9 hour day going from row to row with a short break in between each one that conveniently, for those who smoked (apparently everyone in France), lasted exactly the length of a cigarette. The next day, I woke up at 7am to begin my second day of work with an aching back and tired eyes. As we drank our coffees, my roommate Damien taught me a French phrase I have gotten a lot of use out of already: “J’ai la flemme”, which wordreference.com tells me translates as “I can’t be arsed”.
Grapes exposed to more light after "de-leafing"
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It got better, however, and in the middle of my second day of effeuillage I was told that I was being transferred to the chai, the part of the chateau which contains the foudres, the pressoir, the laboratory and all of the wine. Jobs here were a little more enjoyable and involved such activities as picking, crushing and then testing the acidity of grapes, perfecting one’s barrel-rolling technique and generally just moving esoteric wine-making equipment from A to B. While the work is indeed enjoyable it is exhausting and endless as Olivier Bernard, the owner of the chateau, is a stickler for detail and we have been preparing non-stop for the Ban des Vendages, a huge party he is hosting for over 1000 guests in celebration of the 30th anniversary of his family’s purchase of the chateau. With the party tonight, I am writing this in my break between shifts, having woken up at 7 to begin my first and my next beginning at 5pm and ending at 4am.
Inside the chai
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Despite all the hard work, my time at Chevalier so far has been made extremely pleasant by the hospitality of Anne and Olivier Bernard. While the food has been excellent, all the wine I have had so far has been stellar, with a dinner two nights ago with some Chinese business associates prompting appearances from ’62 Grand Puy Lacoste and ‘82 Haut Brion. The wine given to the staff at lunch is Clos de Lune, the latest Chevalier project which sees them making a dry white wine in Sauternes that is surprisingly enjoyable considering it is 70% Semillon. Overall, I am very much enjoying myself so far and hope that I can allay my inevitable fainting of exhaustion a little longer so I can continue to drink wine and practise my French.
Dinner menu. Olivier Bernard loves a theme. Tonight it was "2"
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