Not Feeling So Lucky This Harvest

Saturday March 26, 2011

Finally, some peace and quiet to myself. It's a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon and I have the rest of the day to enjoy at my leasure as my pumpover shift is done for the day. The last two weeks are somewhat of a blur in my head as I never found a chance to pick up a pen and jot down notes to organize my thoughts and differentiate the days. Even as I write this notebook entry I can feel my eyelids weighing down heavy over my eyes. I'm physically exhausted, drained of energy and yet my body hasn't given up yet. At some point during the week I told Louise this job felt like winery bootcamp. I have noticed the fat slowly shedding from my body as the muscles replace the weight. I become less winded as I climb the stairs to the third story of the winery, and my physical stamina surprises me sometimes. But here I am with a moment's rest and a chance to pause and relax.

Work is fun, no doubt about that, but these 14-15 hour days, back to back are getting to me. It doesn't help that the bright sun taunts me from outside the cellar every day as I envision the free time I once had in it. Nor the fact that I wish I could spend these last few weeks here with a special guy I've met. But alas, I know he's working hard just the same at a neighboring winery down the road.

So I'm making the most of my time at work. Our fruit intake is now at 350 tons with both red and white coming in every day - pumpovers and press cycles are running constantly from sun up to sun down. Various varietals have slipped through my fingers during processing, and I try hard to think back on what I remember about grapevine ampelography.

Merlot: one long stem, and two broad shoulders (right! like a man! Merlot the man.. check.) Shiraz: long and skinny cluster...phalic looking, haha, but true!

Malbec: Big round berries.

Cabernet Sauvignon: medium round berries, punch hole sinuses

Petit Verdot: itty bitty clusters.

Pinot gris: looks like Pinot noir, but has grey skins, duh!

Sauvignon blanc: green, green, green. Chardonnay: none lobed leaf.

Viogner: unique floral aroma, susceptible to bunch rot, slight golden tinge on berry. As well I get to learn about new varietals...

Pinotage (the trademark grape of South Africa): cross btwn Pinot noir and Cinsault, thick thick skins.

Chenin blanc: big white round berries with visable veins.

Cinsault: very big berries with little color

So I am learning a lot, but still feeling a bit stupid at the same time. I'm making mistakes that, granted I'll NEVER do again, but still mistakes I thought I never would do. I blame it on my dwindling energy, the countless distractions around me, and the sole pressure I put pn myself to work fast and efficiently. Sometimes I need to rethink that work moto to include carefully.

Actually, I think I'm cursed. Seriously. Within the last two weeks I have managed to break, knock over, or drop into tank almost all of the thermometers and hydrometers. FML. Really!? I'm THAT intern?

It's hilarious at this point, but I don't know how Susan, the winemaker, can continue to trust me and give me responsibility still in the winery! But, back to the dropped-thermometer-in-tank issue. What it boils down to is I'm an idiot, the grape must is fine at this point, but the potential for the thermometer to break is the issue. If it breaks, luckily Mercury will not pour out as this is no longer in thermometers, but the shards of glass could damage the press once we drain the tank after fermentation. I'm doubting that they will, but another thing to consider is the red dye/ terrible aroma that will be added to the wine once the glass breaks! This is irreverisble. So fingers crossed that the pomace won't crush the thermometer once we drain the wine out of the dank in, oh, 7-14 days...

Baby Brown Cobra

First night on Vrede en Lust farm

Tuesday night proved to be more eventful than expected as Liam, Louise and I returned home from a six hour long cricket match (which was only HALF the game as Louise and I, thankfully, persuaded Liam to leave early…) As this was my first night here I was still learning the ins and the outs of our farm house. Situated out along the main road through the vineyards, our place is nothing fancy but chock full of all the amenities that we need to call it home for the remainder of our stay here. With millipedes inching across the floors and the occasional mosquito darting around, I tried my best to relax as best I could while defending my bubble. After de-millipeding the arm chair I eased up a bit and relaxed. My room and bed had been properly searched earlier and I was content to settle in for the night.

Propped up in the living room and in the midst of conversation, Louise draws our attention to an intruder in the room. Just below Liam’s chair, a small brown snake head pops out. Taking care to not disturb it we all retract our legs but remain focused on its whereabouts.

Shit! A snake. Is it poisonous? None of us have a clue. I sit there a moment contemplating our actions as Louise begins shouting at Liam to take control and call for help. Slowly Liam exits the room, but returns quickly to snap a shot.

“Shit, Liam, Go! What if it’s poisonous and bites you!” With that he turns and runs two doors down to ask for help and confirmation of the danger we think we might be in.

During Liam’s call for help, Louise explains the seriousness of this situation to me as I watch on calmly. “It could be two kinds of snakes – both of which are poisonous and deadly if they bite you. If you get bitten by one, the snake venom moves through your blood to your heart and the instant it hits your heart, you die. You have exactly 20 minutes to get a dose of the antivenom to live. The other snake’s venom eats away at your skin cells and kills them one after the other.”

Oh shit, really!?

“Yes, really” Apparently not wanting to scare me, Louise and Liam purposely did not mention the dangers of crossing snakes in our area. But look at this snake, it’s brown – not danger colors like red or orange – so perhaps its just a garden snake?

When Liam returns moments later he is armed with a pitch fork and our neighbor, or savior more like, Jonas, by his side yielding a wooden spear. With caution, Louise lifts the chair towards her and with a quick, brute force Jonas lops the snake in half with the long end of the spear. The snake dies instantly.

“What is it?” We question, “Is it poisonous?”

“Oh, yes” Jonas answers

“Really? Oh god. But do you know what it was?”

“Brown cobra”

Shit!! The reality of the situation sets in. We laugh at our stupidity, and the mortal chances that were just at stake. To think, that if Louise had never spotted the snake lying below Liam’s feet – he could have been bitten by that baby. A baby with no control of its venom and more lethal than a full-grown snake as it would release more venom upon attack. We would have no more than 20 minutes to drive to the nearest hospital, which unfortunately for us is 15 minutes away. So even if we lost no time, our chances of saving Liam would not be good.

But thankfully, the latter was not the case and we are all healthy, alive and ready to start work on Monday. Now I feel I have been properly introduced to the South African farm lands and I will constantly keep my wits about me – even if presented with another cute baby snake. There’s talk of a king cobra roaming the property still, so maybe we’ll be eating a nice brai (or bbq) come harvest ;)

Outings for the L Team

The breeze blows in one window of my room and sweeps out the other. Whirlng around my body as it enters, I breath in the sweet figgy smell of the neighboring tree – one more week of ripening to go, I expect, and those figs will be ravished by yours truly. With great leisure I relax on my bed, netbook in hand, and download my recent pictures from this week – little tokens of memories that will forever be with me as “my first week in South Africa”. Not bad, yah? Yah, yah. I wish I could capture all that I see, feel, and experience, but I cannot. My pictures don’t do this adventure justice, so with words I try my best to explain.

(Unfortunately not all of the pictures that I have collected this week are in my possession, so you will have to be patient. Thanks :)

No work has set upon me yet so with pleasure and greed I take advantage of my endless days and nights by sleeping well, soaking in the sun, enjoying a bloody mary here and there, and exploring the surrounding wine regions, beaches and towns.

Last night was my first “official” night out, in terms of staying out past 11pm and witnessing “Tonight’s Gonna be a Good Night” blaring on the dance floor, while drunken teens celebrate their respective best-nights-ever. Right, so to set the stage a bit more, I should mention that this Friday night I found myself in Stellenbosch, the nearby college town, rather than in my own living room killing brown cobras…. A stark difference for sure, but more of that later. So, surrounded by giddy first years marking the end of their first week of college I sit back and take in this spectacle of a surprising amount of mullets whipping back and forth on the dance floor. Who knew that mullets were all the range (way) down south? My total count for the night was 5, but I aim to beat this number on my next Stellie outing.

Despite my obsession with counting mullets, I had a great time sharing a few drinks with Liam, Louise, their friend Craig, and his friend Jen. With both Craig and Jen as locals to Stellenbosch, I think it is safe to say that the Vrede en Lust “L Team” was in good hands for the night. After a few Castle beers, and a brandy and coke I found myself amoungst those lovely swaying mullets too and was able to show off my handy salsa moves to "pas parle Americano". A good night indeed. Stellenbosch has some amazing bars and I would recommend any college student to study abroad here.

Cape Town

Hello loves,

Here I am in Cape Town. I have no internet in my backpacker (hostel) so I find myself in a coffee shop down the road with FREE WIFI! I was excited to see this sign the other day and have been coming back to this coffee shop often. Three days in total, so these 12Rand ($2) coffees shouldn't hurt my budget too much... but still, a bit pricey for South Africa. So other than finding a great location to kick it and sooth my addiction to the internet, I have found Cape Town to be a truly fantastic city.

Everyone I have met so far is so friendly, generous and helpful. Through various acquaintances I have made, I have been able to get out of my residential part of town and see the hot-spots, eat some great food, and finally get a taste for the local wine. Last night I had a really nice picnic with two friends - a local and used-to-be-local who I met in Calistoga this winter - before seeing a hilarious version of Taming of the Shrew at the outdoor theatre. The picnic included a bottle of crisp white wine (...), local figs, berries, creamy Camebert cheese and fresh cheesy bread. We ate ravishly while catching up and laughing at the unique species of birds that encircled us.

During the play, which was just short of a Cirque de Soleil-esque show, my attention was quickly drawn to the sky as my eyes caught a firefly flying overhead. Upon realizing what this was, I scrambled to pull my hands out from under the blanket to point it out to Linah... but it flew away. So she thinks I'm crazy... especially since I couldn't find the words to describe what I saw and I started laughing uncontrollably. But all in all we had a great time together and Corina, the local, was such a treat to meet. Thanks to her I am beginning to understand, more or less, the ins and outs of South Africa!

In addition to this outing, I was lucky enough to meet up with another local on Sunday, Jo, who I met in Burgundy in September. Jo works for Francois Freres here in South Africa, and is a key player to the production of great wines in the surrounding areas. She was generous enough to take me out with her boyfriend for the day to see the sights. Firstly - we conquered the heights of the Table Mountain 1600 meters above sea level, by riding up in a Cable Car. From the top of the Mountain we could look down on the entire city and surrounding natural landmarks - Cape of Good Hope, Lyon's Head, Devil's Peak, False Bay, V & A Waterfront, etc... It was breathtaking. All around the Mountain adventurous souls flocked. Paragliders were floating over the ocean, rock climbers were adjusting their ropes and hikers were burning their calories for the week. I questioned my own adventurous soul, but decided I best wait for now. It was lunch time, nonetheless, and it was time to eat some seafood. So that's what we did.

After riding the Cable Car down and getting a 360 view of the town, Jo, Willy and I went to the Waterfront for some sushi, fish and prawns, along with a few glasses of Chenin blanc and Shiraz. Yum. Afterwards we walked around listening to music and grabbing some ice cream cones to cool off.

So I am very excited indeed to be out and about, and now I must sign off on this Tuesday early afternoon to meet up with Liam and Louise, my fellow interns, to catch the India v. S Africa cricket match!

Love you all. Over and out,

d'laur

PJs and No Job

Hey all,

To catch you up from since I last posted in early November...

My harvest job ended in Burgundy, France and I am back in Nevada City, California with my parents and Penny, the pole dancing cat. Not really sure how that name came about for her, but it seems fitting... Anways, the expensive and anticlimatic holidays have come and gone and the new year is upon us. I made no resolutions for this year, but I definitely see some major changes occuring in my life as this year goes on.

Next week I will be flying out to Cape Town, South Africa for a cellar hand position with Vrede en Lust Winery in Franschhoek. This will be my first travel to the country and I am getting very excited/ nervous at the same time. At some moments I question my sanity for taking on a harvest job in a far-off land I know so little about, but luckily those moments are fleeting and I look past them. I am very lucky to have this opportunity and I am looking forward to working with the VnL crew and getting to know the people, and learning about their culture and history. Susan, the winemaker, has been so helpful in planning my stay and has setup a cottage on the farm for myself and the two other interns during our stay.

After my short two month internship with VnL I will be flying directly to New Zealand in March and working another cellar hand position with Indevin in Marlborough. Here I will be one of eighty or so interns monitoring the crush of grapefruit and grassy Sauv Blanc and living in a make-shift dormitory. Crazy times are expected... and promised!

But for now I am enjoying the luxury of sitting in my PJs at 1pm in the afternoon, sipping coffee and feeling the warmth of Penny's rump on my shoulder.

Cheers to a seasonal internship!

Scones for Peace

For this Veteran's Day/Armistice Day I baked up a batch of apple cinnamon scones for peace.

Who would want to fight when these fluffy, flakey scones are brought out of the oven? No one.

Well, except for my sister Maureen and friend Rocky, that is, if they had to pick sticks for the last one... But that's another story. So for those people, double the recipe!

D’laur’s Apple Cinnamon Scones

Note : Key to good scones, biscuits and pie doughs: Be careful to not over-handle the dough! Unlike doughs made with yeast, these are made with baking powder and require little to NO kneading.

Okay, so now that we have that covered, go out there and get your hands buttery!

Ingredients

2 ½ c cake flour

1 tsp pure vanilla extract ( or 15g sucre vanille)

2 1/8 tsp baking powder (11 g levure chimique)

1/3c sugar

1/3 cup (75 g) cold butter (I used salted, but non-salted works too with an addition of 1/4tsp, 2.5g salt)

1 small golden apple, peeled, cored and sliced into small pieces

1 lemon, squeezed ; 1 Tbsp juice

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2/3 c crème fraiche, heavy cream, or sour cream

1tsp cinnamon and 2 Tbsp sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Place rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and flour round biscuit pan.

Toss apple pieces with lemon to juice and set aside.

Blend flour, sugar, baking powder, (and salt). Cut butter into small pieces and cut into four mixture with 2 knives, a pastry cutter, or my preferable method, with your hands! Stir in apple pieces.

In another bowl, combine cream, beaten eggs and vanilla (if using extract). Set aside approx 2-3 tbsp of mixture for topping, then add the rest to the flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Do not over mix! Pat dough together just until a ball forms. Divide dough into 8 round balls and place in pan, again, be careful to not over-handle each portion. Don’t worry about perfection here, it’s all about the taste and flakiness in the end!

Top each scone with remaining cream and egg mixture and cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Bake 15-20 min. But check after 15min, perhaps they might be done! No? Thought so, why not go dance around your kitchen for the next 5 min? That’s right. Turn up that music, break a move and breath in those sugary fumes…

Don’t get too distracted there! Pop those scones out!

Cool in pan. But why wait? Burn your tongue, it’s worth it! Bon Appetite!

Vive la France!

Sorry for the lack in updates recently. I really have no other excuse than exhaustion from work, well, and maybe a little lazziness in between.

Last week was a very productive and eventful week as all decuvages were completed, and my parents came and went in a flash, and I attended the Confrerie des Chevaliers Chapitre dinner at the Clos de Vougeot.

So to start, I will fill you in on what a decuvage is by showing you some pictures..

First, we drain the tank of the fermented juice (red wine!) and pump it into a stainless steel tank for storage until Jean-Luc has time to move it into barrels with gravity flow. (SORRY, NOT PICTURED) And then the fun starts! A brave soul, such as myself, jumps into the tank of grape skins and seeds, shuvel in hand, and begins the decuvage. Shove-full by shovel-full, the grape remnants are tossed over the side of the tank and into the recieving cage.

As shown above in the picture, Mariette excellently shovels out her first (but not last!) tank.

After the cage is filled, it is carried over by the fork-lift, inserted into the Vertical Press machine and WAMO!

The fermented grape skins are pressed down into a thick dry cake as the lovely juice runs free and joins its juice counterparts in the steel tank.

So this physical activity was my work regime for the last two weeks, and now that we have 31 empty wooden tanks lying around, what better idea is there than to clean them all this week!?

So long story short, the red stains on my hands are washing off nicely as I scrub down these wooden surfaces with hot water, and then alcohol.

No complaints here though! Most 1.5 hour lunches include a nice glass of wine from the cellar :)

Now, back to the parental visit of last week.

My parents in front of the Palais des Ducs in Dijon

With strikes and manifests going on all around France over the pushed-back retirement age (60 to 62), my parents had an unfortunate encouter with the dissatisfied workers of this country. While they had a pleasant visit here in Paris and Dijon, they missed their flight home due to the train strikes and had to sleep in the Paris airport :( I am really sorry for their misfortunate event, and hope that this doesn't keep them from venturing to this country again. As my coworkers reminded me during our long and tiring day of work, not ALL French people are striking... exactly, just the people whom everyone else depends upon... train, bus, airlines, gasoline! But I guess wine is the more important item in this country anyways...

And to celebrate this fact! I attended the Confrerie des Chevaliers dinner two Saturday's ago!

Here at the Clos de Vougeot, this brotherhood of wine lovers in Burgundy served up a delicious 8 course meal for the brothers, their wives, and selected guests. During this 4-hour meal, songs, plays, and speeches were carried out, and everyone was waving their hands in the air to the Burgundy "lala lala lalala LA la" song in the end (for the 10th round).

It was definitely a night to remember, and thanks to my handy-camera, and my escortee for the evening, Pascal, I was able to capture some of the moments!

Caroline and I in the courtyard of the Clos de Vougeot during the dinner

Louis-Marc giving a speech on the mainstage where various speechs and acts were given throughout the dinner

Rob Keeney singing along with the other Confrerie men dressed as traditional Burgundian winemakers (Bourgogne vignerons)

Caroline, Rob, and Marcie swaying and singing to one of the many Confrerie songs of the night

Pascal and Arnaut happily waving their napkins in the air

And it wouldn't be right if I didn't show you at least one course of the dinner. This was poached eggs and bacon served in a Burgundy wine sauce over bruscetta. Yum!

Cheers!