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News from the southern Rhône that the harvest for Vacqueyras and Gigondas in the southern Rhône as Domaine la Fourmone/l'Oustau Fauquet has finished - and some evoative images to record this year's "vendange". It is fun to be in the wine regions at harvest time - usually quiet rural landscapes are transformed with men, women and tractors working feverishly in the vines, and less visibly in the cellars. There is a continuous sound of tractors, both harvesting the grapes (if not done manually) and transporting the grapes to the cellar or co-operative for crushing and vinification. Many vineyards still pick manually (such as Domaine la Fourmone), but where the terrain allows machine harvesting is often chosen - finding cheap skilled labour has become more difficult, and the real benefit of manual harvesting comes from selective picking. So, if you pickers are not well-trained and knowledgable, then machine harvesting may be as effective and more reliable.
For smaller domaines it is often a family or even village event, with everyone takng part - and although it is definitely hard work everyone finds it very sociable, especially when the vigneron supplies a healthy lunch with enough wine to persuade people to return to the picking in the afternoon without falling over!
Meanwhile down in the Southwest the Kitcheners at Domaine de Lauroux have found the time to provide almost daily updates on the progress of their harvest which provides fascinating reading - see the Vineyard Diary at Domaine de Lauroux
A different angle on the experience of the vendange comes from Benoit Tarlant's video diary at Champagne Tarlant - although it is in French you nevertheless get a real feel for the work involved this time of year.

Domaine de Lauroux wines available in the UK from Planet of the Grapes