Alan le vigneron

Yann le Bouler  is a vigneron, a winemaker. He has a small domaine, l'Ancienne Cordonnerie, on which he grows grapes organically, and from which he makes a half dozen cuvees, three reds, two whites and a rosé. His  cave, or winery, is under his house in the village of Boujan, near Béziers. Yesterday morning at 6:45, Corinne and I set off to help Yann with the bottling. We would be done by 1 pm, be fed, and then back in time to pick up Rowan after her last day of school.

After trying to find our way around the labyrinth of the village roads, we finally make to Yann’s open door and go upstairs. Du café ? we are asked. Bien sûr ! Half an hour later we are at the Domaine de l’Haute Condamine, around the corner. Because Yann’s operation is so small, he is using his friend’s cave and bottling machine for a couple of days. This involves moving thousands of litres of wine from Yann’s cave down the hill, either by piping in into the massive vats, pipes running through the streets, or in barrels on the back of Yann’s old truck. The cave is full of shipping pallets – of new bottles, of boxes of wine ready to ship, and in the back, vats of Condamine wine. A half dozen friends and family showed up to help with the bottling, including Yann’s parents. The bottling machines made me think this is where Laverne & Shirley would work if they lived in the south of France. Basically it is an assembly line – put empty bottles on the conveyor belt, they get filled, then corked. The next person puts on the ‘capsules,’ the plastic coverings on the top of the bottles, which get shrink-wrapped by the machine. The ‘tickets,’ the front and back labels get stuck on by another machine. Then a couple more people make boxes, put in three bottles, a divider and then three more on top. The box is run through another machine that tapes it top and bottom, and then it rolls out and gets brought to the truck. That was my job (give the Canadian something where he doesn’t have to touch the bottles!) I either carried the bottles from the end of the line to the truck, or stacked boxes in the truck.

The day wasn’t without glitches. It took a while to calibrate the filling machine so the right amount of wine goes in each bottle. The labeller needs to be adjusted so labels go on the right places on the bottles, and every now and then someone would yell ‘STOP’ (not Arretez!) because the machine ran out of tape or there was some other problem.

 

The first cuvée, the Talon Aiguille (stiletto heel, because the cave used to be an old shoemaker) went smoothly once we got going. We tasted it mid-run, around 8:30 in the morning, just about when most people have their first glass of wine, right? But this was work, so it was o.k. It was a bit gassy, as is too expected, but got much better once it breathed Talon Aiguille is made from Carignan with a rich, high tannin, almost blackberry flavour. We ran out of capsules, so boxes were starred to have capsules added later. The occasional bottle with a label or other glitch was put to the side to use for tastings or to give to family and friends. In less than two hours we had filled the truck twice and unloaded it in the unassuming garage in the village. No security, no fancy signage, just an old weathered door, behind which is a gold mine of wines. The second cuvée, the Prelude, is Yann’s high end red, made from a blend of grapes with Syrah added to bring out the flavours, I was told. There were endless problems with the Prelude. Calibrating went fine, but then labels weren’t sticking and then they were stained; wine was leaking and bottles had to be wiped. It was endless Stop! Stop! We got a couple hundred cases loaded, but there were dozens and dozens of bottles that needed to have labels peeled off. Yann was getting frustrated. In the end, he realized that the labels were smudged at the printers, so he was going to send them back and redo labels later. The final third of the run was without labels and boxes left untaped on top. The Prelude was lighter and more complex in taste.

After unloading, with everyone this time, we went up to the house for a lunch that went on an on, where we got to sample all the wines, having settled and breathed after bottling. There was  bread and rilette and charcuterie, then pasta, and after comes a lamb stew, followed by chevre cheese and two cakes. And coffee. Reward for a good morning’s work. Over 3000 bottles in 4 hours. Not bad.

After lunch, Yann went back to bottle his ‘House Blend,’ which is basically a mix of the dregs of each vat of the three reds that were bottled. He will keep those for personal consumption We left with a few bottles, and I will let mine, which I helped bottle, sit in my cave back in Victoria until the right opportunity arises. I’m not sure if I could handle a life of being a vigneron, despite it being a common dream to run a vineyard in the south of France, but I am happy to help out anytime.