A Year in Burgundy Page #5

scattered across the Cte de Nuits.

[speaking French]

Theres real potential.

The colors better than 2007.

[narrator]

Perrot-Minot will now take these grapes

back to the lab, his lab,

for analysis.

Only then will he know

when to harvest.

Absolute precision is required.

[speaking French together]

Martine, you have to put 10 grapes in

and I have to put in 20.

[narrator]

An exact number

of grapes is counted out...

and then crushed.

The grape juice is filtered,

and then analyzed by computer.

Are these grapes ready?

The read-out says it all:

acidity, sugar content.

What was once done

by hunch alone, is now a science.

The wild card is the weather.

You might want to wait a day

or two, but you don't want rain.

[speaking French]

Wednesday will be nice...

Thursday nice...

Friday, a storm, rain, 17C (63F)

[narrator]

Another storm

is on the way,

and Perrot-Minot

is taking no chances.

He'll start tomorrow.

The procedure

is more or less the same,

at every winery in Burgundy.

Assemble the troops

at 7 o'clock and-

first things first-

do the paperwork.

This being France, there's an unimaginable

quantity of paperwork.

Every single employee

has to be entirely legal.

Five separate

government departments

and the police

check on who's working.

Christophe's father leads

the troops out into the fields,

but the briefing is given

by his son.

[speaking French]

Please stand still and Ill show you...

Its important you understand that

there is a lot of rot this year.

We didnt have a very good summer...

...so youre going to find

some bunches like this.

You must absolutely not put these in the buckets

because we cant do anything with them.

Every time you put a bunch in the bucket,

ask yourself:
is it good or not?

If you get one like this, its not difficult.

You just cut the rotten part off,

and drop it on the ground, not in the bucket.

So with each bunch,

look at it carefully

and only keep the best part.

This part you discard, this part you keep.

[narrator]

The briefing over,

the harvesters are assigned

their duties.

Now, the hard work begins.

Every move is supervised

by the Perrot-Minots.

Every bucket of grapes

is scrutinized.

[speaking French]

No no no!

Theres nothing but rot here!

This is rotten!

This is someone who was busy talking

or wasnt looking.

Its not a joke. Im not kidding.

This buckets full of rot. Look!

Its OK if you didnt understand the first time,

but not the second time.

Its really not a joke.

I respect my workers.

You have to respect my work.

[narrator]

So worried is Christophe about the rotten grapes,

that he hurries back

to the winery...

in fact, he runs.

The first batch has already arrived

and is now being processed.

[speaking French]

What about the rot. How bad is it?

Not too much, eh?

Theres some here, but its not bad.

[narrator]

Everybody is completely focused on the grapes.

[speaking French]

Theyre very nice, right?

[narrator]

But Christophe will soon have

something else to worry about.

Who's have guessed that the

police would choose today

to arrive and check everybody's

work permit...

And stop the photography too,

of course.

Not only do they come to your door,

they're watching you from the sky.

Helicopter patrols check who's

harvesting where and when.

Christophe's father

has seen it all before.

Lunchtime for the grape-pickers

at Domaine Morey-Coffinet.

There'll be four courses,

all prepared, cooked and served,

by Thibault's mother, Fabienne.

Fabienne will put on

this kind of meal, for 27 people,

twice a day,

for a week.

It's not surprising

that most of the locals,

and some of the students,

come back here

to work the harvest, year after year.

30 miles (48 km) north,

in Vosne-Romane

all the attention

is on the grapes at the winery

of Lalou Bize-Leroy.

[speaking French]

You have to respect the grapes.

The whole year long,

weve coddled these grapes.

We dont just dump them in a bucket

and bring them back like a pile of manure.

We carry them back in little baskets,

like raspberries.

On the sorting table,

we check them very carefully.

There are as many people sorting as picking.

We take our time.

[narrator]

Pinot Noir produces a low yield.

The best grapes

are incredibly valuable.

20 pairs of eyes

are checking them.

The sharpest eyes of all

are Lalou's.

Since she started wine-making,

she has supervised

the quality of her grapes... personally.

Not a single blemish

will be permitted.

At last, it's all over.

The harvest is finished

at Domaine Morey-Coffinet.

There's a tradition here

that on the last afternoon,

there's some fun.

They let off steam.

The youngest grape-picker

gets to tease the boss.

There's some horsing around.

Then there's happy chaos.

At the heart of the chaos,

Michel Morey, owner of the Domain.

Not every winery sees the boss

join in the craziness.

Everyone knows

it's time to relax.

Back at the house,

preparations are in hand

for a more sophisticated celebration.

Cleaned up, after the

food-fight in the fields,

the grape-pickers come to

a party in the cellars,

to honor the harvest of 2011.

Everyone's here, hosted of

course by Michel and Thibault.

They're pouring a selection of

bottles from the last ten years.

Even Celeste is part

of the party, of course.

Now is a time to reflect,

to consider past vintages,

to taste and to enjoy.

Maps of Burgundy,

the Chassagne region,

remind the students that

they're following a thousand-year tradition.

Like generations before them,

they're learning from those

who know fine wine.

Outside in the fields,

the first signs of autumn

are appearing.

The vine-leaves have done

their work for the year.

They've harvested the sun,

they've created the grapes.

Now, they die.

Every year,

it's a spectacular show.

Sebastien Gay is the first

of all the winemakers

to punch down his grapes.

Pigeage, as it's known,

is only done to red grapes,

and helps to infuse the juice

with the red color

and flavor of the skins.

These are the grapes from the

hail-damaged vineyard.

They're starting to ferment

of their own accord,

so this must be done soon,

and fast.

From here on, every winemaker

does things their own way.

[speaking French]

First, we're going..

to make our own unique wine.

We dont want our neighbors copying us.

If we make something really good, really special,

theyll say, How did you do that?

theyll say, How did you do that?

Im like a chef with a secret sauce.

I wont tell.

We work behind closed doors.

Open the doors for the harvest.

Close them to make the wine.

Thats what my father used to say.

[narrator]

How to do pigeage

isn't a secret.

It's what the winemakers learn

from doing it, that's important.

Some of them insist

on getting right into the tank,

to understand

what they're dealing with.

[speaking French]

Whats interesting and important is that

each vine has its own unique grapes.

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