What winemakers do in winter

The Ardèche isn’t just about saving dish water for the garden and sleeping out the heat. There’s also the time of year you butcher the pigs that keep the vendangers fed during harvest. Namely January.

Casse-croûte was at 10, the breaking and dipping of bread into last year’s bacon, boudin and dark-ochre eggs still crackling in a globe-sized paella pan stacked on pallets - and wine. The sun was out now, our pale faces to the sky. A group of eight friends were here at Sylvain Bock’s chai just like every year around this time, to process next year’s patés, terrines, broth and other bits and bobs in pots, sausages fresh and dry.

But I hear you. You’re looking for a bit of environmental leadership by those who make and drink natural wine? If the Pope’s been challenged to go vegan, then how come these guys get to kill pigs?

There is a clear responsibility for everyone to consume sustainably, be that in regard to clothes, food, plastic or wine. For winemakers to do otherwise is morally jarring,…