The Morning Claret

Simon J Woolf & Friends on Wild and Wonderful Wines

pruning

Picture (c) Hannah Fuellenkemper
6 minute read

Hand harvesting isn’t the half of it

I hate the hoorah implied by ‘hand-picked’. I hate it more round about the fourth-plus week of repetitive vineyard work. At the worst of times in the vines, ‘bored’ is an understatement. But ‘hand-picked’ is a misrepresentation. Not everything is blockbuster work but everything is done by hand — and once you’ve completed one task, in a couple weeks you’ll be back at the same vine again.

5 minute read

Fear and pruning in Beaujolais

Hannah continues her winemaking adventures, but as she enters the 8th week of pruning in Beaujoalis, starts to suffer from increasing doubt about whether she’s made the right choice in life.