Vineyard field trip

On Tuesday, 5/5, we did a wine outing with two of our classmates and the school director, Gérard. As you may know, wine is a huge part of the culture here -- you can't buy a vineyard, you must inherit one, and you have to make the wine in the Sancerre tradition to receive the AOC. Gérard makes his wine for his family's consumption only.

There are only two kinds of grapes here, sauvignon blanc and pinot noir, from which they make white, rosé and red wine. They don't irrigate the vineyards here, so the wine quality varies by year, and by the vingeron's production techniques.

Gérard is close friends with the Henri Bourgeous family so we were able to visit their vineyard, their production facility, an old celler, and of course, the tasting room.

We started our tour by driving to an overlook of Sancerre and the surrounding area. Sancerre sits on top of a hill and has been around since medieval times when the Celts got their butts kicked in a battle with the Romans. Too long ago to even count.

Sancerre, a mountaintop town, is over Keith's right shoulder.

The vineyard we visited is in the town of Chavignol, and is famous for being on a hill so steep that it must be cultivated manually, with people dragging dirt etc up the hill in barrels. But the soil and the aspect are perfect for growing sauvignon blanc grapes (which are much more finicky than chardonnay grapes.)

A vine growing on "Les Monts Damnes"

Check out one of the assembly lines in the production facility. Too bad you can't hear the clanking noise. Watching them produce all those bottles made me feel positively bullish about the future -- surely there will be enough wine for all.

Many brave souls devote their lives to the heroic task of winemaking. Bon courage!

In this "natural" celler, no climatization is needed to maintain a constant temperature. They had many (OK, four) bottles that are older than I am!

Beautiful and slightly creepy celler

Finally, we reached the tasting room where Michael, Maram, Keith and I learned a great deal about tasting wine from Gérard. Who knew that the winemakers didn't add flavors of currents or lavendar? (I see you looking smug, thinking, "Of course they don't. But what a quaint thought.")

Photo taken before purchases