Caroline Feelyand her family left Ireland to follow their dream of making fine wine in France. Here she chronicles the work they do in their organic vineyard, near Bergerac, throughout the year, and Joe Breentastes their Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc
Two years ago my husband, Seán, and I were Dublin city-dwellers looking to change tack. We dreamed of owning an organic vineyard, but it always seemed out of reach. Then Château Haut Garrigue popped up on our computer screen. It was a historic farmhouse, vineyard and winery, near Bergerac in southwestern France, in great need of restoration.
Despite years of saving and planning - including taking night classes in French and in wine - moving to France was like jumping out of an aircraft without a parachute. Our daughters, Sophia and Elenna, were just two years and five months old at the time.
Seán now drives a tractor and wields pruning secateurs as confidently as he used to tap away on his Bloomberg terminal at Bank of Ireland Asset Management. I swapped computers on Merrion Square for concrete mixers. The girls are now fluent in French and adept at correcting our mispronunciations.
HARVEST
September is harvest time, which is exciting but also frightening. Most harvest days start before 5am and don't finish until midnight. We feel as if we are inside a tornado. We depend completely on the weather and on the messages from the grapes - to hear them we taste, we analyse and we walk the vineyard.
Based on their messages so far, we are planning to start harvesting today, September 15th, with the Sauvignon Blanc, our earliest ripener. After the physical work of picking, the grape juice and its transformation will get all our attention. Each vat is like a baby, needing its temperature and other vital statistics checked, morning and evening. They require constant attention, from cooling or heating to pumping over, for the reds, or lovingly stirring the lees, for the whites. This is the time when the most accidents occur on vineyards, thanks to the long hours, the machinery involved and the potentially fatal carbon dioxide, which is given off in the winemaking process. For almost two months we work all hours, with no weekends off. The days blur into one another. here is so much riding on this intense period. To get to this point we have put in a year of hard work in the vineyard. But why should you care about the work in the vineyard? Because it is this work that ultimately defines the wine. As one vigneron put it to us: "The wines are grown. I am not a winemaker. I merely help the grapes' transformation."
AUTUMN AND WINTER
Once the hectic harvest is over we begin the cycle again. November is a time of rest for the vines. But there is no time for the viticulteur, or winegrower, to rest. Vineyard maintenance must be done, including removing vines that were damaged during the year, repairing trellising and removing scrub oak, blackberries, ivy and weeds that are too tough for the mechanical hoe. There is much manual work, which is good for keeping warm outdoors in rapidly cooling temperatures. The vines look a little dishevelled after their bounty has been harvested, then they turn colour and become a show of autumn russet and gold.
The vineyard is an ever-changing palette of colours and activities, a beautiful place where animals, insects, vines and other plants thrive. It is also a place where ravagers - creatures that destroy or damage vines - and disease can be found, so vigilance is paramount, particularly for organic growers.
We strive to achieve harmony in the vineyard. That means encouraging a natural balance between ravagers and their predators rather than killing everything with a pass of insecticide. The only epidemic-level outbreaks of insects I have observed in our region have been on conventional farms where killing off one type of insect has resulted in a radical imbalance in another.
At this time we work the soil and lay down preparations to aid soil fertility. Being organic, we have to navigate this area carefully, as most of the agricultural suppliers around here say "quoi?" - what? - when you mention "biologique", or organic. The timing is important, as it gives the soil a chance to assimilate the compost or compost preparations over the winter.
December sees the start of the three-month pruning marathon - the time it takes Seán to get round our 10 hectares, or 25 acres. The vines look scraggly and dead, like bundles of twigs attached to vertical sticks, or logs, depending on the age of the vine. The vineyard is shrouded in hoar frost and the odd sprinkle of snow. Seán takes his electric secateurs and tackles it undaunted. He prunes each of our 30,000 vines from their unruly state down to one or two neat and carefully selected lats, or canes, which will be the bearers of next year's bounty. It is a skilled job, requiring constant concentration and judgment, both for the sake of the vines and for keeping fingers intact.
Pruning is key to the health of the vine, to excellent grapes and, therefore, to high-quality wine. It is at this point that the winemaker defines the gross potential yield of the vineyard parcel. Low yields are important to high-quality, evenly ripened bunches. Of course Mother Nature can intervene in many ways in the ensuing months to further reduce the potential harvest, via late frost, hail or drought. Pruning is a lonely job, but one meets the odd stranger. Last year Seán came face to face with a massive wild boar. It blew several smoky breaths into the cold morning air, then sauntered off without causing any trouble, to Seán's relief. We regularly meet deer, hares and pheasants.
In late March the buds swell, and we rush to finish tying the canes on to the trellises. Once the buds develop there is a chance of damaging them, so finishing quickly is essential. But it is a fine balance. To minimise the damage caused by a late frost it is better not to tie down too soon.
SPRING
Over a matter of days the buds turn from hard little green nodules to pink lumps, then fluffy pink leaves. It is stunning, and quick, and marks the transition from the relatively quiet start to the unbelievable speed and chaos of late spring. The vines can grow 10cm a day around this time. Unfortunately, the weeds and grass develop at a similar pace.
We weed under the vine with a mechanical hoe instead of herbicide, which is time consuming but better for your health and for ours. Between the vine rows we mow the cover of grass, clover and wild oat to limit competition with the vines. Some farmers herbicide the entire vineyard, to minimise the labour required to manage the biodiversity between the rows. This, aside from the obvious health risks, creates soil erosion and turns the vineyard into a desert over time. Certain herbicides commonly used in vineyards have been found to be persistent through into finished wine.
We also start the vital task of épamprage - removing the unwanted sucker shoots from the vine trunk, and selectively removing shoots on the head. This is very important for quality, as it allows the vine to focus on development of the shoots that will produce high-quality grapes. In a conventionally farmed vineyard the sucker shoots are often removed with endemic chemical sprays, and shoot selection on the head of the vine is ignored, because it is too manually intensive and, therefore, costly.
Mid-spring is typically the time to start treatments against fungi such as mildew and oidium. As organic farmers, we protect the vine before the risk rather than after - a preventative rather than curative ethos. This means spraying the vines before the rain with biodynamic preparations, or sulphur and copper, or both, to protect them.
SUMMER
Spring quickly cedes its place to summer. The days are gorgeous, long and hot - sometimes too hot. In a heatwave temperatures reach 45 degrees in the courtyard. We work from 5.30am until 11am, as it is too hot to be outside in the afternoon. We must trim the vines as well as continue the work started in spring. The grapes progress rapidly, changing from tiny, hard green peas to soft, sweet grapes over a few weeks. We watch their progress carefully. In August there is little to be done in the vineyard except watch closely and selectively remove leaves. It is the moment to rest and gather strength before the harvest.
We touch our vines regularly. They are living things that respond better to care from a human than to the constant grind of machinery and showers of chemicals, which are the order of the day for most conventional farmers. One biodynamic grower in Italy is convinced that playing classical music to his vines delivers better wines. We haven't started piping music into the vines yet. Perhaps next year.
The Feelys sell their wines online, and can deliver to Ireland. It is also on sale in the O'Briens wine shop chain. See www.wildearthvineyards.com
JOE BREEN'S VERDICT
Caroline and Seán Feely's first vintage of Château Haut Garrigue Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc, from 2006, is a crisp and bracing dry wine (12.5 per cent alcohol), with notes of citrus and pear drop and a smooth texture, that augurs well for their future. It will go happily with fish or an early-autumn salad. It's normally on sale at €10.99 from branches of O'Briens, but at the moment it's reduced to €9.99.