Written on 26/08/2020
Climato-nostalgia
The end of August in France. We put away the hammock and chain up the garden shed, which has remained open all vacation. The sun makes another effort to gild the girls' legs, and the grandparents give the children one last kiss.
On the four-lane return journey, we come across taboo words again: "work", "office", "schoolbag"... Barefoot on the dashboard, we take a final siesta, lulled by the echo of cicadas that will soon fall silent. The youngest is also asleep, resting from all the swimming in the river, all the apple pies, all the sand castles swallowed up by the tide against which we can do nothing... The older one says nothing. Her nose is glued to the window, hypnotized by the vineyards that flash by like a stroboscope. A week earlier, on a scorching hot day, they visited the estate next door. In the cool of the cellar, she listened to the winemaker talk about his work, his land and his grapes. Her little brother let out a big "wouaaaah!" at the hydraulic presses, and she was allowed to dip her lips in a grand cru. Then the winemaker explained that in a few weeks, it would be harvest time. Pairs of hands would be arriving from all over France to be equipped with pruning shears. The secateurs would cut the good grapes, and the hands would put them into baskets. It's like that every year...
Every year? Not really. This year, the harvest began in mid-August! It's one of the consequences of an increasingly hot, unbalanced climate. With a mild winter and little rain, the grapes blackened almost a month ahead of schedule! This was the earliest start in winegrowing history. The hot weather produced grapes with a higher alcohol content, so we had to act quickly. Another problem was manpower. The barrier gestures put a damper on the students, who are usually so numerous. Although we'll have to wait a little longer to find out how the 2020 vintage will turn out, we can already say that the year will be remembered for a long time to come. But our little family back from vacation has a good feeling about it: in the trunk, two cases of 2018 are making the trip with them...
