APRIL

The swallows are back, chirp and prepare already for their progeny. The lizards lose their numbness and feel a thrill in the sun. The sap rises and revives the whole nature. It is spring.
The shoots of the vine explode in the light and give birth to very small bunches of grapes surrounded by fragile leaves in the making. Each year in spring we are amazed and thrilled about this force of plant revival.
At the same time, a certain apprehension gains the winegrower, because as from now on, it is him who has to do what is necessary to protect the promise of this annual miracle. Therefore he has to give up the quiet rhythm of the winter period and put himself up to the accelerated pulsation of the new days full of sunshine.
When I wake up in the morning I observe the breaking of the day through the half-open window. I listen, sense and look for the signs of the weather. Then, having washed my face and dressed, I go to the kitchen to boil water for the "9 o'clock tea", have a cup of coffee, fill the thermos flask, and pack the meal that my wife prepared the previous evening into the knapsack. Francisco, the Spaniard, and Luis, the Portuguese, like eating sardines in olive oil, tunny-fish with tomatoes or 'merguez', often accompanied by a raw onion. Personally I prefer a local sausage or even more a hard-rind cheese.
The "9 o'clock meal" is a great moment. Foremost, because you are hungry, for this is the first meal of the day, and inasmuch as the food eaten in the open air seems to be much tastier.
And then, as we choose a protected spot to sit down, we are taking in the sunshine and face the lake. A real observatory post between the ground and the sky that allows us to monitor more or less all the different winds on the upper part of the lake, from the embouchure of the Rhône to Evian.
We also look at the mountains of Savoie, they get the first early rays of sunshine. A special glance goes to the Dent-d'Oche; indeed, if surrounded by clouds and the other Savoy peaks are clean (the locals then say "she sucks"), this means that it will rain within three days. Strangely, this is usually correct.
If the avalanche from the Chaumeny descends up to the lake at Saint-Gingolph, this usually means a good viticultural year. At certain specific spots a pile of snow has a peculiar shape that changes as the snow melts.
Everywhere from Saint-Saphorin and Chardonne one can see or rather guess people with a straw basket in the vineyards. The time for stripping the leaves has come.
The rock and snow create special effects on the mountains on the other side of the lake. From Epesses we watch one of them that we call 'the horse'. It changes its form as the snow melts. At one stage it looks as if 'it has eaten his bundle of hay', and then we know that it is time to strip off the leaves. When it has 'no longer any head', then we have to tie the vine. For the children in the village this also means that the water of the lake is sufficiently warm to go for a swim.
Of course, one should not blindly believe in all these signs. Nevertheless, we have to admit that, when we were kids, our parents already talked about them; and they have at least the merit to teach us to look and to observe all those things that surround us far and nigh and in this way to better perceive, sense and take conscience little by little of the cosmic infinity that keeps in balance all those elements necessary for nature, for life.
Although the afternoons are already fairly warm, it is too early to work with the upper part of the body uncovered. As the saying goes "do not take off anything in April, but in May do as you please".
Indeed, the weather in April is a real riddle. The sloe flourishes, and the next day there is a white frost. The cuckoo starts singing and then there is a hail-shower. There is an expression saying: "thunder in April fills up the barrels".
As far as I am concerned, I prefer to await the month of May before making a first evaluation of how the vines are doing, because we often have frost between the 20th and 30th of April. A temperature close to 0 or 1º with some humidity, or minus 3º in dry weather, is sufficient to destroy the tender and fragile shoots. Fortunately this does not happen too often because the waters of the lake temporise the extremes and protect us. However, the higher parts of the slopes, from 500 metres upwards, are more exposed to frost, as they are further away from the lake.
The main task for the wine-grower in April is to prepare the soil. In the small steep vineyards between two walls in the Dézaley, he uses a hoe with three spikes to loosen the soil. In the other vineyards a plough and a windlass are utilised. If the vines are planted across on the slopes, a motorised milling machine can be employed. A tractor can only be used in other regions, in larger vineyards that have no walls and only a slight inclination.
The preparation of the soil consists in correctly putting into the ground the right quantities of humus and fertiliser, to keep the ground clean and to facilitate airing. If the crust of the soil is not solid and remains loose, the subsoil keeps the humidity and the vine resists better to the drought. Of course, these tasks have to be completed when the weather is dry, because if we trample down the moist soil, we jeopardise or at least disturb the micro-organisms in the soil.
All this intense microbial life has to transform the organic elements so that the plant may assimilate them in due course.
In the chill cellars, the pre-filtered wines are clear, almost limpid. They have completed their natural evolution and are ready to be bottled as from the end of the month. Through tasting we are looking for the tub that would be the most suitable for this first spring bottling. In principle, the wines coming from light soils evolve faster and are more pleasing in spring, whereas those from heavier soil need more time; we keep them for bottling until after the flowering of the vine.