NOVEMBER

Nature offers us an unequalled festival of colours. The various shades blend and mingle. The green of the summer becomes yellow, the yellow turns red and the red rusts. The whole scenery changes into a huge bunch of flowers, like a last effort before the rest in the winter.
After the rather hectic vintage, November represents the beginning of a new year for the winegrower. With the help of a mechanised wheelbarrow, or a basket on the back for the steep slopes, he carries the soil up to the top and fills again the gullies created by the rains in the summer. This is a very tiring task.
Fortunately, the days are rather short and the night falls early. The advantage of this up and down between the walls of the vineyard is that it allows to inspect more or less each vine-stock and to discover here and there some small bunches of grapes that were forgotten. The winegrower has in that way the privilege to extend his grape-treatment until the end of autumn.
He also has to replace any old worn out vine by digging 60 to 70 cm deep, repair the walls, so that everything is ready for spring. If the ground is made up of solid soil, it is preferable to plough before winter; in that way the frost will be able to penetrate better into it and make it lighter.
The rhythm of the tasks in autumn is slower. We are no longer put under pressure by the vegetation; the harvest has been completed and we have some time to reflect, count and devise.
Whilst working, I make plans for the future. If all goes well, and according to the quantity of must in the cellar, I will be able to maintain this, reconstruct that or also complete my viticultural equipment.
One has to admit that the technical evolution is so fast that it is difficult for me to follow. An example: in September my son installed a solar panel of about 30 by 50 cm in one of the vineyards to set in motion an equipment that chases away the birds by imitating their shrill sounds of distress. I did not believe in it, but it nevertheless works fine.
At times I wonder why people on this earth do not get on together in a better way. Facing the complexity of this subject, my head is swimming and I am unable to find valid solutions. So I take refuge in a dream. And there, just like in a fairy-tale, I am in the middle of my vines that sing and dance of joy. One vine-stock after the other parades in front of me and invites me to take their wine and offer it to the great persons of this world, so that they may raise their glasses to the health of their neighbours. The night falls, and it remains a dream, unfortunately.
The wife of the winegrower also has an important role to play and carries huge responsibilities. She cooks, washes, goes shopping, keeps the cash, answers the phone and knows the whereabouts of the personal effects of everybody. She deserves special attention, because the wife of a winegrower is a full partner in the business enterprise and also ensures the good atmosphere and survival of the family environment.
The cellars are warming up under the fermentation, it is the birth of the new wine. A special flavour hovers through the whole house and even on to the streets of the village. This important transformation of the juice of the grape into wine releases an important quantity of carbon dioxide. The latter is dangerous and impedes the breathing and may even lead to death by suffocation if the necessary precautions are not taken.
Before entering a cellar full of wine in fermentation one has to ventilate by opening doors and vent-holes and then put in motion the air-exhaust. Or one can take along a burning candle; for as long as it burns there is no danger, however when it suffocates one has to hurry and get out.
At the tasting the new wine is peevish and sparkling, cloudy and prickles on the tongue, because it still has traces of unsettled sugar. It is somewhat early to predict its future, it is better to await its second fermentation before doing so. Nevertheless, it is prudent to watch it and taste it each day, because it is still in a fragile and delicate phase. One has to care for it, be vigilant, somehow like a mother for her newborn.