Les Vendanges: The Wine Country’s Harvest Season

The French don’t have a tradition of going away to summer camps in their youth, but the yearly vendanges, or grape harvests, are probably the closest the French get to the sleepaway camp experience. Harvesters made up of students and adults in need of a getaway flock to wine growing regions and spend their end-of-summer days picking grapes and enjoying the outdoors, with newfound friends and a renewed appreciation of the beauty of the French countryside.

The harvest season is a time of both excruciating physical labor and extreme conviviality. Winemakers assemble teams of harvesters that spend their days in the grapevines, going row by row, picking and sorting good grapes from the bad, vigilantly keeping an eye out for rot and mildew that could contaminate the wine. This is a crucial moment in the winemaking process and there is pressure to pick grapes at the right time, to be sure that the bunches that will later be pressed and put in a barrel are of the highest quality. The harvest can be a stressful time for the winemaker, and back-breaking for the harvesters, but that doesn’t stop anyone from enjoying this unique experience in the vines and with each other.