If you’re reading this, then congratulations, you’ve made it to mid-September 2021. To those for whom the world is new, perhaps very little seems awry, but for we who are more traveled and long of tooth, many of us are out of sorts, world-weary and bedraggled, or simply confused by the recent, and not so recent, turns of events, which continue turning tirelessly, leaving us feeling, well, a little turnt. So far this month, we’ve celebrated our work, and that of our ancestors, with a day of rest and outdoor cooking. We’ve posted our ballots and kept a side-eye on the news. Many have fasted, atoned, and repented, while others have feasted, seethed and doubled down. The moon this week is waxing and gibbous, and vineyard workers around the world have begun picking grapes for crushing and fermenting.

It happens every year around this time, for as long as anyone can remember, the reliable ripening of fruit. As Milan Kundera writes in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting: “...Mother was right after all: tanks are mortal, pears eternal." As the days grow shorter and the temperature cools, we taste and test for sugar and acid, then make the call to pick. The availability of field hands, as well as inclement weather, may affect the harvest schedule, and surprisingly, there’s rain expected this Sunday morning in northern California. This season’s drought has damaged some vineyards, and lowered yields overall, but it has also produced some excellent fruit, concentrating flavor with enforced dry-farming. There are fewer grapes than usual this year, but they will produce fine quality wine, albeit a little less of it.

In Burgundy, it may start pouring rain in a few days and could carry on like that for a full week; a frightening prospect, capping a frostbitten spring with a fall deluge. Frost, hail, and heavy rains have made this season very difficult for farmers in France, especially those trying to fend off mold and mildew organically, and French wine production is expected to be down twenty-five to thirty percent from normal levels. While many in Burgundy will begin picking this week, Bill Nanson reports that weather and the availability of pickers are not the only considerations affecting the harvest schedule. “Because of the French administration, it’s unlikely that anyone will actually start their harvest on Sunday because it’s classed as the last day of a working week – so picking on Sunday and Monday will require double the amount of paperwork – as the accounting is required for two separate working weeks!”

This is the busiest time of year for our friends who pick grapes and make wine, full of anxiety and hard labor, and while we navigate our own troubles and celebrate our triumphs, I like to keep in mind that the folks who crown our dinner tables with the liquid magic of sunshine and dirt are just now in the thick of it, working to provide for themselves, and for all of us.

With thanks,

Max