Ryan's Bordeaux Blog

This week began with an early start on a drizzly Monday morning. Up at 6:00 am and then in the courtyard at 6:30 am to meet two of my new coworkers. Instead of Habier and Jacqueline, this week I was to work with a group of guys, most of which around my age and one of which was a Lurton. After meeting Sebastian (Lurton) and Denis in the courtyard we got into the Peugeot 205 and drove through the small city of Libourne to a patch of vineyard just on the border of St. Emilion. After arriving in the new vineyard with just Sebastian and Denis, I noticed the rag tag group coalesce quickly, one by one. After a flurry of french, none of which I understood, the group meandered into action by pruning the shoots and preparing the Double Guyot system of training wires.

Between announcing that he'd just gotten his girlfriend pregnant and then sauntering over to have a pee on the closest vine, I learned from speaking in english to Nathanael that the cock-eyed [censored] had some troubles growing up, and that Thierry has been trying to help him for a long time. The group refers to one of the older workers ... I'd guess about 50-55... as "chef" . Missing at least one finger that I could tell and countless more teeth, he seems to be in charge when neither Nathanael or Thierry are there, which is most of the time.

Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson's "World Atlas of Wine" has been an excellent aid to learning the regional geography of where I'm situated in Bordeaux. I've also had fun following the stages of development of the grapes, as described in this excellent book. It appears as through the grapes are between the flowering stage (Stage 4) and the hard, green baby grapes of Stage 5.



This principal monument of the Place des Quinconces was erected between 1894 and 1902 in memory of the Girondists who fell victim to the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. The figure on the top is supposed to represent the spirit of liberty.


After enjoying a "biere" at a small brassiere, I met back up with Andre who gave me a lift back home.

Wednesday we started at a new vineyard ("Au Bedat") just 200 m from Thierry's home, beginning work at 6:00 am (requiring a 5 am start) and then finishing at 1 pm. On Wednesday afternoon I was anxious to get home and rummage through the fridge as I'd given my grocery list to Thierry's wife Solange just a few days prior and was told to expect groceries for that day. Upon returning home from work I found a large grocery bag placed on the floor of my kitchen and going through it I discovered most items on my list: garlic... check ... olive oil ... check ... french bread... check ... fruit ... check ... fresh vegetables ... check .... hot dogs!? Upon preparing my list I carefully wrote "saussice" and so was surprised to find three packages of the retarded cousin of the "saussice" here in it's place. After confirming the translation with Nathanael I'm still scratching my head over what went wrong... The best I can come up with is that despite the diverse food palate of Toronto and world class quality of both Canadian produce and our chefs, our international reputation as a country of "mange cakes" still preceeds us. All I can say is that I've been practicing with the Peugeot and next week I'll be getting my own groceries, thank you.

Work for the rest of the week was much the same, as was the wet weather, only taking place at the Au Bedat vineyard. This new group of coworkers is quite a change from the matronly Habier and Jacqueline, who get upset if they feel that I've not consumed enough soft cheese and toast during our "coffee" break. Although, by Friday things had loosened up to the point where we've been joking and partaking in as much conversation as the language barrier would allow.