The French Wine Areas and Their Seasons
The main regions are, from south to north: Roussillon (on the Mediterranean adjacent the Spanish border); Languedoc, between Toulouse and Montpellier; Cotes du Provence (vineyards from Marseille to Monaco); the Cotes du Rhone, which stretches for 120 miles from Avignon and Lyon; Bourgogne, or Burgundy (from Lyon to Dijon); Bordeaux, the largest wine-producing area in France, which begins at the edge of Bordeaux itself and moves east; Cognac, the area around a town by that name; Val de Loire (stretching nearly from the mouth of the Loire River on the Atlantic deep inland to Nevers); Alsace (along the German border and Rhine River); and the famous Champagne region in the north around Reims and not far from Paris.
The major regions are listed in the above order because that is also the harvesting sequence. The season may vary each year; the vendanges may overlap, however. The work begins around the first or second week of September in the southern regions. The Cotes du Rhone area bustles around the third September week. The beginning of October should signal the start of picking in Bourgogne. By the middle of October, Bordeaux and Cognac get busy. An average vendange lasts two to three weeks, depending on the size of the estate. You're expected to stay a minimum of ten days. And you'd best begin scouting for work early in September. Reason: You'll have some competition. Spanish labor, for instance, comes to the harvest in droves; many programs bring British young people and collegians from other nations. And naturally, the French university students themselves turn out in force for the occasion.
Practical Matters
If you can speak French, you can call on the farmers yourself. Some people just go door-to-door and ask for work; a phrasebook proves useful for this approach. And there are several French agencies which get the picker and grower together at no charge. (See list at end of this section.) Many Europe-based organizations provide you with info on the vendange.
When you ask for work, a French grape pickers' vocabulary comes in handy. Remember these words: vendanger: to gather grapes; vintage; la paye: the pay; le logement: lodging; la nourriture: board; mal aux reins: backache; le seau: bucket; la tondeuse: clippers; vignoble: vineyard; les raisins: grapes; mur: ripe.
Before starting, you should also be aware of the various jobs in the vineyards. The coupeurs (cutters) work the rows of vines. The porteurs (porters) collect the grapes and dump them into the wagon. There is normally one porter for a dozen or so pickers. A porteur must have good legs and shoulders. It is hard work but less tiring than cutting. (A newcomer or a woman will rarely get to be a porter.) It is equally difficult to be employed as a tractor driver or help in the presses. In every case, your employers expect you to work hard. "If you loaf, the French get on your case and you're out," says one American grape picker. "See it as an interlude. An adventure. Forget about getting rich."
The Pay
The financial arrangement varies. Certain vineyards will try to take advantage of a foreigner's ignorance and pay less than he or she should get. Wage scales are sometimes posted in town halls. If you get room and board your salary will be less, of course, averaging 65 francs per day. But to avoid getting ripped off, always discuss your working conditions before you start. Another tip: Don't bother asking for an official work permit, because you stay only a short time, anyway. Many vintners lack housing for foreigners and thus won't hire them; so bring a tent and say you have one. One more piece of advice? Never write for a job; no one has time to correspond. Instead, call in person.
Your profits are not bad. You'll always get some basic foodstuffs, and during the two or three working weeks, no one gets much opportunity to spend any money. So you'll come out ahead financially. More-you gain a unique perception of France.
Wine will never taste the same again.
The German Vineyard Scene
A week before the grape harvest in the Rhineland, this writer and a woman companion were wending their way up the unpaved little road that serpentines through the terraced vineyards above Assmanshausen. One cannot see the summits of these historic German wine mountains, but as we hiked, we were getting high on the views. The Rhine River wove a silver band far below us, with many barges moving ponderously through the waters. To the north, there was the Lorelei rock; toward the south, we saw old castles on both sides. The trains whirred along the river banks 1,000 meters below us, direction Switzerland.
The sun was laughing. We stopped to sample the dewy grapes that hung against a morning sky. We were alone among the ancient vineyards. All around us, colored ribbons fluttered in a light breeze to keep the birds away from the ripening fruit.
It was a late September, six days or so before the Weinemte (wine harvest). When it starts, all along the Rhine River, the Mosel, the Saar, the Weinstrasse, and other regions, many local villagers lock up their little businesses and join any available worker to collect the valuable fruit. Even the local chefs and some eager tourists help out. Likewise, students of all nationalities are welcome to snip the trauben clusters off the vines, or to function as porters. Each basket load is about 50 to 100 pounds of fruit which you tilt into a wagon. Your wages will be lower than in France.
Bear in mind that the German wine industry isn't as large as France's. At last count, Germany only had some 30,000 vineyards. The total cultivated area of 210,000 acres seems insignificant, even compared to California's 675,000 acres. Working in a German vineyard for a short time, as I did, can be a rewarding experience in people-to-people terms. And as you bend over a well-shaped plant with beautiful fruit, you cannot forget that a medieval farmer stood at this precise spot five hundred years ago, harvesting this very field. His Roman ancestors already grew grapes here.
You may find work at these noted areas:
The Mosel comprises such famous wine towns as Bernkastel, Piesport, Zeltingen, Trittenheim, Trier. The Mosel region comprises approximately 27,000 acres of river valleys in western Germany. The area yields about 10 million gallons of wine per year.
The Pfalz (Palatinate) includes the well-known Weinstrasse (Wine Road), with such well-respected wine centers as Bad Diirkhcim. The road begins in the northern village of Kleinbockenheim, adjacent to Bockenheim on highway 271, near the Hessian border. The vineyards stretch beyond this point for some distance to the north.
The Rheingau is the poetic region along the Rhine River where this reporter tried his hand at the Weinernte. Assmanshausen, Lorch, Rudesheim, and Bingen are some of the better-known harvest communities. The upper Rhine also produces good wines. (Ask directions to Koblenz or Boppard.)
Likewise, the Neckar and the Main rivers, as well as the Danube, are flanked by many vineyards.
When you travel to your destination, you'll see some glorious scenery and magnificent ancient cities. Gleaming space-age buses shuttle between all the historic old points from Cologne south, along the steep, castled valley of the Rhine; from Mannheim west to the wine country and to ancient Trier, or east to staunch old Heidelberg, and the slow-flowing, green-banked Neckar River. The dewy, stately Black Forest region, the German Alps, the cold beaches northwest of Bremen, and the well-preserved historic cities of Nurnberg and Wiirzburg are all worth visiting before or after the harvest season, along with Germany's spas like Baden Baden (whose parks and hotels are impeccably kept).
If you intend to work in the still romantic Rhineland, it would be wise to stay in Assmanhausen, where the vistas are just as dramatic as in (much more famous) Bingen-am-Rhein. Try the little wine communities along the Rhine; you get there on the local river ferry or by bus. At all times, local conveyances are cheaper than those used for prepackaged, escorted tours.
The College Student's Deutschland
Traditionally, American students have augmented the German labor force, especially in late summer. Germany has a booming tourist industry then; farmers are busy in their fields, vineyards, and orchards.
Students can thus be employed for at least two months in agriculture. You must travel to Europe at your own expense, but you receive the same pay as the Germans. Many Americans are students of the German language, literature, or history who want to improve their knowledge of German. Another motive: to become acquainted with the land, the people, and their way of life.
Viticulture in Luxembourg and England
The little Duchy of Luxembourg shares borders with both Germany and France; Luxembourg is known by budget travelers who have landed here via Icelandic Airlines for decades. Intriguingly, Luxembourg also grows a lot of grapes, especially along the lovely banks of the Mosel River. It is fairly easy to help pick grapes for a few days in the bilingual (German and French) communities of Wasserbillig, Grevenmacher, Remich, Schwengen, and others.
As in other countries, you cannot hope to garner temporary employment by sending letters from the U.S., or by corresponding with various offices while you're in Europe. Instead, just drop in personally. Take along a French-speaking (or German-speaking) friend if you need help in communicating.
The Luxembourg Youth Hostels are always a good place to obtain leads. Also try the Luxembourg Office National du Tourisme: Luxembourg, Place de la Gare, or the Syndicat d'lnitiative, Remich a 1'Hotel de Ville.
So much for Luxembourg. How about Italy? Or Spain? Or Portugal? They're all big wine countries. But the local people have always handled the harvests. You'll find a microscopic viticulture in the British Isles. Because so many North Americans visit England, a few words about a possible job.
Specifics? Suffolk Vineyards in East Anglia grows more than 30 acres of vines in rolling countryside. Lord Montague owns a vineyard on his Beaulieu Abbey Estate in Hampshire where the old monks used to grow their grapes. Others are on the Isle of Wight.
At Horam, Sussex, south of London, the Merrydown Wine Company first planted vines more than two decades ago. There are twenty more growers nearby.
You may also try Pilton Manor near the Mendip Hills in Somerset. In England's northeast, more than 300 vines prosper on the cathedral grounds in Lincoln. For more info, visit the friendly English Vineyards Association, Cricks Green, Felsted, Essex, England. And in any case, contact the National Union of Students, 3 Endsleigh Street, London, W.C. 1.
