Wine Fest ... err. Sinus Fest?

bestiole-de-la-guarrigue-ensemble,
originally uploaded by ryanovineyards.

Sunday, we got to attend a local wine and everything festival held in Moussoulens.

Ampelography, the identification of vines based on visible characteristics, lends its name to the event because we love our winemakers here (at least when it's time to party). The amazingly named festival, Les Ampelofolies, focuses on products of the vines ranging from fine wines to plonk to distilled press juice (anti-freeze).

But, at a glance, we see that Les Ampelofolies celebrates a whole lot of things that do not grow on vines. There's a growing focus on truffles and other less pricey regional delectables. It's really a celebration of all things smellable. A festival of the nose. Smell the terroir. Smell it!

And it's fun. Oh is it fun! Eat all day. Like a carnival where everything is delicious and the vendors made everything themselves. There's pros and amateurs. Volunteer firefighters selling home made cookies. Youngsters like my neighbors and I selling fine wine. Bands dressed as enormous insects.

And of course, like all French village fests, it is a celebration of the moustache.

Video for those who hate reading or just can't get enough of the wine fest ambience.

Tempete de 2009 - It's Windy

It's been a long and windy day. I am not allowed to go outside because my mom is panicking. The department has banned car travel until further notice. We can see three healthy trees fallen from the winery loft. We assume we're going to be clearing out a lot of trees. Hopefully nothing damages the vines or trellis system. A big one fell in the Syrah.

At least I can still drink.

Sometimes I stay inside all day voluntarily. But when it's forced upon me, I go ga ga. To demonstrate, a recent Garfield Minus Garfield comic:

(this is a comic strip that just reprints popular Garfield comics without the titular character, focusing instead on the grim existential masterpiece that is John)

Pruning Vines in the Winter

It's an exceptionally cold winter in France this year and everybody from Paris to Marseilles is covered in an unexpectedly thick sheet of snow. We are enjoying it in the Languedoc too as the vines can always use a good frost. The plants harden and green vines turn to woody tentacles that latch on to the wire trellis system so hard you think you'll need the jaws of life.

Most of the locals who prune professionally refuse to work with us because our trellis system (four wires) supports the plants too much. They need to be doing a plant every twenty seconds to make a decent wage. That means spur pruning AND ripping off all the growth. As you can see in this video, my dad is just pruning. A future video will feature how I run around behind him tearing down all the vegetation that he has pruned. But in this one we see the solemn slow work of cutting down vines and letting them hang on the wires.

It's pretty tedious but it's sort of beautiful (especially with snow on the ground). Some people will enjoy this movie and it's slow pacing across the frozen tundra and its light sense of nostalgia for sunny Florida where I spent my December in beach-going weather. Others will think I am an artsy fart. Such is life. Enjoy the video.