Hi all
So. My wife has work in Paris the second part of September, and I want to give her a week of focus for her project. I want to come to the vineyards, but I know this time is the busy harvest time and I’d feel quite bad sitting in a local restaurant eating and drinking, watching everyone else working.
Does anyone have experience joining somewhere for cellar or picking work for just a week? Or any other insights to share—
Thanks in advance
I did this 20 years ago, for the 2005 harvest. Some things may have changed, but I had a Parisian wine merchant friend arrange things with the producer. In my case, I’m American, so I didn’t have work authorization and needed someone who could get around that. Of course I wasn’t looking to get paid, so it didn’t matter to me, but it was part of the complications in finding a producer willing to get involved.
And, they had to be up for hosting and feeding me, including on the weekend when the other pickers went home.
The other reason it helps to have a contact is because even though many places could probably use the (free) labor, you might not be as good of a worker as the types they usually get. And, you might have more questions/want a different type of engagement than the standard worker. So it helps to have a winemaker prepared and ready/excited for that. At least that was my experience.
But I’m sure someone on this big board can help.
Thanks Rahsaan!
For the first part, yes I could see that. Luckily I’m European so it doesn’t matter much.
For the second part I’m absolutely with you, and that’s my main worry right now that I’m more of a burden than help. And yes, I’ll definitely have more geeky questions ready to fire at all times!
Maybe I should just fire a few emails at the domaines I admire the most and see if they’ll be happy to have me.
You could always try that, but it could be a low probability endeavor. If not through this board, if you had local merchants/importers/ITB friends who could provide insight on which domaines/personalities/temperaments would be best suited to your situation, and could make the initial contact on your behalf, that might be a higher probability of success.