A day in the life of a Biac Grape during harvest

They decided to share a day in the life of a Biac Merlot grape on harvest day, from the moment of being picked to becoming wine juice – to give you a little insight into what happens to a grape during one of the most exciting times of the year in Bordeaux!

Monday 21 September: today is…MY day! I was woken up by the first sun rays and the bustling noise of our pickers arriving. I can smell the aroma of the coffee they are drinking and wish I could share their pain au chocolat! They are ready and so am I: after months of being tied to my vine, I will finally start my journey to explore the world…

The hand of a picker grabs me firmly and places me in a small basket, which the porter then lifts onto the tractor very quickly.

Patrick, the smiling tractor driver takes us to the winery and Jacky gently tilts my basket onto the vibrating table…ooohhh it tickles and bumps as I hop along with all my grape family! William picks me up just to check that no tiny snails are hiding inside the bunch and puts us back on the table…we are ready for the big jump into the destemmer.

Finally, I AM FREE: the destemmer has detached me from the stem, which has fed me all these past months and I can bobble along the sorting table. The women looking at us cackle like old hens!

I have passed the final test and fall into the crusher which squeezes me gently before I join all my friends again. We are gently rolling down towards the vat and Sebastien is making sure that there are enough of us in the vat so that we can start our work. Soon, we will transform ourselves into a delicious juice. My life doesn’t end here…

I will become wine, live in a barrel for some months and I will travel the world in a bottle. I will most probably grow quite old unless some greedy drinker gulps me down too soon…But that is another story!