Domaine La Grange english

An interview with helping hands from Germany

Thank you Lars and Marcus for helping with the harvest at La Grange. What were your first impressions?

Marcus: This was the first time that we helped with the harvest, so we didn't know what to expect. In the morning, when the vineyards are still shady, work was easy.
At noon, in the full sun, things looked differently all of a sudden. It's really hard work. Hats off to the people who have to do this all the time.

Lars: When I was introduced as the the boss's son-in-law conversations stopped for a couple of minutes. When it became clear that I don't speak french, everyone was happy to start talking again. At the end of the working day we shared what little french or german we all knew - very much to the amusement of everybody.

Marcus: Of course we didn't have any food with us because we didn't know lunch takes place in the vineyards. But they all shared their food with us. We really appreciated that.

Renate: Did you learn something new?
Lars and Marcus: Until now we only drank wine and never really thought much about 'winemaking'. During our holiday we followed the process from grape to fermentation for the very first time. It's impressive how much physical work is necessary for the last stages. After observing that you look at a bootle of wine with different eyes.

Renate: Are you in for the next harvest?
Both: Of course! Maybe even for a prolonged period of time, now that we know how things work.
Renate: What are your favorite wines?
Lars and Marcus: Castalides Réserve and Prat Bibal Tradition

Manual harvest at La Grange

Here at La Grange we have vineyards that are more than 50 years old. These vineyards have to be harvested by hand and are usually the last ones to ripen.

But they don't say 'best things last' for no reason. In these vineyards we never use big machinery. Instead, the grapes are cut by hand and are carefully placed into boxes.

These are the grapes we use to make our Castalides wines. The very best you can get from La Grange. Our manual harvest yields grapes of the highest quality and thus, wines of the highest quality.

This year's grapes are very small but very aromatic. Exactly what is required if you want to make great wines. Of course, we also never say no to a good cup of coffee at the end of a harvesting day.