Glorious June

Our local wine domaine, vines soaking up the sun and roses in full bloom.  This vineyard has one of the most glorious settings nestling in the hills between the lovely villages of Roussillon and Goult.  Makes topping up the wine stocks a real pleasure.

To hand pick or not?

As we were walking out this fine morning on what should be but isn't, our daily constitutional, we came upon this fine crop.

What makes this shot interesting is the condition of the fruit. Like 90% of the producers around here in the Luberon this vineyard mechanically picks the grapes. Now our good friends the winemakers at Domaine Fav maintain that to get the best results everything has to be handpicked in order to only take the perfect bunches leaving out the dried up or mouldy stuff. Makes a lot of sense. What makes this shot interesting is that the vineyard has been up and down the rows cutting out the less than perfect bunches and cutting back the foliage. Very clever, minimum labour cost on the hand picking, maximum speed in the cool of the morning which is needed for the white and the rosé wine.

Fabulous Provencal Autumn reds and golds

From the fabulous red creeper at the wine Domaine de la Fourmone in Vacqueras to the gold and yellows of the vines in the Cotes du Rhone vineyards

and the gorgeous trees against the blue blue sky on the road driving up to Mont Ventoux.

These are the colours of Autumn in Provence.