THE GRAPE HARVEST AT DURETTE At the end of Spring each year the Chateau of Durette recruits its grape-pickers. The grape harvest is the time for picking the grapes – it is real work and not always easy! It is an important moment in the life of the winemaker: the time to reap the benefit of his work!     How does the grape harvest work? The grape-picker’s day starts amongst the vines at 7.30 am after a coffee and a slice of bread and jam. He picks grapes until snack time around 9.15 am. At 12.30 the mid-day meal is served (starter, main dish, cheese and dessert) At 1.45 pm it is back amongst the vines until 5.30 pm The evening meal is served around 6.30 pm or 7.00 pm (starter, main dish, cheese and dessert) The working day is about eight and a half hours. (The times are given as an example) The grapes are picked by hand or with small clippers. (known as an epinette). They are then roughly sorted to get rid of leaves or rotten or unripe grapes, and thrown into a bucket. The bucket is emptied regularly into the carrier’s basket, which he in turn then empties on to the sorting table. Two people then sort through the grapes again to remove all the unwanted elements. The grape pickers are each positioned at the end of a row of vines, and progress with the picking at the same pace so that the carrier can empty the buckets regularly. In the meantime in the fermentation centre the freshly gathered grapes are put in to the different tanks according to the origin of their harvest. In practice? The grape harvest season lasts at least one week from Saturday to Saturday. The grape pickers are asked to commit themselves for a week. Normally, the harvest will take place this year during the month of September…. but it could start earlier as in 2007. The grape pickers are provided with copious and carefully prepared meals and lodged in dormitories. They are also paid about 60 euros per working day (eight and a half hours) free of tax in Belgium. The Chateau of Durette also offers to pay its grape pickers in bottles of wine which will be bottled the following season at a very competitive rate of 18 bottles of “Regnie – Cote de Durette” or of “Beaujolais Villages rose” per harvest day. We are currently looking to recruit about 40 grape-pickers for this work. We would ask all those who are interested in this work to leave their email address at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it so that we may contact them when the actual recruitment process starts. All you will need to do then is register and guarantee you presence during the specified week, which will be determined exactly during the month of August. We welcome weekend grape pickers, but they must find their own accommodation (their meals will be provided with the other grape pickers of course) or they can camp in tents in the field next to the fermentation centre and thus be close to the sanitary facilities. For those who for health or age reasons (not younger than 50 – 55) would like to work part time, either mornings or afternoons, you are also welcome to contact us. (However the organisation of the dormitories and meals might not allow for such a system to be put in place, or you might have to find your own accommodation away from the Chateau). Welcome to the Chateau of Durette for harvest time!