The Work of the Vine

The Harvest Time

After having cultivating his vineyard for long months, the wine-grower should then get ready and suceed his harvest. In Champagne, we hire around 60 000 to 75 000 people to work for about 10 to 15 days.
Depending on the years, the Champenois legislation does not permit the harvesting of only a hectare yield of 9 000 to 12 000 Kg; that narrows the grape-pickers to only pick the best of the harvest crop. Also it is impossible in Champagne to use a harvesting machine because the grapes have to be delicately handle and the harvesting must be manual.

The Soil Maintenance

The objectives of this task are to break up the soil, to air it, to balance it’s irrigation and to bring some nutritive and protective elements to it. His work is done by the ploughing, the chemical weeding and as for the diet, it is done 3 ways :


 the mineral diet
 the organic diet
 the manure diet

They are done in the fall or beginning of spring.