You have to be kind of a renaissance man/woman when you work in a winery.

You can't exactly stop everything and wait for the plumber or electrician to show up when something needs to be fixed, so everybody needs to know a bit about everything around here. Today I disassembled and reassembled the plug to a pump and the cuve lantern, and rebuilt the end of one of the hoses. Here's Cyril taking apart the control box on the jimmy-rigged conveyor belt.

My pants are also filthy, because I cleaned lees out of three cuves, so my jeans are covered in purple.

Today was another day of intricate ballet, with all pumps in operation, moving wine from this cuve to that one, inside and outside. Between yesterday and today we sent off 2 full cuves of finished wine from 2008, which Nathalie had sold to a negociant. We took all the rose that was still varietally segregated and consolidated it into 2 or 3 cuves. When the cuves are being filled with juice, somebody has to keep an eye on them from the top to make sure they don't overflow. You can get kind of seasick doing that, watching the bubbles on the surface of the wine move below you. It's like staring into the ocean at night.

We're in the process of pulling all the Syrah off it's must and consolidating the various vineyards together, which is a big process since there's more Syrah than anything else. We've got the Moroccans working outside, emptying one cuve, and meanwhile we're pumping the free-flow juice that went from that cuve into cuve 19 overnight into the cuve where it will rest for a while. The whites as well are being pumped out of varietal segregation and into their various blending tanks, as are the pinks. Many times since I've been here we've found ourselves standing about, waiting for something else to be ready to get done. Today was the first time we had to stand and wait for the pumps to be done with what they were doing so they could be moved on to their next task. By the end of the day, we had literally every single red wine hose in the winery in use, and even had to wait a few times because we didn't have enough double-male joints to couple them all together.

We also went about the process of taking apart various bits of equipment that won't be used again until next year. We cleaned and disassembled the whole receiving area for red grapes, and I even got to drive the forklift to take the stem bin over to the garage for storage. Forklifts rule.
By the end of the day I think I must have gone up and down the stairs at least 50 times. Last time I was in France I gained 10 pounds in 2 weeks due to excessive wine and cheese consumption. This time I don't think I've gained a bit, may have even lost weight, and I'm pretty sure those stairs are to thank for it.

My legs hurt now, and I have a new episode of Heroes to watch. Goodnight all.