The team was already on the job at 3 a.m. on this cool, damp Saturday morning. We collected the Rolle-Vermentino grapes before the temperatures got too warm, followed by the reds: Syrah, Cinsault and Cabernet.
The work was conducted using sanitary quality controls of harvest. Everything was healthy and ripe to the point predicted by the maturity tests carried out in the previous weeks.
Headlamps danced in the moonless night as the bins of grapes piled up quickly in the truck, ready to be transported to the crushing pad. Approaching exhaustion, twelve of us cut and two of us carried, we welcomed the 9 a.m. break all the more for the fresh, succulent croissants that awaited us.
Once again, the magic of the harvest had cast its spell – everyone revelled in a spirit of levity and satisfaction.
This moment was the result of all our hard work, the culmination of a year’s labor and skill by Emmanuel Gaujal, oenologist, and the Mamia Galem team. Two days later, before the start of the fermentation process, and once things had calmed down, we tasted the juice of the three grape varieties we had harvested. The taste was incomparable, all the aromas were there for our greatest pleasure. This was when we realized the miracle in which we had played a role.