WWOOFing at Château Brandeau

The second week of our February vacation, we decided to get the real WWOOF experience by staying about a week in the vineyards of Château Brandeau. This is the same winery that we WWOOF'd at before Christmas. We were both really excited to learn a little more about the vines and the work involved.

Our main job this week was to "tirer le bois" (translated "pull the wood") and is essentially ripping the vine prunings out of the trellis wires. We usually did this for about 3 1/2 hours in the morning before it go too hot. This was pretty physical work!

Katie shows off the proper technique (and asks did you buy tickets to the gun show?)

After pulling out the vine cuttings, we placed them in the middle of the rows. Some vineyards burn the vine cuttings, but here at Château Brandeau, they use another method using a tractor with a grinder to grind the cuttings into little mulch pieces.

Some of the animals along the way as we headed out in the morning.


In the afternoon, we were assigned less taxing jobs like weeding the gardin and turning the soil.

Then feeding the weeds to the chickens.

Another job was to feed the horse.

Another afternoon, we helped label some Château Brandeau 2005 for an order that was coming up. Good thing we had some experience with this stuff when we helped our good friends at Château Ross back when we lived in Tennessee. If you live in Tennessee and haven't tried their wines then you are missing out! Check them out! Click here. If you visit them, tell Ross and Deborah that Ben and Katie say "Salut from France!"

Some of the finished products.

Another afternoon job was to "caler la vigne" (translated "to fix/secure the vine") which is done after the pruning and pulling of the cuttings, to check if the vine stalk is still securely attached to the bottom trellis as seen in the video above.

An example of what it looks like when done.

The sun starting to set in the vines.

After a long week of work, our bodies were sore but still had a smile on our faces. We done good kid, we done good. (btw, Katie DOES NOT approve of this picture.)

Finished with work and waiting for dinner, Katie and I sat out on the patio. I decided to grab the guitar and serenade my wife.

"throw your feet up in the air"

uhhh

that's better.

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It was a great vacation and it felt good to do some physical work. We also learned some more about behind the scenes at the vineyard.