Montpeyroux was in the full flurry of vendange, so various tractors pulling up and dumping grapes in the pulping machine at the Cave Cooperative. The whole place smells of partially fermented grape juice, and there is a great feeling of business going on. When we have been before the gutters in the streets were running with wine; now, it is mainly the fusty smell everywhere, and truckloads of red grapes being emptied for crushing and maceration.
I would love to get a dictionary with the French names of the various mechanical equipment that is used; I got some idea of it in Fleurie earlier this year, when they showed me the cellars, and I would definitely like to have a better technical vocabulary.
The Castel Barry caveau at Montpeyroux has also been completely revamped, and they now sell wine from all over France, as well as having a good selection of the local wines. This makes it a much more interesting place to visit. As I understand it, they have reciprocal arrangements in the other wine regions who sell the local wines from around Montpeyroux, so it sounds like there are mutual benefits; more revenue from a better selection of wines, and their own wines get marketed further afield. How it works out in practice I don’t know, but the lady who ran the shop was very pleasant and spoke happily in French without any detours into Franglais.
We took a quick look around the town, stopping at the market square with Le Mimosa, and a female statue in which someone had inserted a bottle of wine, presumably to celebrate the wine harvest.
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