Gerard Bertrand Vendange
Ben Stephany, Traineee Manager, York.
After only a few weeks at Majestic, I had the opportunity to apply to take part in a vendange, and with my manager strongly recommending the experience I didn't hesitate to put my name down. Gerard Bertrand's estate is located in the Languedoc area in the South of France next to the Roman-influenced town of Narbonne. The 'château' itself is located within the limestone massif of La Clape, which provides a dry, hard climate with 3000 hours of sunshine per year and a multitude of winds from both the sea and the land. It is this mix of climate, soil and altitude which makes for such interesting terroir for the Bertrand wines.
I flew to the Languedoc with Matt and Michael, both from our City branch. We arrived late afternoon, in awe of the spectacular setting of the Château l'Hospitalet. We began with a brief tour of the site and met up with the vineyard director (also named Gerard) who provided us with our itinerary for the weekend. We were invited to dinner that evening at a restaurant with a live jazz band! We duly accepted, and were spoiled with a fantastic menu and accompanying wines form the several Bertrand estates. The restaurant manager seemed to find it amusing that we would have to be up at 7 o'clock the next morning to start work, as he pressed glasses of Crémant de Limoux into our hands during the early hours of the morning.
Gerard told us this was an exceptionally late harvest due to poor weather in the early part of the summer, but that now, the grapes were benefitting from recent good weather as the site had not had rain for over a month and a half. We were soon given a pair of secateurs and a bucket each, and were set to work collecting the vast amount of healthy Syrah grapes. 
All three of us struggled to keep up with the staggering pace of the experienced local workforce, although our hard work didn't go unappreciated. After lunch we returned to the cave to participate in the next step of the process which was the sorting - removing any unwanted leaves or rotten grapes. At this point we measured the juice from the grapes for potential alcohol levels, which showed surprisingly varied results between batches collected that morning from the same vines - anywhere between 13 and 16 degrees. Towards the end of the day we were able to observe the fermentation of the wine in one of 20-or-so huge stainless steel tanks. Thankfully, we were not asked to harvest the Viognier grapes, as this takes place in the middle of the night to ensure that the grapes are cool when they arrive at the winery (although we did hear the wakeup calls!
That night, alongside another fantastic meal prepared by the estate's Polynesian-trained chef, we were able to sample most of the Gerard Bertrand range in a buffet a vin, an interesting concept which we felt should be introduced in more UK establishments! The Carignan Vieilles Vignes which Majestic currently stock was amongst my favourites as it encapsulated the type of spicy, herbaceous reds from the Languedoc which I love.
The following morning, Gerard explained that he had received a call late the previous evening instructing that the grapes were to be left to ripen longer due to the exceptional weather and so, after browsing the array of old vintages in the chateau's boutique, we had the opportunity to explore the area around Corbières and the Minervois before our flight back from Montpellier.
I found it extremely worthwhile to see in action the various stages of the vinification process. Although I have read about it in various textbooks in preparation for my WSET studies, it can sometimes be hard to visualise. I will certainly be looking out for the 2008 vintage knowing I contributed to its bottling.