Start Your Own Harvest Tradition

As the sun retreats and the nights grow longer, ancient harvest traditions come alive in vineyards across the globe. The year 2003 has been marked by unusual weather and temperatures, and while the quality of the wine remains a mystery, the rituals surrounding the picking of the grapes are unchanging.
This year was trying for California. There's a glut of grapes and wine--which reduces prices--Southern Hemisphere imports are cutting into sales, energy costs are up, and the weather's been unusual, with a cold, wet spring, stormy summer, and hot early fall. The harvest is early or late, depending on the region, but almost nowhere is it on time.
Californian wineries will survive, in part do to the spirit and tenacity of the growers and in part due to tourism--which is becoming a greater source of revenue. Fall in Napa Valley is a time of labor. Handpicking is done by migrant workers and volunteers who do it for the experience.
Lunch is a grand affair. Under a great oak tree, tables of food are set and jugs of wine are opened. Mexican folk songs are sung. A ceremonial foot stomping of the grapes marks the last day of the harvest. In smaller towns, a Harvest Queen is crowned and there's a parade. Lots of people get thrown into the crushed grape must. (Don't wear your Dolce & Gabbana shirt). While many of these traditions originated in Europe, California has put a uniquely American spin on them.
The High Holy Day of French wine is the third Thursday of November--the day the Nouvelle Beaujolais arrives. Nouvelle Beaujolais goes against every French tradition, since it is not years or months old, but weeks. Beaujolais is made from the gamay grape and has the fresh, light taste of strawberries. Huge dinners are held and entire towns give over to celebration. While some of the villages have been honoring the occasion for centuries, modern marketing gets credit for making Nouvelle Beaujolais a household name since the early 1950s.
In Burgundy, The ConfrŽrie des Chevaliers du Tastevin holds great 12-course dinners--invitation only, of course--with roast sucking pig, truffles, and platters of single farm cheeses, while wearing hats and robes that look like something the faculty would wear in a Las Vegas version of a graduation. The workers are treated to four meals a day, including an egg, fruit, and croissant breakfast amid the vines. Beef Bourguignonne is served at the mid-day meal.
Bordeaux, which makes elegant and nuanced wines, has the simplest food traditions. Huge bonfires, made from the cut and dried vines, are lit at dusk. Sausages, chickens, and steaks are grilled in wrought iron baskets, infused with smoke from handfuls of herbs added to the blaze. By early evening, so much wine's been consumed that the designated hay wagon driver takes everyone home.
You can have your own harvest festival at home with these yummy Beaujolais, in preparation for the 2003 Nouvelle Beaujolais release.
Domaine du DuPeuple - Nice fruit, tart cherry and pineapple hints. $9.99
Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages - Great with cold cuts and sandwiches. Sort of an adult fruit punch with cranberry taste notes. $6.99
Chateau de la Chaize, Brouilly - My definitive Beaujolais. Each sip presents light fruit tastes: melon, cherry, plum, and strawberry. $9.99
Mommessin Beaujolais Villages Reserve - Not really fruity, kind of tart with a structure that made me think of a burgundy. $12.99