Standards, standards, standards? Increasingly restrictive or even unsustainable.The issue arises every time we want to talk about hiring, lodging or feeding the collectors.Winemakers feel they are not understood or heard by public authorities.But some hold on and aren’t prepared to.to renounce that secular spirit of camaraderie that makes the harvest a unique and fascinating moment, a true participatory rite of the beauty of our country, which against all odds house and pay their temporary workers, even if it takes them more.
On the edge of the Côte des Bar, Bragelogne-Beauvoir, a village of 250 souls. This is where Adeline Bonnet lives and grows 5.5 ha of vines. Over the years, the young woman has developed her own method of recruiting her collectors. “I ask you for a small note and a CV because generally we know that we can count on someone who makes the effort to write. If a good part of the graduates return each year, they have all already done the exercise. “We need motivated people. The harvest is not just a celebration, there is a minimum of effort to toast, even if it is only at the level of his person and also allows me to choose. “Eager to preserve these moments of conviviality that the grape harvest offers Less and Less, Adeline distrusts people without envy:” We are going to live, sleep and work together for ten days, so I need people who are in good shape. Collective in spirit. “But out of the question taking already formed groups, the young woman recruits in most couples. The risk?” As soon as five people join a year, it can create tensions or form subgroups that are at risk to lead the team in the wrong direction. “As much as one leaves, it is usually the whole group that runs, and with them, the environment cools down.” My goal is to create cohesion in the place, not to care about an atmosphere from another place. “
Recruitment into a sparsely populated group
Hiring a group of twenty or so seasonal workers who do not mix with each other the rest of the time (18 pickers, two porters, a stevedore and a machine operator) is a difficult but not impossible task. Thanks to the CV and the presentation she requires, Adeline chooses her profiles: “We can see what the person works on, if they have already worked in associations or if they are close to nature. In short, I look for common values. And it is not a question From going through an agency or a service provider, your tools are word of mouth and the Internet. The classified ads posted on Leboncoin allow you to recruit across France while finding Facebook more useful for dealing with locals on Aube than, due to Due to lack of space, she will go home to sleep Adeline also posted an ad on Pôle’s job site but she does not count on him to recruit, and she has not yet been contacted after more than 15 days while six people? Most students? are already booked thanks to Leboncoin. But the most effective method is still word of mouth. “We contacted graduates because thanks to them the team gets to work much more easily.”
Recruitment through word of mouth sometimes brings its share of surprises like this year when Adeline is about to welcome an Indian: “This ten-day crucible provokes real exchanges and enrichment for both them and us.A spirit that refuses to sacrifice: “If you don’t want to pass through a supplier, you have to house and feed the collectors.”Mid-August results: The team is almost complete, even if a person is still missing in the kitchen.Adeline Bonnet, however, finds an inconvenience, cannot accommodate everyone at home and therefore should prefer premises for half of your equipment.It is not easy in this sparsely populated basin. Troyes is an hour’s drive away.
“We try to maintain family spirit, but it’s difficult, both in terms of standards and personal.”
Seeing people sleeping in their cars also saddens Nelly Pothelet from Champagne Pothelet-Margouillat, 4.2 ha in Courcourt. Although it cannot accommodate everyone, this cooperative “to the tips of its nails” refuses to resort to service providers. But it is not easy to become deaf to the sound of the sirens that suggest you go “to the Poles”. With each vintage, he hesitates for a long time but always ends up choosing the traditional route. Perhaps he would have the impression of abdicating, of betraying that spirit that he has always known but has been disintegrating “for ten years.” She still houses most of her team in her home with a breathtaking view of the southern slopes. As for this man who is going to celebrate his 31st harvest, Mrs. Pothelet maintains the four rooms located on the first floor of the house for the usual grape pickers from afar. Each more opulent than the other, they guarantee a new layer of their seasonal workers. The other five sleep with their Sparnacian friends. The day before the start of the harvest, she herself goes to meet her seasonal workers at the Epernay station: “We try to keep the family spirit, but it is difficult, both in terms of standards and personnel. A woman of conviction, she pays her pickers by the hour, the price to keep the quality of the picked berries at the highest level.
Even the bell across the mountain from Reims at the home of young Alexandre Lamblot (Champagne Lamblot in Janvry). If you can no longer accommodate your 18 temporary workers due to overly restrictive rules, you continue to ask them to qualify in the vineyard.”If they are paid per kilo, then they spoil the work and bring me the grapes that are not ripe or are not viable according to my sanitary criteria.The young man, who has grown accustomed to harvesting only from the 10 degrees of potential alcoholics, regrets that the crop has lost in a few years of its pride: “Now we are at a purely economic angle, there is nothing around!So, like so many others, Alexander asks the question: how long?
Harvesting also affects other professions
Cyril Harrois is a catering in Damery since 2011.Rompu to organize receptions, the harvest has also become one of the highlights of his year. The 20 days in a hurry ahead soon represent “three times a normal month” in sales.On the other hand, margins are much lower.His profession even changed radically during this period.”We do massive work, 600 covered a day with family meals and roboratives packed in trays of four to eight people, but I still cook only fresh produce.Therefore, the chef spends part of his month of July contacting his customers of the last vintage in order to assess the logistics needs and men to cover the harvest, “otherwise winemakers call us two days before and it is too late for the delivery times of the products”.Because the harvest poses above all a logistical challenge: “The difficulty is not cooking for 600 people but managing the supply well, we place the order two working days in advance”.
Its typical day starts at 5 a.m. with the load of the two refrigerated 13m3 (one of which is rented especially for the period) and the briefing of the drivers.Immediately done, the tour can begin and usually last until mid-morning.five people are busy cooking around chicken thighs and other Burgundy meat to prepare and freeze the next day’s tour, while winemakers parade as in a shuttle service to pick up their takeaway.In the afternoon, Cyril is on the phone with his customers to confirm the next day’s deliveries and set up the next tour.At the same time, you are negotiating with your supplier to recover the excess raw material.”That’s what we’re making a profit from. For example, we avoid cooking fish at the end of the harvest because we know it is a product that quickly perishes.However, Ciril Harrois has seen a decline in activity in recent years, due to the increasing number of employees of service providers.forced to feed.