Today, after classes, I spent all afternoon in the vineyards working with my host family. We spent about 4 hours collecting grapes, crushing them and putting them in a giant barrel. My family has both red and white (or black and white as they're called here.)
This week and last have been grape-harvest time here in Moldova, and it seems every family is working. And in fact they are. During the soviet era, all the vineyards were owned by the People (by which, I mean the state, of course) where wine was made and distributed through out the soviet countries. When it all collapsed and Moldova became independent, each family (or person over a certain age in an an area) got a number of rows in the vineyards spread around. So when I saw every family has grapes and makes their own wine, I mean it literally.
The work was fun and relaxing, and I got pretty dirty. It reminded me of my youth when I would help out in the vineyards and my grandparent's in California. There's nothing quite like the smell of fermenting (re: rotting) grapes to get the nostalgia flowing.
As I seem to always say, I have some photos, but you'll have to wait until I find a computer with a flash drive. that is unless, of course, you know somewhere I can buy 1 GB floppy disks.
(Update: photos added)
1 comment:
Good that you already have experience in this kind of endeavor. Let us know how the finished product tastes.
Aunt Anne
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