Full moon

Posted on | October 9, 2005

Woke at 4.30 am, without really knowing why. Eyes scarcely open, my brain burning with harvesting strategies.

After half an hour of turning this way and that, my mind full of tanks, grapes and possibilities, it’s clear I won’t get back to sleep…

I jump into my shorts and stick my nose into the air on the balcony. The tramontane (mountain breeze), which has been whistling for two days, has cleared the sky and given the air a unique purity.

A strange light, magical even, gives silver streaks to the plain tree outside the house. The atmosphere is extraordinary: but hang it, of course, it’s a full moon!

So as the church clock strikes six, in this fantastic light which bathes the town in a soft almost palpable energy, I savour this sensation of living in communion, the word is not too strong, with nature. It is one of the great pleasures of a vigneron’s life, even if it is not always restful.

Good, it’s time to go to work, the week’s programme is in my head and there’s only to commit it to paper.