Today was our very first day working in Champagne.
Maybe because she’s hosted so many WWOOFers, our new host Florance runs things in a much more structured way (though yes, we still miss Olivier). Here, our schedule is pretty straightforward: vineyard work from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and then the rest of the day is free.
This morning’s task was tressage—training and tying the vines—which is the main work this time of year. My biggest impression of Champagne so far? Straight lines. Every road, every vineyard boundary, every row of vines—it’s all ruler-straight. Even the vines themselves must be trained to grow straight up, so that machines can trim them later.
It sounds simple and repetitive, but it’s tougher than it looks. Hours of bending, lifting, and twisting really take a toll—especially on your neck and back. By the end, we were already feeling it.
The evening, though, more than made up for it. Florance and her husband Damien hosted a big party for a group of Israeli students on a study tour. Damien is incredibly generous—he just kept bringing out bottle after bottle after bottle. In the end… we polished off 16 bottles of wine. Sixteen!
Which means: for the first time on this trip, I actually got tipsy. We tasted so many unique, under-the-radar wines—let’s see if you recognize any of them 👇👇
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