My family was lucky to host a foreign exchange student for a year several years ago. She lived in the Champagne district in France about an hour outside of Paris. Her family owned a vineyard and Champagne label and produced new vintage of champagne every year after pressing the grapes that they harvested from their vineyard.
My wife and I took the opportunity to visit her family one summer just before the harvest. It was a busy time! It was very interesting to tour their various vineyards located around the region. They owned several that were connected to their family home and several others that they had purchased over the years.
The family all worked together to harvest the grapes along with traveling workers (they referred to them as gypsies) who showed up and offered to work for the hundreds of champagne and wine manufacturing companies in the region.
It was fascinating to watch the harvest process. The grapes would be hand picked by the family and workers and loaded into trucks that would take it back to their farm to be pressed. All the grapes including the seeds, skins, and vines are thoroughly washed and then placed into a hydraulic press. The press would mash the grapes several times and the juice would be pumped into storage tanks for fermentation. They would add sugar to aid the fermentation process and then just give it time for the fermentation process to work its magic.
After a prescribed time, the liquid would be filtered and bottled and placed into their HUGE wine cellar that was segregated by year. They had thousands of bottles of champagne and wine that had been bottled over generations by this family. It was fascinating to learn more about the wine/champagne making process.
Vineyard / Grapes stock image available
This image shows black grapes on the vine in Champagne, France. These grapes are used to make Champagne and are within days of being harvested and processed into Champagne. This image has selective focus with some grapes in focus and others slightly out of focus.
This grapes on the vine image is available from the following stock agencies: