Juliette Couderc, Estate Manager at Château L’Evangile, shared a fascinating story about how French labor…

Juliette Couderc, Estate Manager at Château L’Evangile, shared a fascinating story about how French labor laws led to an unexpected solution during harvest.

During the challenging 2024 vintage, weather conditions forced the team at Château L’Evangile to extend their grape picking over many days. In France, pickers are not allowed to work for more than 6 straight days, but Juliette could not abruptly stop the harvest. After reaching out to neighboring estates in Pomerol and Saint-Émilion with no success, Juliette faced increasing pressure as wet conditions made the grapes susceptible to diseases like botrytis.

The solution came from sister estate Rieussec in Sauternes, where workers had just completed the dry white harvest and had time before beginning their sweet wine production. These skilled workers, experts at identifying botrytis, were the perfect team to complete L’Evangile’s harvest efficiently. No labor laws were broken, and the harvest was done by a team that at that specific year may have saved the vintage.

2024 is a winner for the Château, and I’ll be sharing this story with friends when we enjoy a glass of this wine in the years to come.