Winegrowers on the edge of darkness
Work in the shadows
A two-year feature story from May 2020 to April 2022
photography by matthieu alexandre
text by marjolaine edouard
"Of grapes & Men" was awarded at the International Photography Awards (New York, USA, 2021) Category : Professional, Editorial/Press, Photo Essay/Feature Story - Prize : Honorable Mention / An exhibition took place in Paris on March 2022 and a part of this work is exhibited permanently at Val du Layon, Anjou (France).
A book was published by CDP Editions on March 2022
"Through my viewfinder I could see the Grapes of Wrath, the Joads written by Steinbeck and the hobos sung by Springsteen."
If 2020 will remain marked in people's minds because of the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 is an equally difficult year, if not worse, for French winegrowers, marked by spring frosts not seen since 1991. For some, it is even a dramatic year, between fire and frost, the 2020 vintage which was supposed to make us forget the crisis, will simply not exist.
(France, 2020) From spring confinement to the autumn harvest season : this feature story documents four organic viticulture estates of the famous “Coteaux-du-Layon” in the Val-de-Loire, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Four unique stories in the context threatening an unprecedented health, economic and social crisis.
"During the spring lockdown, we heard on the radio the call of farmers in need of labor."
"We volunteered and got hired as wine workers. That was the start of the reportage."
This photo essay intends to document those special years 2020 to 2022 following the rhythm of the vine's cycle between confinements. It also aims at highlighting the vine growing ancestral gestures since humans have always cultivated the vine.
Isn't there something reassuring in the fact that the Earth continues to provide food and drink, that is, grapes and wine, as our economy falters and is almost at a standstill ?
The recent Covid crisis has raised awareness of our limits, of the limits of our economic and production system, and of the need to initiate a decrease, a greener consumption, more respectful of nature. Through organic viticulture, these women and men have already taken the lead and show us the path.
This story invites us to reflect on the place of humans in nature and perhaps to walk in the footsteps of these men and women who cultivate their land with love.
(France, 2021) What the winegrowers call "the weep of the vine". It is the rise of sap after winter which precedes the opening of the first spring buds. This is the time of year when the vine is most vulnerable. Frosts, which had not been known since 1991, on April 8 and 12, 2021 "burned" a large part of the vines throughout France, compromising the harvests for the next 2 years. At the time of writing we do not yet know the extent of the damage, but we already know that some plots are condemned.
On the evening of April 1, 2021, the Cady estate suffered a terrible fire. In this tragic event Alexandre Cady lost most of his wines, cellar and storage...
(France, 2022) The night of 4 April 2022 was the coldest in France for an April since 1947. For the fourth time in the last 6 years, the winegrowers of Anjou are fighting against the April frost. What is new is not so much the spring frost but the early budding due to the too mild winter temperatures caused by global warming. In order to reduce the risk of frost in the buds, they light candles in the vine rows in the early morning, compensating for temperatures of 1 or 2 degrees below zero. Despite this technique, last year at the same time, the losses were 30 to 90%.
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All photographs copyrighted © matthieu alexandre / inTERREviews.fr
texts © marjolaine edouard / inTERREviews.fr
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