Grape Pickers Wanted - Bordeaux

Bordeaux's Château la Tulipe, owned by Dutch author and former rock artist Ilja Gort, carries out a ‘vendanges vertes’, a summer harvest, during which some of the grapes are pruned to improve quality.

The year Gort has decided to invite twenty British wine enthusiasts to join him for this important event.

‘It will be an amazing and unforgettable experience’, claims Gort. ‘For the participants it is a unique opportunity to expand their knowledge of wine and become genuine “wine-tigers” whose professional opinions will never fail to impress their fellow wine lovers.’

Nice, but how much does it pay?

Payment, it seems, is only in kind - you get space to pitch a tent or park a campervan, plus food and drink.

If you have children and a mortgage, or work in the trade, this will most likely seem like a pretty poor offer.

But the more Romantically free-spirited and optimistic will see in this an opportunity to experience something quite different. On the one hand, an immersion into how wine is made, on the other a complete change from the usual way of life; a sort-of Scout camp / retreat for adults. In a chateau vineyard.

For details see www.tulipe.co.uk/summerharvest

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