Life on the Bodega is so simple. Im living in a little house, with a kitchen, living room, bathroom, a bedroom where Katie and I sleep, and a darling little porch that overlooks the vineyards and farm. Aside from Katie, our room mates are a family of little frogs that hide behind our kitchen counters and jump out and scare me whenever I'm not expecting it, or jump on us when we are sleeping, a large spider I named Charlotte who is very shy and never comes down from her corner in the ceiling but protects us from becoming overtaken by bugs, and Toto the Dog who is also a loyal companion, he sleeps on the porch and protects us from skunks and vampires(large bats that suck the blood out of cattle-nice). The farm consists of the main Casa, where the Carrau family sleep when here and where we spend most of our time off and eating; the 2 little Casas attached, one is ours the other is where Danny the assistant winemaker lives; a large barnlike building which houses about 20 workers; a house for Jose Luis (retired but does general errands and can fix anything, always without a shirt and with a cigarette and mate in hand; a house for Alba and Humberto, Alba is the crazy housekeeper that I could write a novel based on our hilarious interactions and Humberto is her husband (she made this very clear on day one, second 5 of meeting her) and the gaucho that manages the horses of which there are 5 and a couple wild ones, cattle and sheep. Humberto usually has an animal hide hanging outside his door like a "welcome to dinner sign". I think he speaks to the horses, his seems to go wherever he thinks it to as he rides without moving hands or legs. When he herds the cattle, he makes a sound like laughing "ha,ha,ha,ha"! These are the little things that amuse you after a month on the farm.
We are 40 minutes from the closest town of Rivera, and surrounded by rolling hills and farmland. The vineyards straddle the Brazil/Uruguay border and I can actually say I have illegally entered Brazil many times now.
Monday through Saturday we wake up at 7am and get ready, then have breakfast and coffee on the porch. The tractor filled with about 20 pickers rolls by us at about 8, everyone yells Buenos Dias! And sometimes they whistle at us or say "I love you", to which we reply "Cuidado! Oho!" (Careful, I have my eye on you!) and everyone laughs, those really are the only 3 words they know in English after all. After that we make the 3 minute walk to the Bodega, accompanied by Toto and the other 2 dogs (these are not owned dogs so have no names). We begin work with taking the temperature and density measurements of the tanks, and sometimes taste testing the wine. This is not as easy as it sounds... Tasting fermenting juice at 8am. The rest of the day activities vary between sampling grapes from the vineyards to determine maturity, picking, transporting, and sorting the grapes, a lot of time spent in the lab testing nitrogen, SO2, sugar, acidity, and ph levels, working with the wine in tanks by doing remontage, chaptalization, adding yeast, pumping juice from one tank to another, and shoveling out the leftover skins and cleaning the tanks. We don't do a ton of picking, unless they are short men (there are no women), as the pickers get paid per basket of grapes they turn in and its not a lot so we don't want to take income away from them. Im ok with doing this on an as needed basis, its not an easy job being in the hot sun all day bent over picking, and clipping your fingers is a common occurance. The men who do the best job and have been here for awhile get promoted to permanent positions of working the land all through the year and during harvest become picker-uppers (my term for them as they transport the grapes from field to Bodega), a position of more prestige that qualifies for an hourly wage.
At about 12 or 12:30, the last truck of grapes from the morning is brought in and we all take lunch, which lasts 2 hours! It's enough time to cook and eat a nice lunch, and take a siesta. Katie, Francois, Thomas, and I head over to the big house to cook, or heat up I should say. Salad and meat, or one of Dalba's (a local who comes and cooks for us enough food to last a month) Uruguayan specialties like empanadas or crepes, or lamb casserole is usually for lunch. Thomas, who is Francisco's 14 year old nephew and is spending his summer on the vineyard, bakes fresh bread because we beg him, almost every day. He is somewhat willingly becoming our spanish teacher and we treat him like a little brother. We accompany lunch with a bottle of Carrau wine which helps us siesta. After lunch we head back to the Bodega for a second round of Remontage and wait for the next truck of grapes to come in. Once the designated plot for the day has been picked, and all grapes have come in, tests completed, and tank maintenance is done, Katie, Jaille (he is the permanent cellar worker), and I break down all the machines and clean up. As the sun is setting quite beautifully behind us, we walk home around 8 to shower and eat dinner. For dinner we usually have meat cooked on the Parilla (grill firepit), rice, and whatever veggies Katie and I can get our hands on. Wine always accompanies meals here, and because the Carrau family has a well stocked cellar, I have the luck to be drinking Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon of vintages over 20 years old for dinner on a regular basis. If Francisco is here, we drill him with questions about his methods of winemaking or listen to stories of past vintages.
After dinner, Katie and I walk back to our house, trying not to trip in the dark while looking up at the Milky Way which shines brilliantly above us. We pass out, hoping that nothing jumps on us tonight.