With rain the harvest is also made and includes snacks, wine and conviviality

Cthere is the mint the harvest that is made in the center of the village, in the garden of “four to five thousand meters” of Manuel Alves, retired professor of 78 years, one of the 200 winemakers to produce grapes for the wine Soalheiro, between pumpkins and sunflowers: “Without the vineyard, silvaes were raised, it was necessary to pay to remove them. So I have wine at home and at least one of mine will be around”, in the brand bottles that exports 40% of production to 55 countries and has an annual turnover of 7.5 million euros.

The woman, Elsa Alves, also a former lecturer, only appears coming from the kitchen at 11:00, after three hours of cheeses, rissols, chamois, sweet and salty pastries, bifanas and chicken steaks, “everything done at home” to serve those who worked, to accompany with the wine of the previous year’s harvest, “too much” for the Belgian couple who paid to live the experience and is surprised by the abundance.

“ Since we're talking minifundium, the harvest does a lot with family and friends. So it's a way of thanking the table. The break is always with local products, a good ham, cod cakes, everything we're used to eating. The harvest is an effort, but also a celebration”, describes Maria João Cerdeira, co-owner of Quinta de Soalheiro, located in the district of Viana do Castelo, after distributing generous pieces of bread with ham.

The kilo of the Alvarinho grape “comes to be paid at 1,30 euros”, so it is “repayable to grow vines in a garden”, or the “retail blanket” which is the 700 plots of different sizes and locations of the Soalheiro producers, for a total of 100 hectares.

More than 50 years after Maria João’s father planted the first continuous vineyard of Alvarinho, “10,000 kilos of grape” are produced for each hectare, with the brand giving “technical support” and sharing some machines with wine growers.

“It is for all of us to work for the same. That way we can get people not to go to the coast, make it profitable to stay here. We have managed to maintain our customs and traditions and that the generation to come be proud of viticulture ", supports.

It rains copiously at the end of this autumn morning in August at the harvest “earlyest ever” – started on the 11th – because “the grape is to remove when it is ready” and the “maturing controls start in July”, notes the co-ownership, along with the mother.

“ Warm harvesting is hard. Harvesting with rain is the worst. But with rain the harvest is also made ", guarantees.

The difficulty is that the water enters by the arms raised to cut the bunches and slides through the trunk to the legs, exemplifies Maria João, gestulating, in the rain, with a cover stuck in haste over the shirt already another parcel of vineyard, this far from the center, with a total of eight hectares, “something rare” in the region.

Patrícia Ferreira, 38 years old, is protected in a yellow shoe rubber suit. The work started at 7 a.m. and continues “until 3 p.m.”, with or without water falling from the sky.

“ What medicine, I have two children to finish raising”, justifies.

Since he was 12 or 13 years old, he's been harvesting. “I needed the money. I was raised with my grandmother, who could not give me my things, and I had to work ", adds.

It's not hard, he explains: “Take a little treasure in one hand, and in the other hand the bunch. It is cutting and putting into the giga [basket to catch and transport the grapes]. Then comes the tractor collect and goes in Mr. Nuno’s truck to the cellar.”.

He says it is not hard work, but “a sport” that is “doing well”.

Alice Afonso, 60 years old, twists her nose, considers that “it’s a bit hard” and says that “it hurts a little the arms and the cervical, to be looking up”.

But he loves: “When a person is more depressed it greatly relieves stress. We walk around here, the air is pure. And in the harvest it is the conviviality, we meet people, make friends. It is very good”, it summarizes.