The Blue Grapes | Jean-Francois Bazin

Bénigne Papillard, a notable in Dijon, spends every summer with his family in Gevrey-Chambertin in the bourgeois house facing the modest dwelling of his winemaker neighbor, Baptiste Marchand. When the phylloxera epidemic strikes in the early 1880s, the two men will do everything they can to preserve their vineyards and save the wine. But while some are saving the French vineyards from American plants, the others are saving the honor and fortune of the family... A great saga of winemakers. Baptiste and Lucie felt the vine's suffering in their backs. Usually, they did not work together in the vineyards. Baptiste handled the tool while Lucie worked with her hands. With his hoe and his spade, he labored manually. She cared for the vine: pruning, tying, disbudding, training, lifting... The phylloxera treatments now required hard, painful teamwork. Baptiste grew pale, and Lucie became fatigued.