“The Season of the Grape” is a documentary film that likely dates to late 60s / early 70s made by Provins Valais in collaboration with Topic-Film that chronicles the wine grape harvest season for Vendanges Privin – a cooperative society of 5,000 wine growers in Switzerland. The film follows along as the wine makers harvest the grapes, deliver them to a communal processing plant, the fermentation process, and finally the bottling of the valley’s praised wine – the Pierrefeu Wine.

Pitter-patter of steps walking along stone, dirt through grape vineyard (0:14). Close-up green grapes on vine, grape grower tastes grape (0:40). Title page, opening credits (0:58). Winemaker opens empty cask, cleans it out before new harvest (1:21). Room of large wooden casks (2:06). Room of steel and cement wine tanks, POV of cleaning interior of tanks (2:25). Adults, small children wash crates that read “Provins” (3:11). Meeting of members of wine growing cooperative seller committee at local tavern: Hands point to map that shows wine growing district divided into vineyards, men discuss growing season ahead over glasses of wine (3:41). Statue of Jesus holding cross pointing to sky (4:32). Close-up grapes being plucked from vine (4:50). Scenic view of mountains, sprawling grape vines of vineyard woven throughout hills of valley (4:59). Close-up as hands use shears to cut purple grapes from vine (5:10). Montage shots of various generations of family working side-by-side on slopping hills collecting ripe grapes into crates (5:25-7:20). Close-up hands that have seen hard work: Puffy, dirty fingernails as they carve piece of wood with knife; Wood chips used to start fire (7:22). Close-up bottle of Provins Rapilles Fendant white wine, crates filled with thermoses other glass bottles, close-up of hands cutting large slice of cheese; Lunch break in middle of vineyards, Raclette cheese melted in flames of fire and scooped onto bread (7:40). Montage clips of trucks, horse-drawn carts transporting cartons filled with colorful ripe grapes through valley (8:58). Green grapes crushed in machine at Grange Wine Cellar; Men work together to continually dump crates into machine (9:33). Little juice extracted from each consignment of grapes and tested for sugar content in Oxley degrees, content recorded on ledger and used to determine how much grower is compensated; Montage other growers coming to cellar and having grapes tested (10:05). Large wood barrel presses filled with green grapes; Grapes with same ripeness, sweetness filled in same press (11:12). Growers bring in red groups to same weigh and test stations, Pinot Noir and Gamay varieties kept separate (12:07). Close-up of stems, leaves detached from grapes comes out on conveyor belt (12:46). Bright red, perhaps steel fermenting vats (12:55). Montage scenes of grape growers from Provins riding around on tractors, pickup trucks arrive at processing plant with colorful crates of grapes (13:02). View through peephole into the fermenting vat, view of beige-colored liquid called “must” (13:44). Glass brought to valve of vat, mast pours out into glass, man swigs mast around in mouth and smells it (13:49). Days later, glass filled with clear liquid, mast has now turned to wine (14:10). Camera slowly zooms into bubbling red liquid, red wine fermenting vat in Saint Pierre de Clages cellar, zoomed out perspective of different vats side-by-side (14:32). Hose attached to vat, red wine flows out, Dôle wine (14:55). Look inside fermenting vat coated in red “mash,” residue from fermented grapes; Men use special rakes to scrape the inside of vat, interior and exterior POV shots (15:24). Snow covered peaks of mountains in the valley seen in distance, Golden Capsule grape vineyard with distinctive white stake (16:24). Bottle of Provins Valais, wine tasting to taste wine that has been produced during the season, men in suits taste and write down reviews/scores on scorecards (16:57-19:04). Mechanization of wine making: Green battles pass swiftly through machine on conveyor belt where they are filled, labeled, corked (19:05). Pierrefeu Wine label (19:43). Shots of snow blanketed valley marking end to wine-making season (20:11). Film ends (20:38).

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com