Word: harvesters
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...delicious that some call them the "champagne of teas." But you don't need to taste them to know how much they are valued. At Happy Valley tea estate, perched at 6,800 ft. (2,100 m) where the Himalayas snake into India between Nepal and Bhutan, workers harvest the autumn flush, plucking each tip of dwi paat suiro--two leaves and a bud--as if it were worth its weight in gold. As the sun sets on the looming Mount Kanchenjunga and a lazy mist begins to settle, pickers carefully empty their bamboo baskets and take in their loads...
...acre (34,000 hectares) region. An 80-year-old French law carefully maps where the grapes--pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay--can be grown. The Institut National de l'Origine et de la Qualité (INAO) determines exactly how much the winegrowers can produce--this year's harvest is expected to bring in 400 million bottles. With a steadily increasing demand, winemakers have asked French regulators to commit what would once have been considered heresy: to redefine or even expand the boundaries of Champagne. The beverage, after all, gets some of its character from its chalky terroir and rough climate...
Redefining the land won't give winemakers "any more oxygen right now," says Stephen Leroux, marketing director for Bollinger. To handle any potential shortfalls, the INAO is requiring that winegrowers set aside some of their yield when harvests are good. Ordinary champagne can be sold 15 months after harvest; vintage champagne, say, a Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill ($180 for the '96) must age at least three years, and a Bollinger Champagne Grande Année ($110 for the '97) must age at least five years...
Some of the big champagne houses are looking a little farther north for their next harvest--across the English Channel. Climate change has raised the average temperature in Champagne during the growing season 2.2ºF (1.2ºC) over the past 50 years, altering the cool temperatures that give balance to the champagne produced there, says Gregory Jones, a climatologist at Southern Oregon University. "With such temperatures you could make a Burgundy or Bordeaux, rather than champagne," he says. Today southern England has roughly the same climate that Champagne did 25 years ago--and the same chalky soil in those famous...
Seasons once had a rhythm to them, tuned to the harvest or the hunt, with rituals spaced through the year to bring the rain, praise the sun, mark the time between solstice and equinox, celebrate birth and honor death. Our holidays answer our needs to feast and mourn and manage risk, our customs customized to the point that the Roman pagans had a holiday specifically designed to prevent a certain kind of mold from destroying the wheat by offering animal sacrifices to the god of mildew. We remember those we love on Valentine's Day, those we revere on Easter...