VILLENEUVE-LEZ-AVIGNON Les bailes prune the vines as Saint-Marc Day approaches
This Sunday morning, the bailes – members of the brotherhood of Saint Mark – met on their plot. As tradition dictates, they pruned the vines on the first Sunday in March.
” The trick is to leave two wads and a bourrillon. If it freezes, the bumblebee will save the harvest the following year“, shows us Jacques Baumet, the former president of the brotherhood, a handful of vine shoots in his hand. Saint-Marc has been celebrated in Villeneuve-lez-Avignon for years. Even today, the eponymous brotherhood has continued this festival – of pagan origin then taken over by Christians – and the cult of Saint Mark.
Usually, the demonstration takes place around April 25, but this year it falls in the middle of the second round of the presidential election. So St. Mark’s Day will be announced on April 30 and May 1. On Saturday evening, a flower cart goes around Villeneuve with a folk group. On Sunday there will be a wine market in the town. The bailes will also symbolically uproot a stump which will be set on fire the next day, after having been decorated with ears of wheat, mulberry leaves… Thus, the winegrowers would benefit from a good harvest at the following harvest.
But before all this festive weekend, it is necessary to maintain the 200-foot vineyard, located on the edge of the plain of the Abbey. It is a plot planted in 2012, only in Grenache. Last year, 500 kg of raisins were picked and then vinified by the Domaine des Bouzons in Sauveterre.
Mary Meunier