Wine 101: Harvest

[Rebel Rose]

As harvest is just around the corner, I've decided that our August topic should be harvest. This piece does not answer any of the technical viticultural and enological decisions facing us in the next few months, but I hope you will ask away! Be sure to check Carolyn Tillie's Wineblog frequently to enjoy the action at Gundlach-Bundschu.

In late summer, there is a moment in vineyards known as "veraison," which translates roughly as "moment of truth." It is the moment when grapes begin to turn from hard, green beads into sweet, plump fruit. From that moment until harvest the vineyards are at their most vulnerable. The hazards of the early season—heavy rains, late frosts—are minor compared to the dangers stalking the last few weeks of every vintage. Hordes of deer and clouds of birds descending on tender fruit can wipe out an entire harvest in a few days. Late season heat ripens grapes too quickly, robbing them of flavor. A lack of heat delays harvest into late fall, when freezing nights will turn grapes into tasteless mush. Late season rains swell grapes with water, breaking the skins and infecting entire clusters with mold.

During these last few weeks of summer, winemakers are in the vineyards, looking at the clusters, crushing grapes between their fingers, tasting the fruit. The winemaker's phone rings unanswered, mail piles up in messy stacks, and deadlines are missed. In the winery itself, cellarmen spend weeks draining barrels and tanks of previous vintages, bottling and labeling wine and shipping it out, cleaning tanks, barrels and equipment. Like the unveiling of a statue, cloth covers are pulled off the crusher and the press, and the huge machines are rolled outside, cleaned, and tested. Truck-size scales are pulled out of storage, assembled and calibrated to receive incoming fruit.

But to those of us who have been through this before, these busy weeks seem quiet, sounds seem muted. The vineyards are full, leafy, and heavy with fruit. Vines sag over their trellis system and trail on the ground. Heat waves dance over the vines and an occasional breeze lifts aluminum strips which are meant to frighten birds. In the winery itself, empty tanks stand with their doors hanging open. Barrels are turned upside down in their racks and the whole winery has a strangely hollow feeling.

Like survivors of a storm who smell another forming, we move through our preparations quickly with our minds focused on the horizon of late summer, waiting as the rising sugars and flavor of the vineyard slowly escalate. All of this activity is only preparation for the season we call "crush."

"Crush" is winery slang for the harvest season—for more than one reason. The long hours; tedious, mind-numbing work; and the crises of harvest are another reason for the name. But the excitement level is high, and everyone works side by side. During the harvest season, which is usually late August to late October, you will find winemakers working alongside cellarmen—inside tanks, shoveling grape skins, driving forklifts, and tasting incoming fruit.

In spite of the physical demands of the season, there is a magical, energizing quality about it. As one winemaker put it, "I live for crush. As far as I'm concerned, the rest of the year is just preparation for this."

Cellarmen work late into the night. Steam rising from bins of warm fruit mingles with exhaust from the forklifts, creating eerie clouds under halogen lamps. Pallets of imported beer are parked in the cellar for thirsty workers. And then there are the crises of crush: truck-trailers full of fruit tipped over, tank doors torn off by misdirected forklifts, overflowing tanks, full barrels dropped off forklifts—wine literally flowing everywhere.

The hours are long and brutal, and the stakes are high. Incoming fruit must be processed while it is still fresh and cool. Grapes will be turned away for lack of quality; other loads will be high quality but perhaps low on tonnage, leaving the winemaker wondering how he will make up the difference.

Many decisions on winemaking techniques have been made ahead of time, but this is the moment of truth, too-late-to-turn-back, so frenetic winery activity takes on the feel of high stakes poker. As fast as one lot is crushed, put into fermenters and inoculated with yeast, more fruit is coming in. Fermenting lots must be babysat, kept at the right temperature, tested for dryness, moved into barrels. Fermenting wine must be pumped over, or punched down, much like punching down rising bread dough. Grape skins float to the top in a fermenter, creating a sticky cap at least a foot thick, every inch of which must be patiently pressed down into the wine with a tool that looks like a hoe. Tanks, bins, and barrels are constantly being cleaned—hoses run nonstop and so do the winery workers.

Exhausted cellarmen will go home for a few hours of sleep, and dream about falling into the press, dying comfortably on a soft bed of sticky grapes, or dream of being locked inside a tank, hammering for rescue.

But nothing can exhaust this thread of excitement. While others will examine our wines in the future in terms of 'vintage,' this is when it happens--when the decisions are made and alliances formed. From dormancy through pruning, and after all the planning, barrel orders, storage plans, promises, contracts—this is the all-too-brief moment of vintage.

[Andre]

This is a fantastic expression of the physical and the spiritual aspects of a professional winemaker as a human being.

Read twice and enjoyed twice.

[chefwoody]

Great post! I am a cook and have seriously thought about trying to spend some time working in a winery. This post makes me want to do it even more.

Thanks.

[CtznCane]

Thanks for sharing this view, Mary. Wine making is a passionate and intense profession and this post gives us more insight on that passion and intensity.

[KatieLoeb]

That was a poetic and awe inspiring post. As much as I can understand this sequence of events intellectually and academically, your post has made me understand it emotionally.

Thank you for that.

[Rebel Rose]

Thank you, everyone. Will keep you posted regarding harvest.

[Rebel Rose]

August 18: Viognier grapes from Hansen Vineyard, still on the truck.

Today, August 27: Syrah from Allegra Vineyard will arrive this morning, and our "new," well, revised and customized crusher is ready today! And now, back to our regularly scheduled wineblog by Carolyn.