Sonoma Harvest 2018 – Part 1 “The Night”
Here is your Sunday Morning just before brunch wine podcast. While you were sleeping, Sonoma Valley was hard at work harvesting wine grapes at night.
You might ask, “hey Ken, what’s it like to prepare for a night harvest?” I’ll tell you…Are the grapes ready?, where is that lab report?, where are the lugs and bins?, get the tractor over here asap, tell Don Tacho to grab more diesel fuel, make sure we have the crew ready to go…oh no, the bin trailer broke down!, get the welder on the phone, and how late is Sonoma Market open for burritos? These are some of the features of getting ready for the nighttime harvest…
Do you love that cool-climate Pinot? Maybe that spicy Syrah or that dark inky GSM blend? To make these wines, the grapes must arrive at the winery very chilled. Warm grapes will begin to ferment almost immediately. Start picking at 7:00am, and the grapes will be 85 degrees by mid-afternoon. And that’s how bad flavors can arise – like vinegar (acetobacter) and nail polish (acetone). So picking at night assures the grapes will arrive at the winery in mint condition.
Many vineyards are too large to be picked in a few hours. So we must start a few hours after dusk in order to get all the grapes picked, loaded, and delivered by the early morning. Whether the vineyard is large or small, wineries (and winemakers, like me) prefer that fruit arrives at daybreak – so that we have the early morning to calmly process the fruit and move it into fermentation tanks. And then run the labs: brix (sugar), pH (logarithmic scale used to specify the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution), TA (total acidity), etc.
If you have not fallen back asleep yet, terrific. Here are a series of short (and hopefully dramatic) videos documenting one of our recent September 2018 night harvests:
Its a few hours after sunset, the cool fog has rolled in, and we are underway…
Now it’s pitch-black outside, and picking continues using headlamps…
video: closeup of señora Marta picking
Heavy lugs filled with 40 pounds of hand-picked fruit are laboriously carried to the half-ton bins which are being towed behind the tractor lights…
Highly experienced grape picker Señor Claudio keeps his AM radio going to Oaxacan La Banda music all night long. Claudio has many loving nicknames, my favorite is “El Maquina” (the machine) mostly because rain or shine, hot or cold, he never ever wears a hat or jacket. Believe me, we have offered, begged, cajoled, but he insists…
video: Señor Claudio and his am radio
The tractor pulling the half-ton bins provides bright light in the work area. But it’s an odd sight when you step just a few away…
video: the weird world under the lights
As the night fades away and the sun begins to rise, it’s time to count up the 1/2-ton bins and get staged to load onto the flatbed truck and get the fruit to the winery…
video: counting the bins at the end
And that’s how a night harvest goes!
Coming in the next blog post: Sonoma Harvest 2018 Part 2 “The Day”
