#29 Harvest Prep
August 2023
A Break from History
Before I continue with the ever-developing, ongoing story of the History of Wine, and since you are reading this piece in August, methinks it might be a good time to chat about the exciting things that are going on right now in the wineries and the vineyards all around us.
What is Happening at GlenLyon in the Vineyards and Winery in Preparation for Harvest, 2023?
Glad you asked! August is a huge month for both the winery and the growers of our grapes. Wineries have an enormous amount of machinery that has not been used for a year’s time (pumps, destemmers, presses, elevators, tanks, chillers, heaters, hoses) and every piece must be fine-tuned prior to being called upon to work during harvest. (Think of starting your car once a year and then pedal-to-the-metal all the way to NY!). We do not want to discover a piece of equipment that no longer operates the way it should at the outset of harvest. Technicians and parts are in very short supply during that crucial period. As wineries prepare for the very intensive two+ months of the about-to-arrive grapes, the end-of-season work in the vineyards has peaked and slowed down. The vines were pruned properly in the late Fall or Winter months and our suckering has been completed (removal of extraneous green growth) fertilizations and the correct amount of watering was calculated and implemented. All sulfur spraying for powdery mildew was also stopped at the turning of color of the grapes (veraison).
If we continued to spray sulfur past the moment of veraison, fermentation will not be as successful as it should, as sulfur tends to kill yeast. Each block of grapes to be harvested has been repeatedly tested during the final two weeks prior to harvest for acids, sugars, water content, color, overall maturity and (most importantly) for taste. Here at GlenLyon, we have a lot of recorded data from past years for each block, so we compare where we are right now to where we have been in years past. As we get closer and closer, we try our best to be one step ahead of Mother Nature and try to select the perfect date we think will be optimum to harvest that block. That decision is the most important decision I make all year…. Once that date is decided, we notify our “vineyard manager” to talk about the crew’s availably. Most growers like us have either a full-time or a part-time “vineyard manager” that can supply full-time crews of men and women for, at a minimum, pruning and harvest. Coordinating schedules is a monstrous issue for both those managers and for the vintners, as harvest only happens during a few short months. Sonoma County harvests close to 500,000 tons of wine grapes each year and there are only so many hands to pick those tons. Here at GlenLyon, we have four different on-site blocks of grapes, plus we source grapes from an additional five off-site vineyards. Having picking crews available for each of those nine blocks exactly when you want them is a huge challenge. Because most of our hard-working men and women who work the vines are from Mexico and because of our ridiculous immigration issues resulting in the manpower shortage (don’t get me started) more and more vineyard management folks are resorting to machine picking of grapes. Ned Hill (La Prenda Management) and I spoke a bit ago and, for the first time in 36 harvests, GlenLyon may machine harvest a portion of our grapes. Ned, seeing the handwriting on the wall, said he purchased a $400,000 machine that will be able to work on our hillside so we agreed that we might machine harvest one section and have his crew hand-pick the remainder of that block. That way we will be able to compare the quality of the fruit: machine vs hand-picked fruit.
Once the crew (and possibly the machine) for picking those grapes in that particular block has been secured, harvest will begin, usually picking in the middle of the night so cold grapes will arrive at the winery at first-light. At GlenLyon, we would rather not have grapes that were picked late in the day (warm) as they could begin fermenting while they wait to be processed. We’d rather control the speed of fermentation from the outset. I have the history of each of those vineyard blocks and an average of date-of-harvest, average tonnage, average pH (acid) and average Brix (sugars). From all that data, I create a master plan of how I think this harvest will go chronologically. Mother Nature, however, always has a few surprises tucked under her mumu….
The first day of harvest is truly a wondrous day, and a day that we always celebrate with our crew by ringing our Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers bells. This will be our 36th harvest here at GlenLyon and I’ve done my best to dot all my “I’s” and crossed all my “T’s” in preparation. We shall see….
Next month: Back to History, Part 3!
“Gus am faigh thu deocj nas fhea’rr na’m fi’on”
“Till you find a drink better than wine” Scottish Gaelic Toast