#33: Harvest 2023

December 2023

Before I submit my next (final?) installment on the history of wine, I thought you’d like to hear about how GlenLyon’s 36th Harvest unfolded. 

Prior to Harvest 2023!

Veraison is a French word meaning “when grapes change color, marking the onset of ripening.”  In red varieties, the color changes from green to purple; in white varieties the color morphs from a dull green to a translucent green.  Veraison is an important date for farmers as it marks the 5-6 week countdown to harvest. This year, veraison at our upper Syrah vineyard was 9/13 and was the latest on record.  (Was the 5-6 week timetable accurate this year?  Compare 9/13 to the harvest date of 10/20…you can do the math.)

Two Weeks before Harvest

There are a lot of decisions to be made prior to harvest, the most important being “when to pick that block of grapes?”.  I’ve gone over BSA (Berry Sensory Analysis) in a past article.  BSA testing is simply comparing the ripeness of the fruit on that day this year to days of years past and then trying to guesstimate when those grapes should be harvested.  After multiple BSA visits to the site and once I’ve settled on a date and secured my crew, it’s full speed ahead (unless there’s a dramatic, unexpected weather surprise from Mother Nature). 

First Day of Harvest

By tradition, Daughter Lexy, again sabered the top off a bottle of her Sparkling Wine (Sabrage)!  (You can see fun videos of our 2023 Harvest by going to our GlenLyon Instagram account.)

For the past ten years or so, our “first day of harvest” landed in August.  This year that date was September 18, making 2023 the latest start in our 36 years of growing grapes and making wine.  Everything in farming (no matter the crop) depends on the growing season that Mother Nature decides to deliver.   This year’s Spring was cooler than usual and the summer months were not as warm, so the grapes ripeness cycle happened later than usual.         

Even though the white varieties usually reach maturity before the reds, this year our Pinot Noir crossed the finish line first, arriving in the early morning on 9/18 after a Sonoma Coast nighttime pick.  Steve Hill personally delivered those dozen macro bins of beautiful fruit himself (just so he’d be in the photo). 

We all have our roles to play during harvest and I am traditionally on the forklift (old guys sit a lot).  MY first task is to weigh each macrobin and record the net weight.  Weight is important for two reasons: first, we pay our growers according to tonnage; the second is so that we can calculate the enzyme and nutrient additions that is sprinkled on top of the grape clusters before they are processed.  After those adds, I slowly and carefully rotate each macrobin to feed the grape clusters into the elevator hopper.  As the grape clusters travel up the elevator, our trusty MOG crew (headed by Wife Suzy) carefully picks out anything that shouldn’t go into the making of the wine.  (MOG = “Material Other than Grapes”.)  If we are processing red fruit, the clusters will then drop into a dual-purpose machine which will either only destem the clusters (Pinot Noir) or will both destem and pop the berries (Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon).  Either way, we ferment red grapes on their skins.  White grapes and Rosé we only ferment the juice, so we exchange the destemmer for a bladder press.

José and Jeremy, our two trusty GlenLyon hard-working employees, control the flow of clusters from the elevator’s end to either the destemmer (reds) or the bladder press (whites and Rosé).  After destemming, the “must” (the berries, juice, pulp, skins and seeds) is pumped into an empty tank.  After pressing the whites or Rosé, the juice is pumped to a tank.  At this point, Brix (sugars), pH (acids) and temperatures are recorded and a test sample is left out for next morning pick up for lab analysis.  We add yeast to our whites and Rosé but usually do not to our red wine varieties, preferring a slower “natural” fermentation.  After a long first day of harvest, we clean all the equipment, the winery, ourselves and then gear up for the next harvest day.  We have smiles on our faces, thankful that we’ve begun harvest and (hopefully) had no problems with our machines that we only use once a year.

The Following Days of Harvest

After the Pinot Noir’s arrival, we had (thankfully) a ten day break before the next fruit arrived.  And then it arrived…and kept arriving!  We had four back-to-back harvest days of Viognier, Chardonnay, more Viognier and finally our Estate lower vineyard Syrah & Grenache that we co-picked and co-fermented to make our Rosé.  (With grapes arriving on sequential days it’s always a challenge to find an empty tank!)  Air exposure of the delicate white & Rosé grape juice is a concern, so we put dry ice pellets in the juice pan to form a blanket of CO2 over the freshly pressed juice.  The bubbling CO2 gas is very heavy and keeps all the air (and fruit flies) away from the unprotected juice.  (It looks like a scene from PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!)

Last Day of Harvest for GlenLyon 2023

Harvest 2023 continued until we harvested and processed our ninth (final) upper vineyard Estate grapes the morning of October 21 after an all-night pick here at GlenLyon.  We began at 10pm and delivered the final macrobin of Syrah fruit to the winery by 4am.  Our trusty crew was called for an 7am start time to process those red (cold) grape clusters. 

Did Anything Go Wrong This Harvest?

Nothing major, but we did have an electrical short in the crusher part of our destemmer while we were processing our Estate Syrah.  Jeremy (Hero of the Day) “volunteered” to crush those grapes the “old fashioned” way.  While Jeremy was stomping (it’s exhausting) we found the electrical problem and fixed it!

An Afterthought…  

Fortunately, we were able to harvest everything this year and wine is being made (as I type this)!  Unfortunately (because of this year’s delayed ripening) some other grape farmers were not as lucky and some of the later-ripening varieties never reached maturity before Fall’s rains arrived.  It is truly sad as the farmer’s expenses are the same, whether or not the grapes end up being sold…. And do remember that the harvest of the grapes is only the beginning of a long winemaking process. Months of work follow before that magically transformed juice-into-wine is bottled!  An old winemaker once remarked (with awe) “Turning grape juice into wine is voodoo!”