There is considerable commentary about whether to harvest mechanically or by hand and on the whole it seems to make very little difference to the quality of the wine. At least as far as the crush itself. As harvest is a critical call of the winemaker, the ability to harvest quickly at the right moment, regardless of labor availability, has led many producers to mechanical harvest. Harvest machines have allowed many smaller vineyards both control and the ability to work without an additional workforce at harvest.Whether cranberries , grapes or other berries … Mechanical harvesting tends to break more berries. In terms of wine or other juices the berries are headed for a crush so that’s immaterial. The cranberries that are harvested en mass are usually headed to the juice factories or to be frozen. Upon seeing beautiful table fruit, the assumption of hand harvest makes sense. When I asked a friend in California what the difference was between table grapes and wine grapes, he replied with a figure of several thousand dollars per ton.In any production business, the protocols are dependent upon processes that must be done consecutively or concurrently. Clearly consecutive processes require more time..Mechanical harvest allows a small crew to harvest while larger crew is occupied with the crush itself.Mechanical harvesting requires other work circumstances. As the harvest is of consumable food, everything used in that process must conform to rules of agriculture dedicated to human consumption. Whether in the vineyards or blogs, all harvesting machines must use completely safe lubricants, the greases similar to a Crisco, and everything must be cleaned according to the rules and good sense for any sort of food. The Forest family prefers to maintain this older harvester as they feel it’s build and reliability is more suited to their vineyards.Harvest machinery is very complex, on any farm, and waits around being maintained for well: “harvest”. Earlier in the day, the Buckingham Valley crew had harvested at another vineyard which had a particularly good return, more than that vineyards capacity. Those grapes came over to Buckingham Valley. However, they came from a vineyard that harvested everything by hand. Such vineyards are planted differently as they do not need to accommodate the harvest machine between the rows.Year’s back, at a coffee plantation, we noticed a propensity for “el Piero Necessario” the necessary and ever vigilant dogs. This appears universal. Perhaps they are like my cats who I can talk to as I work. These ever vigilant dogs were sleeping. Beside them, one can see the grace of the grapes pumping through food quality hoses. And on to the stainless vats.I like the concept of the silhouettes. Particularly in food production, the America we take food very much for granted and those involved in providing this incredible bounty often appear as phantoms.It all has to work at the same time.with certain notable exceptions.I believe these are Chancellor grapes, their harvest follow the Chambourcin. The bird netting for obvious reasons. Mrs. Forrest said: “it’s a lot of trouble, take itout, put up, and take down, and put it back. However without it … the entire years work can be gone before you even know it.”
coOne cannot tell the story of berries without including birds. The results of an entire year’s work and indeed the family farm can simply disappear with the proper amount, or should I say improper amount, of birds. Various methods are used to perhaps we should say any method is used to maintain the crop. Military repeaters mimicking the sound of gunshots might continue all day long. In my experience the birds simply need something that will say “boo”. For if they can’t be scared away there will be nothing to harvest and that which is the extraordinarily damage. A young visitoras well as the birds been surprised by Gumby.The bulk of the grape skins, plus a lot of the stems, pips & vines after press, piled before the vines upon which they hung only a few hours earlier. Certain amounts of skin caps are used in the production of red wine. In France I had knew this as marc. Which was also re-fermented and distilled into earthy brandy also know as Marc. I would asked me to bring this back to him since he was a kid as it was his answer to any sort of cold, the illness kind or simply the temperature of winter. I’ve been told here that is known as Pomace. I don’t know what its uses in United States, others and I’m sure it is turned back into the soil.
There seems a silence after harvest. The vines stand, seemingly a little lighter, the birds less interested, as even the grapes at the beginning of the rows missed by the harvester have now been clipped by hand. Autumn light does what autumn light does. Maybe just says: ” good bye.”
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