Harvest!!
by Julianne & Scott Donnini
Auburn Road Vineyards

In this article we want to share with you what is probably the most exciting and romantic time of the year for a vineyard and winery and that is harvest time. This year it has really snuck up on us, as I guess it does every year, but one minute you have your head down, tending to the vines day after day and the next minute, the grapes are sweet, the birds want to eat them, a hurricane is coming and its time to bring them in!

Funny thing about harvest…it isn’t ever really as romantic as it seems. It is the usual race with Mother Nature to let the grapes continue to hang on the vine as long as possible before weather, among other factors, force your hand. But harvest is always exciting. It is the culmination of a long growing season and a whole spring and summer of careful attention and tending. It really can be a joyful event.

Harvest does set in motion the rest of the wine making process – almost a handing of the baton from vineyard manager to the winemaker. Now it is her problem…

For example, tomorrow, September 2, we are going to harvest our Pinot Grigio. For the last four years running, we have harvested Pinot Grigio on Labor Day Weekend and that was certainly our plan this year. However, here comes Hurricane Earl. Is he gonna hit us, we wonder? Dave, our vineyard wizard, was sitting up late last night with coffee in one hand and aspirin in the other following the latest dopler and listening to the Weather Channel. No one has any idea what Earl is going to do. So Dave makes the call – we gotta harvest the Pinot Grigio before Earl gets here – can’t take any chances. By the way, rain at harvest is bad because the vine will suck up the water through its roots and the grapes will inflate like little water balloons diluting all the sugars and flavors and, in one storm, Mother Nature could wreck an entire great growing season. (This one has been a great growing season by the way, so I am knocking wood while I write this so as not to jinx us or anger Mother Nature – who incidentally is one nasty mother…) So off they come. By the way, the forecast for tomorrow is for 95 degrees, lots of sun and plenty of humidity. Exciting, to be sure, but not romantic…

Because grapes we harvest tomorrow are going to be a white wine, they will go immediately into the press and we will press them tomorrow too. The juice will then be pumped into a tank and Jules will begin fermentation, a process which will take roughly 4-5 weeks start to finish. 

Luckily for us, our other varieties come ripe at different times throughout the fall. For example, Merlot and Sangiovese, both red grapes, will probably be ready in late September. Chambourcin will come in probably in early October. And hopefully, Cabernet Sauvignon will be ready in mid to late October so it gives us time to deal with them a little at a time rather than all at once. When harvesting red grapes, you bring them in and they go through a process called crushing – basically squishing – the grapes. Absent having your own Lucille Ball to stomp the grapes for you (a practice that did in fact take place not long ago and still happens in some places in the world…the alcohol from fermentation kills the germs), you need a crushing machine which separates the stems from the grapes and then breaks up the grapes. The juice and the skins come out together in a mush called “must”. Yeast is added to the must and fermentation begins – with the skins and the juice all fermenting together. From the skins, the wine gets color and “tannins” that help give the wine character and help it age well. All of that happens on harvest day. Once fermentation is over (about 10 days) the must is pressed to get all the now wine out and the remaining dry must is composted.

That is basically how it goes, with the last pressing of red grapes happening in early to mid November so harvest season runs roughly 2 ½ months. It is a physically draining time and Jules is pretty nuts through the whole process but that is what makes her so good at what she does.    

If there are wine related topics or questions you would like for us to address in upcoming installments of this column, shoot us an email through our website. Thanks for reading and see you at The Enoteca!