We’re currently about mid-way through harvest season! We’ve already picked six out of our nine varieties and only St. Croix and the particularly cold-hardy varieties – Niagara and Petite Pearl – remain. Here in New England harvest season tends to begin as early as late August and can extend into early October.
In our previous blog post, we talked about how we measure Brix, or the amount of sugar in liquid, as the main indicator that’s it’s time to harvest. Our other indicators are the levels of bird and bee activity in the vineyard. Birds (especially turkeys and geese) can strip low hanging clusters and bees will drink the juice out of already damaged grapes. Without careful monitoring, grape harvests can easily be decimated by birds and bees.
What does a typical harvest day look like?
Harvesting starts early. Larger vineyards might start harvesting well before dawn but with such a small operation here at Zorvino, our harvest days typically start around 5:30am. Early starts mean beating the heat, harvesting the grapes at stable sugar levels, and avoiding the majority of bee activity.
We cut the clusters as close to the base of the stem as possible and collect them using 5-gallon buckets. Once a variety is completely harvested (and all the rows have been giving a thorough walk-through looking for missed clusters), we bring all the buckets back to the winery for weighing and processing. Weighing allows us to know just how much we’ve harvested from each variety and how it compares to previous years. After weighing, grapes are sent through the crusher & destemmer. White grapes will be pressed into juice immediately while red grapes will sit for up to two weeks in maceration tubs to allow the deep red color to develop.
Between cleaning equipment, harvesting, weighing, processing, and cleaning the equipment again, a typical harvest day here at Zorvino can last anywhere from four to twelve hours depending on how many varieties need to be picked and how much equipment needs to be cleaned.
Stay tuned for future posts to learn more about crushing, destemming, and the start of the winemaking process!
Learn more about harvesting
