It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

She Said: What is harvest like?  What are the highs and lows of harvest time in wine country?  What goes on behind the scenes?  How can the ordinary person be involved or participate?

Here it is...Harvest Eve 2011.  After a cool wet spring across most of the state, temperatures rebounded and, so far, California has managed to stay dry and (knock on wood) fire-free.  Heat data in the Central Valley is almost identical to last year, and cooler sites are actually ahead of where they were last year at this time (in terms of growing degree-days).  The early June rain threw most growers for a loop, and most of the cooler regions (see Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake, etc) were experiencing bloom at the time.  As you may guess, heavy rain, high winds, and fragile flowers don't mix, and in the end, something had to lose.  Some growers were more unfortunate than others, and early-blooming varietals experienced lousy berry-set--hence, their crops could be lighter come harvest.  If you were in the Central Coast, then you know all too much about the April frost.  Out of respect, it will never be mentioned again.  But most of the state has caught up in the last month with respect to ripening and heat, and those grapes that are left on the vine look great.  2010, while not a bad year (in fact, I'll argue that it was the opposite), presented challenges that many California grape growers and winemakers had never experienced...namely a cooler than average season and WAY above-average rainfall.  The season was very un-California.  Strange weather caused some people to do strange things, like pulling basal leaves from vines with the idea that exposed berries will see more sunlight and ripen more quickly.  Now why is that a bad idea?  In developing vines, basal leaves are the largest, and therefore the most photosynthetically-active during the growing season.  At a point during the mid-summer, green growth (shoots and leaves) ceases and all the vine's energy is diverted into ripening fruit--the berries become a sink for photosynthetic products, which are sugars.  Removing basal leaves removes the main sugar-manufacturing stations from the vines, and during cool years, the berries need all the sugar that they can get.  Not only is ripening delayed, but the fruiting zones of the vines are fully exposed to the sun, leaving them in danger of burn.  Burn, you ask?  Oh yeah.  Grapes get sunburned just like your Irish cousin.  And in late August 2010, that's exactly what happened.  A string of 100+ days scorched California (102 in the Russian River Valley), and all of those exposed berries got fried on the vine.

But this is the year 2011!  So much we've all learned from the pop-quiz that most of us failed last year.

Our first loads are due to arrive this coming Wednesday morning, at which time Santa Claus will come down the winery chimney and leave Pinot Gris (which is destined for a program that I'm not permitted to reveal).  Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Muscat will begin to hit at the end of the month and carry us through September.  Valley Pinot Noir is looking to be ready around mid-September, while the stuff that's actually worth a damn is currently in the early October timeframe.  Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon will load up the month October; and come Halloween, we'll be seeing rain in the forecast and the final harvest push will end just before it gets wet and harvest is over.  That's the season in so many words.

But what really happens?  It's a world that not many are privileged to see, but if you're a friend of the blog, you have an inside track!  Like right now...

If you caught my Santa reference earlier, you might have the idea that I look forward to harvest like a kid looks forward to Christmas.  What I love the most about it is the fact that there's only one chance per season to execute a plan, so everything--all those ideas, all those months of developing a playbook--need to occur in a very very finite period of time.  If you fail, you miss your chance for another twelve months (and, more often than not, you'll receive and earfull from whoever signs your paycheck).  So you gotta show up with your A-game every morning...there's none of this leeway for someone like, say, Jay Cutler, who can throw five picks on a Sunday afternoon, get benched, and then quickly forget about it in preparation for the next week (where he'll probably throw another 4 along with being sacked more times than I care to watch).  In the wine business, for a LOT of small producers, there is no tomorrow.  Do you enjoy pressure and long hours?  I might have a job for you!

To give you an idea of the kind of long hours to which I am referring, here's an outline of my first harvest shift of 2010....

9:45 pm:  Report to winery to write compliance work orders for the night's receiving and make coffee.

10 pm:  Write work orders.  You can probably assume which task got highest priority.

10:30 pm:  Radio cellar team leads for a truck update.  They haven't heard anything yet, and I'm not surprised.

11:15 pm:  A co-worker and I square off in a YouTube contest in which we have to show the funniest video.  I pull a Trump and win with the Bedroom Intruder song.

12 am:  Radio to the cellar draws no response.

12:40 am:  Pot #2 is on.  My eye-in-the-sky reports fruit within the hour.

1:30 am:  The first truck arrives at my facility--press-cut Pinot Gris.  Pump it out and we're underway.

2 am:  Begin gross solids removal from juice.

4:57 am:  Write work orders for fining-agent additions and start the clock on the required juice contact period.

5 am:  Begin fining-agent adds

6 am:  Begin removal of fining solids, make oatmeal, check fantasy baseball standings for the morning.

10:30 am:  Calculate yeast additions.

10:40 am:  Scour the winery for the correct yeast strain.

11:15 am:  Pitch yeast starters to tanks--now we're making wine!

12 pm:  Reinforcements arrive.  Lay out expectations for the afternoon.

2 pm:  Shift end.  Limp home to bed.  What was that...16 hours?

And I live for it.  Every second of it.  From August through December, each day is spent on this unbelievable high--the ultimate state of wired.  You find yourself breathing heavily when you realize that your body can't keep up with all the thoughts in your head.  You may only get one or two good nights worth of sleep in a week, but to me there's plenty of time to sleep in November.

The low point in the season is when you hit the stage of physical exhaustion.  Cleaning, lugging heavy hoses and pumps, deadlines, early deliveries, and paperwork take their toll, and right around October 10th everyone becomes a shell of irritability.  By then, no one wants to muck out the press at 3 am because they're soaked and tired and cold (and you can't expect being inside a small metal tube in the dark to be all peaches).  You really have no clue about the physical and mental strain of harvest until you've been there...

If you're interested in experiencing harvest for yourself (if my last paragraph didn't turn you off forever), there are actually PLENTY of opportunities for the lay person to get their hands dirty (literally).  True, there are wineries out there that offer "Be a winemaker for a day" events.  And they're cute and they give you a glass of wine and you're usually done by 3.  If that is the kind of experience that you seek, then go for it.  Think of it as harvest with training wheels.  They'll bring out bins of reject fruit (probably the stuff with a high enough percentage of rot that the winery would never ever use for wine) and put it in a bucket for you so that you can take off your shoes, roll up your pants, and have the time of your life.  You don't need to stay up all night picking, nor do you need to fill out weigh tags, sort berries, clean equipment, troubleshoot, perform all necessary laboratory analyses, and plan for the next day and/or week.  Easy-peasy.  Oh!  And your event is catered!  And they'll give you free wine!!  And you can get your picture taken!  Not that I would ever do a day like that, nor would I recommend it to someone legitimately interested in wine; however, I will tell you that such an experience can make for a good party or a fun date.

If you're serious...like, REALLY serious about learning how to make wine, most wineries (especially the small ones) are more than happy to take volunteers for the day.  If you don't mind all night shifts or early mornings, you can pick a few tons.  All you need is a knife or pair of pruners and a good attitude (picking is repetitive and sometimes tedious, but face it, it's necessary).  We pick at night because cold fruit is less susceptible to breakage and infection by bacteria or mold (it's also easier on the crews not to be out there in the heat of the day).  If the winery wants you on-site, chances are you'll be on the sorting table picking out leaves, shot-berries, and generally anything that looks nasty before it has a chance to go into the fermenter.  You might also be asked to clean this and that, and the winery will most likely provide you with lunch and beer (it does, in fact, take a lot of beer to make wine).  They may also give you a bottle or two as a thank-you (because free labor is always appreciated).  But by volunteering, you'll be able to pick brains and ask all those sound-silly-in-your-head-and-may-be-afraid-to-ask questions and find that they aren't silly at all.  As long as you show a genuine interest in what you're doing, winemakers will explain our whole world to you!  We're good people like that.

The best way to contact wineries looking for volunteers is through either Facebook or Twitter.  They'll post harvest updates fairly regularly, and there's your opportunity to offer your services.  Can't find your favorite winery?  Give them a call and sell yourself.  Unless it's a large operation, the chances of you being turned down are incredibly slim.

 

[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Harvest in Napa, 2009. I guess someone has to do it."][/caption]

Question of the day:  What was the hardest job that you've ever had?

Sincerely, though, thank you so much for reading.  Wine is my passion in life, and I love everything related to it.  If you have any questions at all regarding any part of the business, where to buy, or just want ideas on new wines you haven't tried before, I promise all of you that I will take time out of my day to answer all of them.

Until then, later, kids.  And Happy Harvest '11--I hope you were good this year.