Grape Harvesting Time is an important time for every winemaker. In addition to our family, we invite friends, sometimes even tourists or lovers of our wines. Sometimes, the harvest was a multi-day event when all grapes were harvested at once. Today, with the term “Grape Harvesting Time,” winemakers describe a part of the year in which individual grape varieties are picked up. Each type of grape grows in its own time, so it is also necessary to adjust the grape harvesting time. And here we are. A new season for harvesting in the northern hemisphere arrived.
Preparations Must Be Thorough and Timely
Preparations must be thorough and timely. Before harvesting, should be made for several things:
– to prepare to pick equipment (vats, boxes, shears, etc.),
– to provide apparatus for grapes (mill, press, pump, extruder, barrel, cooling system, etc.),
– plan the course of work (the beginning of picking, who will pick, who will drive the tractor, who will work with the press etc.),
– prepare food and drinks for pickers (the housewife has to start to work a few days earlier).
If pickers are experienced, we usually have less work with them, but if there are some newcomers in the group, we must first explain the course of work or define a “mentor” who helps them with the first few clusters.
Grape Harvesting Time Sometimes and Now
Sometimes winegrowers with several varieties of white or red grapes produced “mixed white” and “mixed red” wine, so all the grapes were harvested at once. Forty or fifty people had been picking up for two days from morning to evening, which is why harvesting was also a significant social event. Nowadays, harvesting is specialized and adapted only to the variety of grapes and weather. The grapes must be technologically mature, with the optimum ratio of acids, sugars, tannins, and other ingredients, so the parameters must be closely monitored for several weeks before harvesting. Harvesting is much less social, yet it is still a fun and meaningful event for winemakers and their friends.
Winery Families with Tradition
Winery families with tradition still care about things that must not be missed at harvesting. If wine is the first love from the view of winemakers, to all other participants is much more popular for the housewife who has prepared the meals, delicious lunches, and other treats for pickers. Traditional dishes made from homemade ingredients are an obligatory component of the harvest; they must be varied, and, above all, there must be many choices. The housewife has been thinking about meat, cheese, pickled vegetables, dishes on a spoon, homemade bread, and biscuits for some days or even weeks before harvesting.
Some winemakers have the habit of inviting all pickers to the St. Martin celebration, which further adds importance to harvesting and contributes to the integration of people.
This is also my habit. Why? Because we live only this time. We experience a few dozen grape harvesting, and then we are old, and everything is over. So why not be able to enjoy it now and here? As long as you can. With your friends and your family. With all those who mean a lot to you. Let it be the grape harvesting time, a big day for you and yours.
Here you can read when to harvest the grapes.