CRUSH!

Harvest started last Saturday for us. It has been fairly (for harvest...) easy here in the winery because our harvester kept breaking down. Now that we have this problem fixed the work will be non-stop and the hours will be getting longer. The Friday before we kicked things off I was so excited I had to get some of that anxious energy out in order to sleep so I wrote this, and promptly fell asleep on the couch with my laptop in my lap. 

"I am not sure how to explain it. Tomorrow is my first Saturday to mark the true beginning of crush! And I am, for the lack of a better word, STOKED! The logic in me keeps saying, 'it's just twice the amount of stress and work!' But the romantic side screams 'THIS IS THE MAGIC!' It is an intense surge of physical, mental, emotional and sensory activities. Every load of grapes is the dream of a beautiful wine. Every addition, every movement, every analysis recorded; is the action of that dream. Every morning is a sunrise and every night is a sunset. You end every day covered in sticky juice, smelly yeast, and coated in a fine dust of yeast nutrients" 

I am sure if my eyes would have stayed open for longer the end of this love letter to harvest would have made more sense and been beautiful. The honest truth is I cannot talk about harvest without sounding like a starry eyed literary arts major. This harvest is so early this vintage that the days may not be sunrise to sunset yet but I'm sure there will be a few of them.  Although that is different this vintage everything else is on par. The air is electric with anxiety and excitement. It smells of the crisp change of the seasons, the ripe fruit, dirt from the tractors and the yeast of fermentation. Every morning starts with pump-overs and punch downs which rewards your morning with all the fruit aromas that will eventually present in the glass. Throughout the day the sounds of the tractors delivering fruit, forklift dumping fruit, the rhythm of the the crusher/destemmer timed with the must pump, the funny sigh of the press when it releases air. The beautiful pink hues of the red juice in my sample jars, the amazing fuchsia of the red fermenting juice when it is punched down/pumped over. The energy exerted to drag hoses, move pumps, climb ladders and dig tanks. All in all harvest is total sensory overload. It is amazing.  

 

If you want more about harvest follow me on twitter, @tiffanybritton8 and for all the awesome pictures follow my instagram Winegeekette. The fast pace of harvest is much better suited for quick pics and 140 character comments.