In between the photo breaks, bad jokes, worse singing and general conversation I actually did a little work, learned a great amount, and had fun in the process.
I read a book by Peter Matthiessen, called At Play In The Fields Of The Lord. I always liked that title, and that is what it felt like on my day in Manton.
The early morning air was still, and the light was softly whispering across the netted vineyard. Nels and Christine have five acres of grapes: Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Barbera and Petit Verdot. That makes forty rows. Each row is netted to protect the grapes from birds, pruned by hand and picked by hand. It takes them about a day to pick a row, depending on the type of grape, how heavy the vine is producing, the day length and how tired they are.
I got to tour the entire vineyard, tasting and comparing the various grapes, and then I helped fill a bucket of Barbera.
Actually, Christine filled the bucket, I gently placed a few clusters on top, and then they took my photo with it.
Something to remember is that this is a small, boutique winery, small production of excellent wines. Thus, the methods they use would not be practical nor affordable for a large scale operation such as Renwood or St. Francis. Not that those wines are bad, or they harvest wrong. It is just a different goal, and a different philosophy.
Here is what I found out.
The number one thing I took away from this is the care with which the grapes are harvested. The grapes are not "dropped." Instead, the clusters are picked and the grapes hand sorted right there, before being placed gently in the bucket.
Seriously.
Each grape cluster is hand sorted. I did it myself. All the green hard berries, the unripe red waterberries, and the hard, shriveled raisins are plucked out, as well as the spiders and their webs, and any leaves.
Is it time consuming? Yes. Crazy? Maybe. But I think that this is one of the big reasons their wine tastes like it does; you are drinking only the best fruits.
We joked about "placing" the grapes in the bucket instead of just throwing them in. I suggested they "tuck them in" between 1500 thread count, Egyptian Cotton sheets.
Jokes aside, probably more grapes are rejected during the harvest than actually make it to the fermenter.
Everything is sanitized. Every. Damn. Thing.
The harvesting buckets. The clippers. You can't bring your own, they supply them for you. Water for hand washing is everywhere. Every piece of equipment is sanitized before and after each use. Remember, these are scientists turned vintners.
I think what drives them to do all this is the passion. They do it for the love of the wine. And it shows.
It was interesting to see how each type of grape was different, and not just in size, taste and color. Some had tight clusters with few green berries, others were more open clusters with less spiders. Certain grapes hung neatly in bunches with long stems, easy to cut, while others were small, tight and twisted with short stems, hard to find the cutting point.
Once I started cutting, it was easy to get in a zen like state; to get in the zone. Sure it can be mind-numbing, long hours of tedious work. But for me, the time I spent there was a welcome relief from the hectic noise and activity of my regular life.
Look. Snip. Sort. Look. Snip. Sort.
For the love of the grape.
The smell in the fermentation room of the winery was intoxicating. Overwhelming. I wish my house smelled like that. Every day Nels punches the grapes down, by hand. Twice a day. The winery is natural, essentially all organic. They mostly use the wild yeast to ferment, occasionally inoculating with cultured yeast. When you get a bottle of their wine, it is grapes, grapes, more grapes, and... grapes.
Every one of them hand sorted.
I think a row yields an average of ten buckets of grapes. ten buckets per fermenter. One fermenter makes three carboys, twelve carboys to the barrel. One barrel is a half-ton of grapes.
That is a lot of grapes.
So, the harvest is over for the year, the clippers sanitized and put up, buckets stored and destemmer washed and put aside. How was the harvest?
I got an email from Nels.
"...almost 4 barrels of Barbera (a new record), 1 Merlot, 1.5 Malbec, 1 Cab Sauv, 1.5 Verdot, and 0.25 Cab Franc. Total will be approximately 225 cases of bottled wine, the most of any vintage so far and it should be a very good one, ripe and deep."
Next time I drink their wine, I am going to think of that. All those grapes, hanging there in the sun, each one hand chosen, run through the process.
Millions of grapes.
The best grapes.
Hand sorted.
You really should look through the photos.