Celebrating the Harvest
October means many things to many people. Most wine afficionados immediately think of the harvest parties and special events happening at winery tasting rooms. For grape growers, it’s the end of many months of work nurturing and tending the vines. For winemakers, it’s the beginning of a new vintage. Fresh grapes are now arriving and our work is just starting.
Precious grapes that had been in the hands of a grower are now in the hands of the winemaker. This is the winemaker’s first opportunity to control the winemaking process and it starts as soon as the grapes are harvested. There are many things to consider right now. How are the grapes handled after picking? What methods, if any, will be used to extract color and flavor from the grape skins? How much will acidity be adjusted? What yeast will be used to ferment? To what dryness do you ferment? How will the wine be pressed? During processing, will the winemaker use gentle methods like gravity to move the wine and preserve flavor?
These are among the many decisions made in just the first few weeks of processing a new vintage. Other decisions like clarification, using oak, blending, and aging come later and at a much slower pace. Arguably, harvest is the most important time in the winery. Whether you’re making a hundred bottles as a home winemaker or a hundred barrels at a commercial winery, the decisions are the same. The choices and actions the winemaker takes at this time have a profound impact on how a wine will turn out years into the future.
Think about that the next time you open a bottle of your favorite wine. The reason it tastes the way it does now is because of the decisions a winemaker made, possibly many years ago. While the harvest celebrations were happening in the tasting room then, the winemaker was hard at work creating the wine you’re tasting now.
The Winemakers Group will be having our post-harvest celebration too. Our next quarterly meeting and potluck will be Saturday, October 19, from 1pm – 4pm. The Yorba Linda location will be announced approximately one week prior to the event. Signups are now open on the OCWS website. Cost is $5 per person to cover supplies. All OCWS members are welcome to attend. Attendanceis limited so sign up now!
For the Winemakers Group,
Ed Reyes