Out of the Field & Onto the Crush

Now that I’ve got my whole “system” down for my fieldwork in the vines: charged headphones, comfortable shoes, and a good working rhythm, I am excited to get out and make some more progress on pulling leaves on the 5 acres. It is slow going, but I’m on a mission now - bird cries, cannons, and all!

As I arrive and get ready I’m told that we’ll begin receiving some grapes from other vineyards today (the majority of wines made here are actually from grapes from other vineyards), and I may be needed on the crushpad, so I should come in and make myself available just in case. How exciting! 

After about two hours in the vines I see a truck with bins of grapes arriving and off I run out of the field and up to the winery. As a total newbie, and the first day of grapes for the season, I feel the pulse of the whole scenario. There’s an energy, an enthusiasm, to it all that’s palpable. The growers hang out as the bins are taken off their truck with the forklift and methodically weighed then stacked. From the stack, one by one they (in this case) are poured into the steel crusher which then pumps the juice into a gigantic press. From the press there’s another hose that pumps the juice into a tank inside the cellar for fermentation.

I have to admit, I never fathomed what this whole process looked like in action while gently swirling a beautiful glass of elegant wine. Loud machinery, bees and bugs, pressure washers and forklifts. 

Suddenly I am summoned to hose down the empty bins after they are dumped by the winemaker into the crusher – great! I’ve never enjoyed using a hose so much, hahaha! Sometimes it’s the little things that just make you feel like you have a purpose. My first day on the crushpad, in some weird way, I think I might be hooked.  

Is it that I like gritty work, or is there something else at play here? Does this have anything to do with my love of wine, or is it that I feel a sense of place, I like these people and feel a kinship as we begin a journey together? Fermenting grape juice changes every day – so do people, in small ways.

We shall find out as the days continue on. The vineyard is nearly ready for harvest, and my work is about to change drastically.