First Grapes

We got the first grapes of the year in today! 5 tons of Zinfandel. Marie, Roberto, and I started at 7 am this morning by preparing the sorting belt, destemmer, must pump (auger), hoses, and tank. Tadeo, Bernardo and his brother Sergio started at 4:30 am in the field to supervise the picking and then truck the grapes back to the winery. All Neyers grapes are sourced from vineyards in the area, so there are no actual vines on the Neyers Winery property-everything is trucked in. By picking early they are able to get the truck loaded and to the winery before it gets too hot in the day (as long as the vineyard is close enough). They are also able to preserve the natural acidity, which is highest during the cool hours of the night. When sorting we looked mainly for rot and there was very little of it. Rot is a problem with zinfandel grapes because the bunches are so tight, air cannot circulate and moisture encourages growth of nasty things. Cabernet Sauvignon, conversely, has a very loose bunch and so can tolerate much higher humidity and rain with out rotting. But luckily is has not rained for a bit, at least since I have gotten here and it has been quite hot, breaching 100 F during the day. So the grapes that came in were quite ripe and some of the bunches had completely rasinated. In tasting, they were delicious very sweet and chewy but the raisins are not so good for the wine. They can add intense flavor but can also unbalance a wine with too much sugar/ripeness.

So all that was Tuesday. Wednesday Marie and I did the early shift and followed Tadeo to the vineyard at 5 am. An early start, but nothing that doughnuts and coffee cant cure. We were harvesting mostly Zinfandel and a bit of Petite Syrah from the Pato vineyards way down in Oakley. Everything was harvested by Mexicans and then loaded into bins pulled behind the tractor. Marie and I would ride with the bins and do field sorting, pulling out leaves and rotten or other unacceptable bunches. The Zinfandel vines were amazing. They were all bush trained vines meaning they had been pruned to form a bush, no trellising, just big stumps with tendrils growing off the top. Many were over 100 years old, the average probably being around 60 years. All were also planed on their original root stock meaning that they could potentially be attacked by phylloxera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylloxera). These vines, though, grow in such sandy/loose soil that it is very difficult for the pest to live and so unlikely that these vineyards will have any trouble. The Zin that cam in was plagued by the odd patch of rot and quite uneven ripening. Some parts of the bunch would be plump and juicy while others were dry and raisiney. This is apparently the difficulty of growing zin, it is very a very ornery plant. This is also a symptom of growing old vines, you have mass variation in yield, health of the vines, and quality. The Petite Syrah on the other hand was fabulous. From much younger vines and trellised, the bunches were evenly ripe and had no signs of rot.

About the harvesters, I really felt for them. They were paid by the number of bins that they harvested so all were running and harvesting as fast as possible. It was incredibly backbreaking work done by the spectrum of young/old male/female workers. It was relatively cool in the morning but by the time the sun came up, it was scorching hot and dusty dry. Very brutal work. People bitch about food prices now, imagine if we actually paid these people a wage relative to the work they do. It struck me as out-sourced slavery.