An Insider's Look at Harvest

It’s no surprise that harvest is the winemaker’s favorite and most critical season––after all, it’s the rare job that only gives you one chance per year to get it right. From this moment forward, it’s up to the winemaking team to take what the vineyard delivers and turn it into the best wine they can make.

But what really happens during harvest? In short, the grapes are removed from the vine and brought to the winery to be guided through the fermentation process. But within that simple explanation, there are hundreds of decisions and judgment calls for the winemaking team to make––some of them critical to the quality of the finished wine, others influential on the style of the wine being made, and still others important for the long-term health of the cellar and the team.

Here’s a backstage look at the key players and events that make up harvest. As for my credentials: during my 15 years in the wine industry, I’ve worked harvests in New York's Niagara region, Southern Wisconsin, Stellenbosch in South Africa, and the Willamette Valley of Oregon. I’m a subpar forklift operator, but I enjoy digging out tanks enough that my coworkers once joked that I should be given a shovel as a parting gift. Working harvest is one of my favorite things.

How does the winemaker know when to kick off harvest?

Once the grapes are picked, they can’t ripen further or develop additional flavor on their own, so the pick date is a crucial decision for the winemaker. (Check out What the Vines Tell Us for more on what winemakers look for in the vineyard during this time.) Winemakers seek balance between sugar levels in the grapes, which increase during the end of the growing season, and acidity, which decreases at the same time. They also look for flavor development, which relies heavily on sensory analysis––actually tasting the grapes and evaluating characteristics like the flavors in the skins, the nature of the tannins, and the texture of the seeds.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. Some wine regions enjoy predictably mild weather during harvest, but such lucky regions are the exception rather than the rule. Dodging rain storms, autumn frost, weather-induced diseases such as mildew, and heat waves isn’t easy, but the winemaker’s greatest skill is to adapt to a constantly changing environment in order to make the best wine possible.

There are practical issues to consider, too. Does the forecast on your ideal pick date call for a downpour and thunderstorm? That’s going to compromise the quality of the grapes, and could pose a safety hazard. Can you find a picking crew on the day you want to pick? If everything’s getting ripe at once and there’s high demand in your region, pickers may have limited availability. Is all your equipment in working order? Let’s hope so––it won’t be easy to get urgent repair service when every winery in the area is equally busy. Oh, and keep in mind that different grape varieties, vineyards, and even blocks within a single vineyard can ripen at completely different times, so you’d better have space and containers in your cellar ready to receive fruit throughout the season.

Is your head spinning yet? If you ever have a chance to meet with a winemaker during harvest, consider bringing strong coffee.

Who Works at Harvest?

The Picking Team
Whether grapes are picked by hand or by machine depends on a variety of factors, including the quality and style of the wine, the grape variety, the weather conditions, the site, and the size of the crop being harvested. Human labor is still needed in either case. With a mechanized harvest, only a few people may be necessary, but they must have expertise in operating the machinery and experience carrying out the winemaker’s instructions. When the grapes are being harvested by hand, a larger team is needed. Ideally they will work quickly yet carefully in order to bring the grapes in before the hottest part of the day without damaging them. In regions prone to rain and disease pressure at harvest, pickers are likely to be asked to select only the healthiest-looking clusters––demanding extra time, skill, and energy. Some wineries use the same picking team every year; others put out a call for picking assistance in late summer or use the assistance of an agency or government program to find a crew.

The Core Winemaking Team
Every winery has a year-round production staff led by a winemaker and, usually, an assistant or associate winemaker. Depending on the size of the winery there may also be a cellarmaster, a lab technician and even additional winemakers for separate product categories. The winemaker and winemaking team are responsible for the success of harvest and the delivery of the resulting wines from barrel or tank to bottle. Even the smallest wineries’ core teams can’t typically handle the entire harvest alone, so they hire and manage a group of seasonal workers known as the harvest interns.

Harvest Interns
When reading about your favorite winemakers’ backgrounds or chatting with your local wine bar’s staff, you are likely to encounter the concept of working a harvest. This is the winery equivalent of the kitchen world’s stage tradition, and the closest the wine industry gets to Anthony Bourdain’s “pirate crew” analogy for his kitchen: a band of young-ish people who have been chosen, often from wine regions around the world, to come to a given winery for the harvest season and supply the much-needed additional labor required to turn the grapes into wine.
Harvest interns, sometimes affectionately known as “cellar rats,” usually have some winemaking, farming or brewing experience and are looking to expand their wine knowledge while experiencing a new part of the world. In exchange for a season of reliable pay, meals and often lodging at the hosting winery, they bring knowledge from their home region, a high tolerance for sleep deprivation, diverse musical tastes (leading to arguments over control of the cellar’s bluetooth speaker), an impressive spread of food and wine-related tattoos, varying degrees of “forklift jenga” prowess and, above all, a passion for winemaking. A strong sense of harvest camaraderie bands them together and can result in lifelong friendships. Because working harvest is so educational––and, frankly, so much fun––aspiring winemakers will often “chase harvest” for a few years at a time, working with producers in the Northern and Southern hemispheres back-to-back to maximize and diversify their work experience.