Grape Harvesting on a small scale - Copperopolis style

When people move to acreage in the foothills they all move with a dream of some sort in mind; land for livestock, agriculture, privacy, etc. On smaller parcels the realization  of fruit production or grape production can become a reality.

With a small parcel of land, the right vine stock and lots of patience and care, an aspiring wine maker can anticipate his first harvest in 3 to 4 years. While this may seem a long wait to some, to the apprentice vintner, this is a dream come true. To raise their own wine grapes from stalk to harvest and then to produce their own wine creation is the ultimate high.



So the vines have been planted and we fast forward 4 years...time to harvest. Upon looking at their acre or two of luscious grapes carrying the perfect level of sugar and acid...at the peek of ripeness, the aspiring vintner adds one more thing to his ever growing list of things he needs to be a successful wine maker...friends...and lots of them. On large scale vineyards machinery or labor groups complete the harvest with ease. On a small scale vineyard...friends are the laborers.With the promise of a bbq and a lot of camaraderie, friends indeed show up in droves...with the sincere hope that when the wine is bottled and ready to sample, they will be on the invitation list for the tasting party.

The netting covering the rows of vines to protect the luscious grapes from birds wishing to sample the fruit is removed first.

Which exposes the plump grape bunches ready for harvest. Now begins the real work.

After hours of laughter, clipping, chatting, clipping, and more laughter...buckets are filled and then poured into larger buckets.

The large buckets, when full are taken to the 'de-stemming machine' and the 'crusher.' The first does as its name implies and removes the stems, the later crushes the grapes so the juices are exposed to yeast for fermenting. The old fashioned way was to stomp on the grapes and remove the stems later, hence the many grape stomp activities in wine country areas.

Picture of de-stemmer crusher from madeinitaly.com

This journalist has yet to see the next step of the process, but sincerely hopes to be invited back to learn just how grapes really are turned to delicious wines.

Thank you so much to the Crawford family for allowing me the opportunity to participate in a small scale grape harvest.

By,
Charity Maness