Order Up: Wine grape harvest time is upon us
Amanda Steen/Herald-Standard
Amanda Steen/Herald-Standard Amanda Steen/Herald-Standard Amanda Steen/Herald-Standard Durst
Grape harvesting begins with grapes start to change color in late summer to early fall.
ver wonder what it takes to fill one of those 750 ml bottles of grape alcohol goodness that 62 percent of Americans purchase every month?
If you don’t already know, it is wine grape harvest time, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Grape harvesting begins when grapes start to change color in late summer to early fall. The actual picking of the grapes starts in late August through November and February through April in the Southern Hemisphere. It all begins with the Verasion, which is the ripening of the grapes.
The fruit hanging on the vines transforms from small, hard looking berries to what we call grapes. This usually takes about 30-70 days depending on the variety and the climate. You can usually tell when the grapes are ready because the vines will start to lose their flowers. The reason the grapes transform is due to the vines pumping in sugars to the grape, which causes them to soften and becomes less acidic. However, this is a prime example of why some vineyards still prefer hand picked grapes as opposed to harvesting equipment.
Verasion doesn’t happen all at the same time throughout the vineyard, the same vines, or even an individual bunch. The amount of warmth and sun plays a huge roll in this and trained human harvesters recognize this and let the unripened grapes finish their cycle. During this cycle, farmers will also try to control their crops. This is one instance, where to a famer, less is better. If a famer believes a vine looks like it has less grapes than its capable of making then those grapes will ripen more fully and be of higher quality.
If the crop looks like it will be too large, or ripening was delayed due to poor weather, the farmer can conduct a green harvest. This is basically a thinning of the crop so the vines can give the other bunches the proper nutrients. They also want to keep an eye out for too man y leaves. Leaves can hide the sun and even block out rain. This can contribute to mold growth and unripened grapes.
Protecting crops is very interesting. All animals ground or airborne love grapes. Fences can keep out the ground predators but the winged predators are the biggest problem. Some vineyards even have employed falconers to patrol the crops with birds of prey but most of them depend on covers or bird nets. Some even use bird cannons that put off loud booms to scare off the birds.
Once the grapes are picked, they head to triage. This is a term for the process of sorting the grapes.
In the old days, humans would sort the grapes by pulling off old and bad grapes, stems, leaves, or unripened grapes but now it’s all mostly conveyor machine sorted.
After triage, they begin crushing or squeezing the grapes . As we all know stomping was the original form of this but technology like everything else, has taken over.
De-stemmers and giant rollers can squash the grapes while keeping the stems and seeds from smashing and mixing in.
Then fermentation begins. We all know what that does.
Fermentation is what produces alcohol content and is the beginning of the second major part of wine making.
Unfortunately, I have to wrap up this week’s article, but to learn more, check out the internet. You can find hundreds of books on wine, different grapes and flavors, and even making your own.
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Eric Durst is the executive chef of The Firehouse Restaurant & Pub in Dunbar Township.