Harvest at Mount Gambier
We are still in Mount Gambier, at Good intentions winery where harvest is beginning to start slowly now.
Day 41
Today is Sunday, a classical easy sunday, yesterday we picked the first grapes of this vintage the pinot gris, and today we are checking the ripeness of the other grapes to see if they’re almost ready for picking. We are still early in the harvesting season so not all the grapes are ready yet.
Day 42.
Still the waiting game, waiting for the pinot noir grapes to get a little bit more ripe.
Today we are labeling some wines, and not much else. These days are not very spectacular but it will get busy soon.
Also we still haven’t adapted to the cold weather here yet…. Mount Gambier is a weird place with 3 seasons in one day.
We had some wines in the evening as usual and went to bed early. Tomorrow a new day. And if we’re lucky we are harvesting some grapes!!
Day 43
Yes we are ready to pick the grapes!! First day of harvesting pinot noir, the fruit is not very good this year unfortunately, the vines are confused because of the weird weather this year. It’s been really hot and dry, with some hail storms, after that it became cold and dark again with a lot of rain, and now it’s still a bit cold for this time of the season, so the grapes are not ripening properly because of the confusing weather. The picking took us a while, about 6 hours for 4 rows, they were long tough!! After the picking we went back to the winery had some lunch, and did some other things that needed to be done. Had an early night, tomorrow we are planning to do some more pinot noir picking.
Day 44
Our second day of harvesting pinot noir, we are doing 4 rows everyday with 5 people for now, and it didn’t took as long as yesterday, because of the lack of fruit in these rows. Australia is having such a hard time this year growing grapes, one region has to much smoke damage, the other one has to much storms, and some places just don’t have the right temperatures in the last couple of weeks for the grapes to grow. So crazy to experience and see it yourself how much of an effect climate change has in every region.
Today We also picked some apples, to make a cider this year, very exciting something we’ve never done before.
Day 45 - 46 - 47
The next couple of days we had some mornings and long days of picking the pinot noir, the vineyard that we are picking is 5/6 hectares so this will take us a while, and just to save money we are picking the grapes ourselves, normally they would get a picking crew out with more people who are way faster in picking then us, but because of the small amount of grapes this year it’s manageable to do it ourselves. We are making a Pet Nat (pettilant naturel) from the Pinot noir grapes we are harvesting, this is a fizzy wine that gets its bubbles all natural because of fermentation and botteling early, The grapes can be a little bit more unripe then normal, which will give the wine a nice acidity and freshness. If you ever come across a nice Pet-nat, you should definitely try it!
Day 48
Not one of my best days… i feel pretty sick today so I’m staying home and planning to sleep a lot! not a very good time to get sick.... Chris is out harvesting grapes again today, taking care of me with some nice lunch and tea. After the picking they did some more labeling of the new wines that are being released this month.
for me time to rest and get better!
Day 49.
A new day!!! I’m still feeling a bit sick, but so much better then yesterday, im giving it a go and help them with a little bit of harvesting, also today is the day that we are going to press the pet nat, and I didn’t want to miss that of course! the last day of picking and turning the grapes in to a wine. What a special process.
Stay tuned, next week more of harvest and making wine. For everyone who is concerned about the Coronavirus, we are still clean and safe here in Mount Gambier, and all healthy! The days that i was sick had nothing to do with the coronavirus. It hasn’t effected Australia that bad yet! I hope that you all will stay healthy and safe.
