Once, a while back, I was harvesting grapes in the middle of the night. It was in Cachapoal in Chile. We had headlamps to see what we were doing and to avoid as much as possible cutting off our, or anyone else’s, fingers instead of the bunches of grapes. (Read more about our night harvest in Chile in this BKWine Magazine article.) In Europe, harvest by machine at night or early in the morning happens. However, it is unusual to pick the grapes manually in the dark.
The cooperative Tutiac in Bordeaux has been harvesting, mechanically, its white grapes and red grapes for rosé at night for 15 years. The cooperative believes there are advantages to harvesting during the cool hours of the day if the daytime temperature is high. You save electricity, and you get better quality. The bunches enter the fermentation hall at a lower temperature; they do not need to be cooled down, and there is a reduced risk of oxidation because the grapes are less likely to be crushed if they are cold, and the cool temperature reduces the speed of oxidation too. This is important not least for the rosé wines. You want to get the right, light colour, and the cooler the grapes are when harvested, the smaller the risk of the juice being coloured by the skins.
Read more: larvf
Read more on the advantages and drawbacks of machine harvest and manual harvest in this BKWine Magazine article. There are many myths on this subject.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Bordeaux with BKWine. Or alternatively, come on a wine tour to Chile (and Argentina) with BKWine.
