The Backyard Vineyard – Harvest

Harvest.

It’s one of those words which, metaphorically, has come to symbolize so many other aspects of our lives. It represents the culmination of months of work and collaboration, is often a celebration between humans and nature, and is generally best enjoyed with family.

It is also an acknowledgement that though we can try to control a lot in life, we are often at the mercy of forces “unseen”. Though in our case, many of these forces – such as birds, bees, hornets, and deer – have been quite visible in recent years.

When it comes to a backyard vineyard, harvest is a small, intimate affair which will prove to you and your skeptical neighbors that all the work and preparation was worth it. And like many forms of noble leisure, the backyard vineyard is more about the process than the product – it is something you do for its own sake. Sometimes, though, your product may pleasantly surprise you.

Below is a breakdown of the process, step by step. We hope your juice is worth the squeeze.

Gear

To properly determine ripeness with some basic numbers, you’ll need to review your high school chemistry notes, search your garage or shed, borrow a few things from neighbors, and perhaps purchase some basic gear online. Here is the breakdown:

• Hydrometer – determines your Brix, or the amount of sugar present in your crushed grape juice
• Refractometer – also determines your Brix, but requires less grapes, is faster, but slightly less accurate
• pH Meter – determines the pH of your crushed grape juice
• Pruners – for cutting off those plump clusters of grapes
• Buckets – for collecting those plump grape clusters
• Sorting Table – for sorting through grape clusters (keeping good grapes, removing things you don’t want like rotten/damaged grapes, green shot berries, and trash or dead leaves)
• Table Sugar – for adjusting your Brix if the sugar level is low
• Primary Fermentation Vat – holds your initial crushed grape juice (we like stainless steel crab pots)
• Big Stirring Spoon – for stirring in sugar, sulfites, etc.
• Sanitizer – for EVERYTHING that touches the grape juice
• Sulfite – preservative for those who choose to use it
• Strainer – useful for removing skins/stems from juice when taking Brix readings in a hydrometer or refractometer
• Funnel – useful to avoid spillage when using a hydrometer
• Wine Glasses – for tasting your grape juice!
• Mortar and Pestle – for crushing sulfite tablets, if you choose to use sulfite
• Distilled Water (for cleansing pH meters without altering future readings)

Step One – Prep Your Chemistry Lab

Any backyard enthusiast knows that preparation pays off when it comes to harvest day. In addition to checking final numbers, watching the weather, setting out your buckets, sharpening and greasing your pruning shears, enlisting help from family and neighbors, and ensuring you’ve got all the right supplies, you’ll want to set up a calm, comfortable “chemistry lab” near the action so that you can run your numbers and do some basic math without feeling rushed or distracted.

Above, you’ll see the outdoor lab we normally set up for our harvests. From left to right:

• Strainer
• Mortar and Pestle
• Distilled Water
• pH Meter
• Refractometer
• Hydrometer
• StarSans Sanitizing Solution
• Table Sugar
• Sulfite
• Yeast Packets
• From Vines to Wines, by Jeff Cox
• Vintner’s Notebook (for recording all notes, observations, lessons learned, and crush day numbers)

Step Two – Prep Your Processing Plant

Before you head down to the vines to start harvesting your grapes, you’ll want to make sure you set up a sorting table to allow you and your friends/neighbors/family to comfortably sort through each bucket (keeping the good grapes, removing the damaged/rotten ones, green shot berries, and things like trash or dead leaves).

Above, you’ll see our fold-out table, our buckets, and a stainless steel crab pot we use as our primary fermentation vessel. (More on that process in a future post.)

Step Three – Harvest

Now that your chemistry lab and sorting table is all set, the fun can begin. Harvesting is probably the simplest part of the day. Simply walk down your rows, looking for the ripest, most plump clusters on the vines.

By this point in the season, you should have removed all of those clusters which were not in “sync” with the rest of the vineyard (i.e. ripening too fast or slow, and/or damaged by pests).

As you clip each cluster, gently place it into a bucket or sturdy cardboard box to ensure no premature breakage occurs. Also, make sure to cut back any “skeletons”, or clusters which may have served as a tasty treat to birds/deer/bees and have only the stem to show for it. (Cutting back empty stems helps tell the vine to prepare for winter.)

Step Four – Sorting

Once you’ve filled up a few buckets, begin transferring them to your sorting table to pick through the clusters, removing any damaged or rotten grapes, green shot berries, trash, or large, dead leaves. Don’t be picky about small bugs/spiders/spider webs – the French call this the Je ne sais quoi of the wine and insist on leaving them in as part of the overall flavor and process.

Step Five – Crushing

Nothing fancy here. People have been crushing grapes with their hands, their feet, or other related tools for thousands of years. If you choose to do the stomping method, consider washing your feet ahead of time. Otherwise, washing your hands and arms up to your elbow and going all in is an effective method to stir and crush the grapes manually. We’ve even tried using potato mashers with mixed success.

A couple of tips:

1. Crush immediately. Don’t let the grapes sit, and don’t let them overheat (keep them shaded).
2. Keep those dreaded fruit flies off of the grapes, as they can ruin a whole batch if left unchecked.
3. Do not hose down the grapes to wash them/keep them cool.

Whichever method you choose, make sure to crush 90% of the grapes or more to avoid those tedious floaters. And enjoy yourself, as this is the culmination of an entire season of growth.

Once your crush is complete, you can shift into Preparing the Must, which will be the subject of our next post. To give a sneak preview, though:

Preparing the Must – Red Wine (sneak preview)

Day One

1. Stem and crush grapes into fermentation vat (given our affinity for Georgia and Georgian wine, we tend to leave about 1/3 of the stems in the must for a deeper, darker flavor and wine).
2. Test Brix and pH – write these down in your vintner journal
3. Add potassium metabisulfite if necessary/desired
4. Adjust sugar, if necessary (i.e. add sugar if your sugar readings are below 20 Brix – more on that process in the next post)

Day Two

• Add Yeast (within 24 hours, there should be a “roaring” fermentation of bubbles and smells)

Days 3-26 (Primary Fermentation)

• “Punch down the cap” twice a day
• When fermentation slows (i.e. bubbles begin to settle down), test the Brix – it should be reduced by about 2/3

Preparing the Must – White Wine (sneak preview)

Day One

1. Stem and Crush Grapes (given our affinity for Georgia and Georgian wine, we tend to leave about 1/3 of the stems in the must for a deeper flavor and wine).
2. If pressing immediately (for European-style white wine), press juice into primary fermentation vat. (For Georgian-style amber wine, you’ll let the wine sit with skins and stems – more on that process in a later post).
3. Test Brix and pH – write these down in your vintner journal
4. Add potassium metabisulfite if necessary/desired
5. Adjust sugar, if necessary (i.e. add sugar if your sugar readings are below 20 Brix – more on that process in the next post)

Day Two

• Add Yeast (within 24 hours, there should be a “roaring” fermentation of bubbles and smells)

Days 3-26 (Primary Fermentation)

• “Punch down the cap” twice a day
• When fermentation slows (i.e. bubbles begin to settle down), test the Brix – it should be reduced by about 2/3

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UP NEXT – PRIMARY AND SECONDARY FERMENTATION