Meagz’s First Harvest

My first real harvest began in 2013. I was still responsible for the wine program and running the floor in the Bistro, Thursday evenings through Sunday evenings. The rest of my mornings and afternoons were spent learning the ins and outs of cellar work during crush.

There is a steep learning curve during harvest at a winery! Day one, I had no idea how to even connect wine transfer hoses. By week two, I was able to set up the crush pad in the morning, rack tanks, clean tanks, run a DE machine and a plethora of other tasks. The days are filled with hard physical labor, lots of sticky juice, and cleaning constantly. I had never been so tired after a long day of work and had never been so enthused to go back and do it again the next day.

People often envision the profession of winemaking as a day at work spent sniffing and tasting wine. Winemaking in reality, especially during crush, is sticky (from all the grape juice), dirty (all the dirt sticking to said grape juice), exhausting, and full of problem solving. That being said, I knew after my first harvest, that I just needed to do it again and I have been ever since.