A Harvest Reflection

By Jamie Rubin (Harvest Intern 2020)

Today we present the last installment of Jamie Rubin’s harvest reflection. We hope you have enjoyed reading about his harvest experience. This story first appeared as a post for Sommation_live, an IG channel offering a venue for wine education through shared experiences. 

Part V: November 22

Harvest has come to a close. Our final bit of fruit was something less than a ton of botrytized Riesling, which we hand harvested on a stunningly warm November day. It was foot trodden and basket pressed into old puncheons for fermentation. It smelled incredible! 

Much of this last week has been focused on clean-up. We’ve shut the press pad down for the winter, made sure that all the barreled wine is safely set aside to age, and done a  lot of cleaning and organizing. As they say, winemaking is mostly moving heavy things around and cleaning things. 

I can’t express my love and gratitude for the team at Red Newt Cellars. I feel incredibly privileged to have come here and turned what could have been a meaningful downshift in my career into a powerful learning experience. I can’t wait to see what happens next!