After an incredible run of warm to hot weather we finally had a cool day on which we harvested the Gherardi Viognier for 2010 last week.  Conditions had been testing for the vines as the weeks rolled on with temperatures in the 30 degrees Celcius day after day together with warm evenings.
The only recent sign that autumn may be approaching was that the mornings had started to cool. Last Tuesday morning, the morning of the harvest, the temperature dropped to 7.6C, the coolest day for many months. This ensured that the fruit would arrive at the winery in great condition.
The crop looked excellent with little impact from the birds, no rain to cause any mould and yields looked like they would be as good as last year.

A local contractor was used to arrange the pickers, picking up of buckets and placement of the fruit into bins destined for the winery.

Pickers are usually a blend of many nationalities with this year being no exception. It was a mix predominantly of Koreans, Japanese and Chinese.  There was also a “grey nomad” couple from Queensland!

It is still a tiring job as seen by the pickers slowly trudging up the hill back to their cars at the end of the harvest.

Safely at the winery the fruit is weighed (above) and then crushed (below).

Even though the fruit was cool enough, the tops of the bins do warm up.  As a rsult, the must (crushed grapes) is pumped through a heat exchanger on its way to the press in order to drop the temperature to between 5 and 7C.

Once in the press the juice drains out and at the end of the crushing the full press goes through a 2 hour press cycle extracting the juice.  We stop pressing earlier than most, just when there is evidence of some extractive characters commencing.  This ensures minimal fining during the winemaking process.

There we have it!  There early stages of the Gherardi Viognier 2010 dribbling out of the press.

Well done Vineman!!