The Wine Blokes

I’ve just flown over from Adelaide to Perth and sitting in the departure lounge of a coach station, waiting to catch a service down south to Smithbrook Wines in Pemberton. I spoke to Ashley yesterday and they’ve already completed the first night of picking, and even though I haven’t had much sleep, I’m sure I will have to work night shift tonight.

So I thought it appropriate to discuss a few “must haves” for any winemaker or cellar hand working in a winery during vintage. These “must haves” range from on your person, to winery neccessities to allow you to sustain the long hours and days on end without a break. Wineries and vineyards come in many shapes and sizes, and at vintage time, size doesn’t really matter when it comes to the grunt work and hours needed to complete all tasks. A very big winery might crush 1000 tonne of grapes per night, but they will have the biggest equipment necessary to do this. A very small winery might only crush 10 tonne or less, but have much smaller equipment for the task. In most cases, small wineries are much harder work, as much of it is manual, even if the logistics are not quite the same.

For any young winemaker or cellar hand about to embark on their first vintage, I recommend the following:
1. A good pair of Blunstone or Rossi work boots (preferably close to new):

Working on concrete all shift with limited opportunities to stop or sit down, can be an uncomfortable experience for you feet and legs. I prefer Rossi or air cusion Blunstones. Don’t expect them to last the entire vintage either. Cleaning chemcials such as caustic soda and citric acid will degenerate them rapidly, and no matter how hard you try to avoid it, they will get a bath at some stage. In my experience, if you don’t want a putrid film of grime accumulating on your boots over time, don’t polish or clean them with Dubbin or boot polish. Maybe they only thing that will suffice is a silicon spray, but even that wont protect them for very long.

2. A beanie:

This is not a neccesity, but if you work night shift, you’ll want something to keep your head warm. This may seem obvious, but I’ve lost count of the times a new cellar hand has worked through the night with wet hair that never dries and shivering.

3. Plenty of work shorts:

I try not to wear long pants or jeans in the winery. I learnt from bitter experience one below zero degress celsius night, when I was soaked from head to toe. I had to work on with wet jeans (I had an all weather jacket on) that never dried, and vowed never to wear long pants again in the winery. In shorts, if you get wet, you just dry your legs, and get on with it.

4. An Espresso Machine & Toased Sandwich Maker.

None of this instant crap. My caffience intake increases substantially over vintage, and there is no room for crap coffee. If your winery doesn’t have an expresso machine (or at least good plunger coffee), work somewhere else, seriously.

5. A small pocket calculator:

Nothing flash, just the numbers that you can slip in your pocket and not notice it. You’ll need it plenty of times for calculating tank dips, additions, and weighbridge notes.

6.Leatherman Multi Tool:

Make sure it has a good pouch that wont break or that it can fall out of when vetically challenged. It will become your best friend.

7. Safety clothing & accessories:

For the most part, this will be provided by the winery, but make sure you have safety glasses, ear plugs, fluro vest, wet weather gear,and hard hat available.

If you take care of all these vintage neccessities, it will make your job and vintage a much more pleasurable experience, even through the painful long hours, grumpy workmates, and bitter cold nights.

One last tip, if you carry a mobile phone, never put it in your top pocket, or if you do, make sure it is buttoned up. The amount of winemakers and cellar hands who have dropped a mobile phone into a tank is amazing, and that includes me.

Happy vintage!