Vintage Video Diary #4 - The Harvester

By Jono • April 1, 2008

By Jon F.

One of the most important operations completed during vintage is of course, picking. For hundreds if not thousands of years, grape growers have picked the grapes by hand, carefully selecting the best bunches. 21st Centruy technology has revolutionised this operation with the introduction of mechanical grape harvesters. Over the years they have been refined from a crude machine that destroyed the grapes and the vine, to a fine tuned machine that can pick all varieties, canopies, trellis systems, with little or no damage to the vine or grapes, and for the most part, the grapes arrive at the winery in great condition. However, there is still plenty of work to be done by developers of the machine, to replicate the process of hand picking, which will always be superior.

The following video shows the harvester in operation, as well as a cameo driving experience by your truly.

Enjoy!

Categories: 2008 Vintage Diary, Blog, Wine Blokes TV
Tags: Features, Videos

About the Author

Jono

Jono has been involved in the wine industry since he was quite young. His parents had a small vineyard and winery in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, and spent plenty of school holidays working in the vineyard and winery. He completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Oenology) from the University of Adelaide (formely the Roseworthy Agricultural College). He also holds a Post Graduate Degree in Business Management from Monash University. His wine industry experience include working as a winemaker for Petaluma in the Adelaide Hills under the legendary Brian Croser. He was then sent to Smithbrook in the Pemberton region of Western Australia, then owned by Petaluma. He spent 6 years at Smithbrook managing the vineyard and winery, and during that time also completed a vintage at Chateau Carsin in Bordeaux. The two years leading into 2008, he traveled the world with his partner sampling the worlds best wines, and also fulfilling his other passion of equestrian competition.