Harvest life

Here in Ojai, harvest normally starts around late August through some years, until Thanksgiving. It is a fun, exciting, and exhausting time of year. Yes, most of the fun part is the start of the new vintages and the friendships on the crush pad. The exciting part is that when the harvest is over, fall is in full swing and starts at the best time of the year. It is all wrapped up with tight schedules, much less sleep, and cleaning equipment on freezing nights. The start of harvest is always warm, and the cleaning of the press is kind of refreshing, but by the end of harvest, you are wrapped up in jackets and sweats and want nothing to do with cleaning that thing and freezing your ass off and just dream of a hot shower.

Sounds romantic, doesn’t it? In a way, the hard work and the effort that goes into the year and with every bin of grapes that comes through and completes the processing feels special; there is a little part of you that goes into every wine and the love behind it. But that could be as romantic as it gets. There is not much smooching on the crush pad or other romantic feels.

Every harvest will have its challenges and bumps in the road. From late deliveries of grapes as the day warms up to the press blowing a fuss and trying to fix it, the scale for weight tags won’t work, a pick running late, or a crew didn’t show up. From hoses leaking or pump not working, Some years the challenges are very minor, and some years it is one thing after another.

Being a farmer, artist, winemaker, and scientist, all circumference tradition and history make this industry extremely interesting, exciting, rewarding, and frustrating all simultaneously.

When the harvest year is over, the feeling accomplished, alive, and let us go drink some wine knowing that botting season is not far off. Cheers, all! Thank a farmer, thank a winemaker, if it weren’t from them, you would have the delicious juice in your glass.