A Life, Lived: Bringing in the Harvest

Yesterday we got the call from Shiraz, the winemaker at our favourite winery (Malivoire), telling us that the harvest of grapes for ice wine would start at midnight. We had been invited some time ago to join in the harvest but because of the winter we've been having it kept getting delayed. Icewine must be harvested at a temperature that is - 8 degrees Celsius or colder. Because our winter has been up and down temperaturewise we have been on pins and needles awaiting the event. Our biggest worry was that we would get the call on a day we had plans.

Unfortunately our fears were realized! Last night we had a play to go to in Toronto. Toronto is about 45 minutes east of us and the winery is about 45 minutes west of our home. We didn't know how we could do both. We spoke to our friends Catherine and Ruth (both in our theatre group and also in our wine loving group) and Catherine suggested that we could do both (Ruth signed off 'claiming' a sore back).

We raced out, purchased thermal underwear (it was scheduled to be - 14 degrees last night), thermal work gloves, and thermal socks. We were good to go. We don't ski. Come to think of it, our favourite winter activity is curling up in front of the fireplace!

After the play was over we raced home - breaking numerous speed laws. Changed, and raced to the winery. Again, the speed limit was just a suggestion. *smile*

At the winery we signed in, and were taken to the vineyard being harvested. We were harvesting Cab Franc grapes to make my favourite ice wine that has a lovely ruby colour. Because the grapes were fairly high on the trellises we didn't have to bend over too much.

We were instructed to tug on the cluster of berries (also known as a bunch of grapes). In most cases the cluster just snapped off because the vines were frozen. When they didn't snap off we use snips ti cut them off. Once cut we just dropped them into the yellow plastic bins set below the vines. These bins came in handy because many of the grapes would fall off of the clusters as you picked them. They fell right into the bins and there was little wastage.

It was wonderful being out in the vineyard at 1 am. The stars were out in their glory. There was no wind. The only sounds were the pickers chatting amongst themselves as we walked up and down the rows. There were 40 of us and we were done in less than 2 hours.

Well-heated vans shuttled us back to the winery where Martin, the owner of the winery, had pots of green chili, ice-wine chicken stew, and amazing hot chocolate waiting for us. We were warmed up in no time at all!

We got to watch as they dumped the grapes into the mini-press and started to press out the juice. I was quite amazed at this because the grapes we were cutting in the vineyard were all shriveled and frozen solid (I ate a few and they were grape 'popsicles'!). Not long after the presses started the juice began to pour out of the bottom of the press. Notice the colour - this makes such a distinctive ice wine!

As we prepared to leave - tired, war, and full of wonderful food, we were told that our names would be printed on the label of the wine when it was released. We were also informed that we would be receiving a free bottle when it was released (not bad given that it generally costs $40!)

I asked if they would open up the wine store so I could buy some of their pinot noir as I was getting low and they obliged (I know, who turns down a sale?) When I went down they had brought out some special bottles to sell from their library - releases that had been sold out for years. I snapped up a case and happily we headed home.

Who knew working in the fields in sub zero temperatures could be such a blast? I can't wait for next year!