Scheduling
Harvest is a busy time for wineries. Scheduling is critical to ensure the grapes arrive at a time when cooperage is available. Growers also are busy and require advance notice for harvesting to arrange bin arrival and to have adequate pickers on hand. It is therefore important that good communication take place between the winery and grower throughout the harvest. Grower and winery should agree on delivery times and tonnage to ensure effective use of resources.
After spending the summer producing quality grapes in the vineyard, it is important to harvest in a manner that ensures the grapes are delivered to the winery in the best condition possible.
The quality of the grape begins to decrease as soon as it is picked. The rate of decline, due to oxidation, enzymatic activity and wild yeast activity, is dependent on how it was picked, the care taken when picking, the temperature of the fruit and length of time between harvesting and processing. You can reduce berry damage by minimizing the transfer of grapes from one container to another and using shallow containers to reduce pressure on the berries.
Options for Harvesting
The decision on whether to hand or machine pick is dependent upon the variety, the vineyard terrain, the grape intake schedule at the winery, the condition of the vines, the weather, the availability of labour and the capacity of the vineyard.
Hand picking requires large numbers of employees in order harvest the grapes in an efficient manner and must be completed in the day during cool temperatures. Winemakers prefer hand harvesting for certain varieties.
Mechanical picking requires a large capital investment if purchasing a harvesting machine. Contract harvesters are also available as an alternative to purchasing or leasing a machine. Machine harvesting requires a small crew and picks at the equivalent of 40-50 hand pickers. Machine harvesting can also be completed at night.
Hand Picking
- Hand picking is usually carried out using picking clippers and baskets, buckets or wheelbarrows and then dumping into a bin. The bin should be clean and positioned convenient to the picker.
- The bunches should be cut loose and not pulled from the vine. Handle the bunch as gently as possible so that it ends up in the bin looking as it did on the plant.
- Crushing and juicing the bunches, especially in white varieties, can have adverse effects on the quality of the wine. This is particularly a concern early in the fall on warm days.
- Remove all leaves branches and material other than grape (MOG) from the bin during the filling process.
- Store full bins out of the sun or covered with lids. Shipment for processing should occur as soon as possible once the grapes have been picked.
- Payment varies depending on the crop. The provincial government publishes the minimum payment per bin each year. If the crop is quite light, payment by the hour or increased payment per bin may occur.
Mechanical Picking
- Mechanical picking requires good harvesting equipment, straight rows, minimum fruit around the posts and the fruit positioned in a constant fruiting zone.
- It is important to remove secondary clusters in the fruiting zone or diseased fruit prior to machine harvesting.
- The harvester straddles the row and vibrates the grapes from the bunches. A tractor with a bin runs with the harvester collecting the grapes.
- It is very important to have a knowledgeable and experienced staff for machine harvesting. Inexperience can lead to loss of yield, damaged canes and posts and increased MOG in the harvest grapes.
- Mechanical harvesters can operate in the cool part of the day or night with minimal crew requirements.
- The scheduling of grapes for delivery at the winery is more reliable with machine harvesting.
- Machine harvested grapes should be delivered to the winery and processed as soon as possible as they have a significant amount of juice in the bin.
- Mechanical picking costs are substantially lower than hand picking, running 20% of hand picking costs.
- As acreage increases in the Okanagan and Similkameen, mechanical harvesting may be the main method used.
