Crush Time!

It’s crush time! This is the season for picking and crushing of this year’s crop of wine grapes in the Ramona Valley. In this emerging wine community, crush time sounds like something equivalent to eras past, when the whole farming community turned out to help families put up a barn or harvest crops.

That tradition lives on in Ramona Valley vineyards.

“Thanks to our friends, family and RVVA members, we had a great harvest last weekend,” wrote Kim and Michael Hargett, co-owners of Mahogany Mountain Vineyard and Winery on their blog Aug. 30.

They’re not finished yet.

“We woke up at 4 a.m. this morning to do it again,” Kim Hargett told me in a phone interview last Friday.  They worked until mid-morning, she said. They will continue on Saturday, working this time from 4:30 in the afternoon until around 7 p.m.

“People usually come by and help everybody pick,” said Victor Edwards, co-owner of Edwards Vineyard & Cellars. The day’s work is then followed by a “picking party,” offering the harvesters food and refreshment for all the hard work they’ve put in.

The crush season can extend through to October or even November, depending on overall weather conditions as well as conditions at each vineyard. A mild summer last year led to a prolonged ripening period for Edwards’ grapes. They’re planning to start this year’s harvest in three weeks.

“Early in September, it can be very hot,” Edwards said.

On really hot days, they stop picking after about 10 a.m. because it can get too hot for the pickers and for the grapes as well.

Grapes can start fermenting at 85 degrees, Edwards explained. The natural fermentation of the winemaking process generates heat as well.

“So you don’t want to start it hot,” Edwards warned. One has to wait and give the grapes a chance to cool down.

On the other hand, cloudy weather can re-hydrate the grapes to a point where “they sit there at 22 Brix for three weeks,” said Victor. The Brix level measures the sugar content in the grapes. In fermentation, the sugar produces alcohol.

This is the time when vintners go into their fields and test for Brix and PH (acid) levels, checking for the right combination which tells them it’s time to pick. For Edwards, the ideal is 23-25 Brix.

“It’s a judgement call. You have to do it right,” said Mahogany Mountain’s Kim Hargett. “If they’re not ready, you have to hang on for a few weeks.”

Edwards talked about how weather and climate conditions can affect each vineyard. He also noted how, in the varied elevations of the valley, “every nook and cranny of every vineyard has microclimates.”

Kim Hargett readily agreed with that. She cited two separate vineyards of cabernet sauvignon in two locations at their winery.

“Right now one is at 24 and a half  Brix, the other is at 22.”

So all over the valley, vintners test, taste, watch, wait or go in and pick.

“There’s a lot to it,” said Edwards, “There are a lot of different processes that go into making great wine.”