As a newbie to the
harvesting scene it was great to get stuck in (literally within the barrels),
especially in the brand new La Gare winery. As the ‘Cellar Rat’ of this year I thought
I would share with you my version of this year’s harvest.
Working in the vineyards is seriously tough
work! At 7am the team of pickers gathers and heads out to the one of the
vineyards in and around Tuchan. Everyone is designated their row of vines and
off you go with your secateurs and bucket. This is when it’s time to leave it
to the professionals who seem to pick at a million miles an hour while you’re
still stuck on the first vine...but still great fun!
This year I was lucky enough to spend most of
my time working in the winery. It is amazing how there is always a million and
one things to do but I have learnt from the professional Katie how to do a
serious job of multitasking!
The grapes once picked made their way into La
Gare and onto the sorting table, where (after personally being attacked by an
army of earwigs) we removed any debris such as leaves. They then continued into
the incredible destalker machine that removes all stalks from the berries and then onwards into the press for the whites and into the vats for
the reds.
But once in their designated vat, our work didn’t
stop there. Twice a day for the reds, juice had to be ‘pumped over’ the skins
to extract as much colour and flavour from the skins as possible. Steve got
very used to climbing that ladder! All the juice had to be checked daily as
well to monitor the fermentation process. And of course, there is always an empty
vat or massive pile of cagettes that need cleaning…. Machine a Laver!!!!
We’ve also had
some lovely visitors here at Domaine Jones this year. Many people have popped in for a tasting and a tour, friends
and family have come to visit and lend a hand, as well as Katie running a
harvesting experience.
We have had a fab team here at Domaine
Jones and have …just about … always had a smile on our faces. It’s amazing how so
much activity can be crammed into so short a few weeks but what an experience
it’s been. Here’s to many more harvests to come!!!
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