WineInk: Fruits of Labor | VailDaily.com

It’s hard to believe, but September is here.

It can mean different things to different people: back to school for some, the end of summer for others, and for those of us here in Aspen, it’s the best month of the year. But if you’re into wine, September means harvest season.

All over the world, in this fertile strip of the northern hemisphere that lies between, let’s call it 30 and 50 degrees latitude, the highways are alive at night and in the early morning as winemakers rush into the fields to pick the 2022 vintage. Conversely, along the Southern Hemisphere wine belt, which includes countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina, winemakers are just getting started their growing season while waiting for the buds to bud this spring. It’s all in the way the Earth spins and tilts.

Harvest season is both the toughest and most exciting time of year for winemakers, as they get to see and taste what Mother Nature has provided for the new vintage. From the wine regions of the western United States and Canada, and now northern Mexico, to the traditional Old World wine regions of Spain, France, Italy and Germany to emerging wine countries like China and the UK, September is the start of the process which can take up to two months as they bring the grapes to the cellars.

For producers of high-end and premium wines, the first criterion for a successful harvest will be the quality of the fruit. Was nature benevolent and did it provide perfect growing conditions to allow the grapes to ripen properly? Will the sugar levels and flavors be in line with the winemaker’s vision? Or have the vagaries of the weather, the heat, the rain, the frost and even the hail of the previous months created difficulties for the vines which will influence the quality?

The second criterion is how many tons of grapes will the harvest yield? Wine, like other agricultural products, is a matter of supply and demand. The amount of wine you can produce, whether you are a small artisanal winery or a multinational mega-producer, will directly correlate to the number of grapes you can harvest in a season. For producers of bulk and inexpensive wines, yield often trumps quality as the number one criteria.

Of course, there are global, and even regional, variations on the quality and yields generated in each vintage. These are mainly based on weather conditions, and this summer has been hot for the northern hemisphere. In Bordeaux, the world’s leading wine region, the harvest season was strongly impacted, as in much of the northern hemisphere, by drought conditions and record heat. Paradoxically, the heat proved to be beneficial for the quality of the grapes, and the wines of the 2022 vintage are expected to be good, even exceptional. But yields, the amount of grapes harvested, are expected to be up to 20% lower than historical averages in Bordeaux.

The harvest season began in the region two full weeks ago in mid-August, making it, for many winemakers, the first harvest in memory. Champagne also started picking in the heat of August. In California, the harvest season also got off to an early start due to a hot summer. Paso Robles reported that some grapes came off the vines last week in the last days of August. Again, yields should be down, with quality up. And in Sonoma County, the Martin Ray Winery and Vineyard tweeted photos of pinot noir grapes that were picked on July 28. Again, the heat that swept the globe this summer was the main factor that forced the decision to pick grapes so early. .

For winemakers, the most critical task they face each year is deciding which vineyards, or blocks of vines, or even rows, to choose at the right time. When the grapes ripen and the sugars reach the levels desired by the winemaker, it is time to harvest. If you get it wrong, all the work that has gone into the vintage is diminished.

The decision of when to pick a vineyard is usually made using both science and the senses. Science calls for a technical measurement of sugar levels, or brix, which is evident in grapes. The senses relate to the winemaker’s personal experience of tasting the grapes and intuitively determining the right time to harvest. A sudden rise in temperatures adds an extra element to the decision, and extreme heat can encourage earlier-than-expected picking. “Get ’em off” is a phrase uttered eagerly when the heat sets in.

Of course, this is not always an easy proposition. On the one hand, you need to have trained pickers available at all times and, in the ever-stressed global labor markets, this is proving to be an increasing challenge. Second, grapes are often picked at night when they are cool and the sugars can stay constant. With extreme heat, the temperature of the grapes will not drop significantly until sunset. Even early in the morning, the grapes can reach optimal temperatures for a short time. This means that more bunches have to come loose faster and, if the vineyard is hand-picked, there is little that can be done to improve the speed of picking. Night picking also provides a more comfortable working temperature for teams.

In general, there is a progressive order to a harvest depending on the type of grapes that are harvested. Grapes for sparkling wines, such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, are picked first, before their sugar content becomes too high. Next come aromatic whites, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling (but not the sweeter, late-harvest Riesling), wines that are meant to be drunk young and fresh. While typically chardonnay for still wines would follow, there are so many different styles of chardonnay that the choice of when to pick varies greatly by region and the whims of the maker.

The reds start with the more delicate varietals like Pinot Noir, then move on to varietals like Zinfandel, Sangiovese and even Merlot, before the longer, more resilient Cabernet Sauvignon breaks away from the vines. Longer “hang time,” or more time on the vines, results in higher sugars and more concentrated flavor profiles in general.

Of course, we’re talking about farming here, and as any farmer can tell you, things change quickly depending on the vagaries of the weather and the higher power that controls the harvest. Most will also tell you that things are changing with global warming – that there is more seasonal variation than a decade ago and major weather events seem to be occurring with greater frequency and ferocity than ‘previously.

Currently, winemakers and grape growers are intensely focused on the here and now of the harvest. But be sure that once the game is over, the discussions will once again turn to climate change.

So, when will you have the chance to taste the fruits of the 2022 harvest? Well, it depends on the grape variety and the style of wine you drink. Rosé wines made from grapes picked right now can be in your glass by next May, just in time for rosé season. These wines are made to be drunk young and chilled.

But if you’re looking to store and age a bottle of, say, fine Cabernet Sauvignon, you might not open the cork until 2032, a decade from now. Many wineries won’t even release bottles of red wine until three years after the vintage in which they were harvested because they will tumble and then age the wines in bottle.

Whatever your favorite style of wine, September is the month when the wines you will drink in the future are picked.