The wine harvest at Margarita Vineyard is the most critical time of the year for our winemaking team. Needless to say, we are currently at the ready, prepping for this busiest of seasons.
After a relatively mild summer in Paso Robles with the exception of a mid-August heat wave, the timing of everything appears to be fairly typical. The harvest should really get rolling at Margarita Vineyard by the middle of September.
Harvest preparation isn’t the most glamorous part of the season, but it’s worth honoring for the work and expertise that it demands. On that note, here are the top three activities taking place at Margarita Vineyard right now.
Grape Sampling
Grape sampling is the act—and art—of randomly selecting grapes or clusters from a given vineyard block to measure the ripeness of the fruit. These samples are sent to the winery lab, crushed and measured for Brix—the level of sugar in the juice—and acidity levels.
With a large property like Margarita Vineyard, this is easier said than done. We have dozens of blocks to monitor, and it requires a trained individual to walk the blocks and select the samples, as randomly and consistently as possible.
The resulting measurements give us a rough road map of the harvest to come—and they ultimately help tell us when to pick the fruit. It allows us to anticipate what’s coming next from the vineyard, so that we can get everything in position to pick and process the fruit.
Lab measurements aren’t the whole story, however. Once a block is getting close based on the lab sampling, Founding Winemaker Mike Sinor and Winemaker Stewart Cameron will get their eyes on the fruit and taste the grapes for flavor and phenolic development. The final call is made only when they say so. “Numbers can only tell you so much,” Mike says. “It’s the winemaker’s expertise that ultimately calls the shots.”
Irrigation
The harvest season in Paso Robles is typically warm, dry and long—which means that irrigation may be needed on certain vineyard blocks to help get us through the home stretch.
For example, when a heat wave is on the horizon, we will irrigate where needed. This ensures that the canopy remains healthy and that the grapes don’t dehydrate—two key factors for keeping the ripening schedule on track.
“We are very judicious about how we use water, but it’s an essential tool in our box,” Mike says, “We stay alert to weather reports and vineyard conditions, and we know when a certain block needs a pick-me-up.”
Equipment & Maintenance
And now for the least romantic part of our harvest preparations—mechanical equipment! It’s not all sunshine and grapes in the vineyard. When it’s time for action, we need our machines, and we need them to work well.
This includes the cleaning and maintenance of our mobile lighting rigs for night harvesting; our new Monarch electric tractors; our mechanical harvesters; and our grape gondolas.
“Right now we are greasing bearings, fixing things and checking inventories on other replacement parts because once the harvest starts, we can’t afford a lot of unexpected downtime,” Mike says. “Efficiency in the vineyard plays a big role in wine quality. You have to be ready, organized and moving forward at all times in order to deliver grapes at peak ripeness.”