The grape harvest in the northern hemisphere has started. The harvest is one of the most exciting and busiest times of a wine maker’s year. Picking, sorting, crushing and tasting the grapes means that there is never a dull moment in the wine maker’s day. A wine maker needs a good sense of intuition to choose the right harvest time to lay the foundations for an excellent wine. The weather, if dry and sunny or rainy and cold, the Oechsle degree (sugar content) or the grape varieties are only some of the factors that need to be considered when deciding about the best time of picking the grapes. The harvest time for each wine region varies and even within a wine region the various grape varieties get ripe at different times. Generally speaking, in the northern hemisphere grape harvest typically falls between August and October. By the way, the climate change continues to move these dates earlier and requires more and more flexibility from the vintners.
Harvest season is a great time to visit wine regions and wineries. What’s your favourite wine area to watching the vintners at work? In many regions there are wine and harvest festivals to celebrate the new harvest. If you know a great wine festival or event during harvest season, let us know! We would be very excited to share it with all of you on YourWineEstate!
Frauke and the YourWineEstate Team
