The Grape Cooker

We are in the middle of the grape harvest, the emotional highlight of the winegrowing year. Here in the Bündner Herrschaft there is a strong foehn blowing, the famous “grape cooker”. It looks like a good yield – despite the challenging weather year: first, continuous rain in May, followed by distinctly hot and dry periods, August was again very vigorous, and then heavy rain and hail played another trick on us.

The mood in the vineyard is cheerful and relaxed, although this year it needs some fine-tuning: The berries on the weather side were damaged by hail a few weeks ago. So they have become a popular target for the vinegar flies to lay their eggs. We now cut out these damaged berries one by one.

As every year, we harvest our Gamaret grapes about ten days earlier than the Pinot Noir in the neighbourhood – that is the nature of the grape varieties. But when is the right time to harvest? When have my grapes reached their zenith? Should I harvest them before the forecast rain? Or should I take this risk and hope that the following sunny days will bring the grapes precious additional ripeness? I decided to harvest before the rain. The unannounced “grape boil” now seems to reward me for this.

Every day we drive the harvest directly to the wine cellar in Basel. Here we destem in the evening, which means we separate the berries from the stems. Then the berries are crushed and the mash – i.e. juice, seeds and grape skin – goes into the tank for fermentation.

Thanks to the many helpers, we have made good progress. This afternoon, right before the weather changed, we finished the harvest. Now we have also enjoyed the last delightful lunch at the end of the day – and the backache and cut fingers are forgotten.

Many thanks to all who helped.