Dominique Des Lauriers
464 Harvester Project Notes
October 8, 2014
Harvester Notes The two choices for harvest are either by machine or by hand. Mechanical harvesters are big machines that gently vibrate the vines so the grapes are separated from their stems. Machine harvesting has become more popular and can work all day long. The advantage of machines is that their faster, harvest more, and can work at night. In a large vineyard where the grapes are ripening at the same time, using a machine is beneficial because it allows the vineyard to be harvest quicker so the grapes don’t over ripen. Although, it can be very expense, and it is not selective due to the fact that it is taking all the berries either ripe or ugly from the vines. Also, the machines only really work on flat or little bit of a slope land. Areas such as northern Rhone where its steep vineyards, the grapes can only be hand harvested since the machines cannot fit or work on steep hills. Harvesting by hand is usually done in crews typically 10 individuals leap frogging each other quickly through the vineyard row by row, vine by vine. They use shears or a curved knife cutting off ripe clusters and putting them in their own bins. Once the bins are filled they are dumped into a larger bin that is being pulled by a tractor. Hand picking and sorting allows a greater control and a better selection of grapes. Unfortunately it is more expensive than machine harvesting because you are either paying the crew by hour
