Back in my 20s I spent a year in Australia on a working holiday visa. I have fond memories of working on fruit farms around the country, picking and packing apples, tomatoes and peppers.
Of course, it was hard work and some aspects were mind numbingly boring too. Despite this, I had a yearning to pick fruit once more. So when a friend told me about grape picking at Brightwell Vineyard, just a few miles from my house, I jumped at the opportunity.
In return for a morning spent fruit picking I’d get a lovely lunch and the chance to watch the grapes start their journey into wine. I duly signed up, and a few weeks later, found myself standing in a vineyard with thirteen other volunteers.
Our instructions were simple. Pick the grapes and pop them in the bucket; when the bucket is full empty it into the crates. No leaves in the bucket, but a little mould is OK. We were provided with gloves, a bucket and snippers then set free on the vines.
Our first grape was Pinot Noir, an instantly recognisable name. We each took a section of vine, and then cut off all the bunches in the section. I was worried about including grapes that were less than perfect but as long as they had some juice in them they were fine. It didn’t take long for us to pick the first couple of rows, and soon we moved on to the next grape.
Prior to my picking experience I assumed the main difference between grape varieties was that they were either white or red. However when we moved onto the next variety of grape, Dunkelfelder, it was obvious the skin colour was much darker than the Pinot Noir, even though they were both red varieties. We also started to find a lot more shrivelled grapes so couldn’t always pick everything off the vines.
We stopped for a tea and biscuit break late morning, which gave us a chance to chat to the other volunteers. Some had been coming for several years and others had travelled a long distance. A couple had even come from Kent to pick grapes for the weekend.
After tea break we moved onto our final grape variety, Bacchus. This is a white grape, which evidently makes great wine. Sadly we discovered most of the crop had been affected by mildew so we had to carefully work out what to pick. As demoralising as it was for us, it was obviously much worse for the owners as this is their livelihood. Fortunately they advised they had some more Bacchus in a different area which hadn’t been affected by the mildew.
Once we’d picked what we could of the Bacchus grapes it was time for lunch. Although it had started to rain slightly we were able to sit outside and enjoy our food. I’m vegetarian so had a yummy feta and vegetable plait, whilst the meat eaters enjoyed a casserole, both with potatoes and veg. Dessert was a summer fruit crumble and custard. These were, of course, accompanied by home made wine, although I was driving so only had a taster.
Most of the pickers left after lunch but I stayed behind with three others to watch the first stage of the wine journey. The crates of grapes were fed into a de-stalking machine. The empty stalks flew out one side whilst the remaining grapes were transported into a large vat. It was a noisy mesmerising process, part mechanised but still requiring people to empty crates, move stalks and direct tubing. It was interesting to watch and made me wonder what the process is in other vineyards.
I thoroughly enjoyed my morning grape picking at Brightwell Vineyard. It was refreshing to do something so different to my normal day job and I’m already considering my return next year.
Challenge complete
Take part in a harvest – completed October 2024. Pop over to see the rest of my 60 things to do before I’m 60 list.