The Magic of Harvest
The whoosh of soil underfoot echoes loudly in my ears as I walk to where sauvignon blanc is being harvested at Stolo Vineyards in Cambria. It’s 5:30am and shockingly cold for mid-October. I can see my breath in the light of my headlamp and am desperately wishing I had thought to bring gloves. Nicole Bertotti Pope, Stolo’s winemaker, walks alongside me to where the vineyard crews have been picking since 3am.
Having worked for a handful of wineries and vineyards over the years, I have personal experience with what it takes to be in the thick of harvest. It’s backbreaking, monotonous work; the crews are quite literally bent double, their picking bins becoming steadily heavier as they move from vine to vine.
Halfway through harvest, many winemakers are in a daze, running on large amounts of coffee, breakfast burritos and very little sleep.
Nicole tells me that even after 15 harvests, she still has a few sleepless nights in the days leading up to the first picks of the season.
“There is much to worry about, between harvest timing and what Mother Nature will throw our way, scheduling crews and machinery malfunctions,” she says.
Despite all of this, there is something magical about harvest time. In the early hours of the morning especially, the vineyard seems so wild and untamed, the only hint of humanity is the canorous sound of the tractor, the occasional laughter and music from the crew and snips from their clippers.
“I anticipate the start of [each] new vintage with nervous excitement,” Nicole says before adding, “I can’t wait to get back into the ‘harvest lifestyle’ of intense physical work, long days, wonderful fermentation aromas, daily burritos from Boni’s Tacos and that great energy that permeates our vineyard and winery in the fall.”
Many winemakers get their first taste of the magic of wine while working seasonal internships. Some of these interns travel from abroad; however, several colleges and universities require their students to work an internship and write a report about their experience to graduate.
After their first harvest, many people will then bounce between working for wineries in the Northern Hemisphere between August and October and working for wineries in the Southern Hemisphere between February and April. I have known some folks to live in a “perpetual harvest” for several years before settling down with one winery.
Nicole, who graduated with a degree in Biology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, got her start in the wine industry working as the lab intern at Domaine Carneros in Napa. “Of course, it sounded like a fun job, but I had no idea how quickly I would realize that being a winemaker would be my dream career.”
Much like many before her, Nicole was drawn by the combination of science and artistry that go into winemaking, the almost alchemical process of turning sunlight into wine. After working for Domaine Carneros in Napa, she went on to work for Talley Vineyards in Arroyo Grande before consulting for and eventually settling down with Stolo Vineyards in Cambria.
Nicole has found that the magic of working with wine extends to enjoying the beverage as well.
“Wine can elicit an emotional, memorable response that is unlike any other beverage,” says Nicole. “It’s thought provoking, it makes me question all the details that go into why it smells and tastes as it does.”
From a region’s soils and climate to the clones and farming decisions to the winemaking style and so much more, wine keeps people like Nicole enchanted year after year.
As we enter the 2020 harvest season, I can’t help but think about all of the new harvest interns who will be experiencing this magic for the first time. Soon the smells of fermenting grape juice and the sounds of rotating presses will fill their hearts and minds, just as they did for Nicole and for me during our first harvests.
It’s beautiful and gritty and real … it’s also a magical tradition shared by so many here in SLO County and around the world. Let the countdown begin.
