Crush
by Brenda Francis

In wine country, the locals call harvest "crush." Crush is the hectic, sleepless, sticky, backbreaking time of year from late summer until sometime after Thanksgiving. Crush is beyond harvest. Grapes have a very short shelf life if they are intended for wine, and need be crushed within hours of being plucked from the vine. Picking the grapes ends one elaborate process, but starts another. I guess that's why it's called the wine industry and not the grape industry; it's called crush, not pick.

During the build up to crush, there is a magical occurrence in the vineyards. Veraison occurs when the sugar in the roots, vines, and leaves, which performs the work of photosynthesis, moves to the grape berries. This movement of energy causes each grape berry to change color in a gradual, dramatic, and distinct manner. Many things can be determined by this extraordinary transformation of color. Seasoned winemakers read how the grapes change color to predict when picking should occur and the uniformity or lack thereof, determines the consistency of the cluster.

Veraison is the signal that the grapes can be picked. As soon as Veraison happens, grape growers are in the vineyards checking the grapes' sugar level, acidity, and flavor. Sugar and acidity can be measured with gadgets, but you cannot measure flavor in this manner, so many samples of grapes are tasted every day. Ripeness and flavor varies with each parcel of land and can differ from as little as ten feet away. For the next few weeks the monitoring of the grapes is calculated against the anticipated weather.

Some people harvest by the full moon for the affects of gravity. Even more harvest at night because the grape contains more sugar then, (and because it's cooler and the bees and wasps have retired for the day.) Each type of grape ripens at its own pace. When the merlot is ready to be picked, the cabernet sauvignon has another month to hang. The European winemaking technique was to pick, crush, and ferment according to each grapes schedule, but blend the results into one wine. This is yet another reason why the wine is named for the village and not the grape. Each year the proportions would be different, so it was just easier to name the wine after the place, the thing that stayed constant.

Like most crops, harvest doesn't come at the same time every year and its outcome is always a gamble. Do you pick or wait? Rain at harvest can ruin a vintage. The grapes become diluted from soaking up the rain water, as in the year El Niņo hit. Early frost bruises the fruit and ruins the juice. The decision to pick often happens overnight. Many winemakers believe choosing the optimum time to harvest is the single most important decision they will make in regard to the quality of the impending vintage. It's a decision many lose sleep over.

Raise a toast to the folks, in their hip-waders and duck boots, with their purple stained hands, as they exhaustingly make their way through the 2006 crush. If it wasn't for their passion and dedication, wine as we know it would not exist.