Our first Cab Harvest

At last, the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are off the vines and safely bubbling away in bins. After our first attempt to harvest was thwarted by rain and we had to send home all our volunteers, we were lucky that we could get another volunteer crew this Monday to bring in our first harvest of the Cab. It was a beautiful day in wine country, and we finished in time to share an early lunch together and celebrate the harvest. Now we can breathe a sigh of relief, because Harvest 2009 is officially complete, and it was a good one.

Many thanks to our volunteers!

Kate peeks through the vines

Carol demonstrates how to cut a cluster of grapes, and not one's finger!

Charlie inspects the harvest

Patricia poses with the tractor, loaded with picking bins, in the background

I went back through the vineyard to find missed or dropped fruit, and this was all I found in ten rows of Cab. Nice work, crew!

Kevin and Sage stayed after harvest to help load the grapes into the de-stemming machine.

Even before the grapes were harvested, you could see that the vines were ready for fall and their long winter rest.