Agricultural Operations

[RWebb]

Farming requires labor... cheap labor.

Here, the migrant laborers arrive in their own personal vehicles:




Luckily the Bavarian Buicks outnumber the Benzs by 2:1 (I might have gagged if it were reversed).



The goal is pick grapes from this 3 acre site:

[RWebb]

These farm workers are a motley crew of MD's*, PhDs, Architects, software geeks, lawyers, engineers, and similar flotsam found in the small town 15 miles north of this vineyard.

Their task is to cut all these nice Pinot Noir grape clusters off of the vines and load them into bins on a trailer to go up to the winery.




* No, I do not know if the doctors keep appointments or explain their bills well.

[bmcuscgr94]

Originally Posted by RWebb

Farming requires labor... cheap labor.

Here, the migrant laborers arrive in their own personal vehicles:

Luckily the Bavarian Buicks outnumber the Benzs by 2:1 (I might have gagged if it were reversed).

The goal is pick grapes from this 3 acre site:

Put the right spin on it and people will do just about anything
Part of a co-op or just a back to the farm enterprise?

Here the wineries call it a crush party and only their wine club members get to particpate and then they sell them back the wine they picked and stomped later at a pickup party

[RWebb]

This is stoop labor, and it has to be done before rain and moist air cause the grapes to rot (see below).

Here we see these lowly paid* farm workers in action:





* Actually, they are no-ly paid, except for a thank you, a single bottle of wine later on and lunch.

[RWebb]

The rows of grapes run up and down the hill.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by bmcuscgr94

Put the right spin on it and people will do just about anything
Part of a co-op or just a back to the farm enterprise?

Here the wineries call it a crush party and only their wine club members get to particpate and then they sell them back the wine they picked and stomped later at a pickup party

That's pretty smart - this is a small operation (3 acres). It is owned by a surgeon buddy of mine. The crush and elevage is all done up near Portland, so they couldn't crush it here. (Of course, the best (free run) juice is all spread out along I-5 as he drives up there...)

[RWebb]

There are a lot of problems in growing Pinot Noir -- many think it is the struggle that makes it one of the premier grapes (Pinot Noir is the main grape of red wines from Burgundy). Oregon is well known for the quality of its Pinot Noir grapes (even among the Burgundians) -- what it lacks is limestone (other than a 1,000 year history to figure out which sites are best).

These grapes look pretty good:



But you can see a couple of grapes are squished in. At DRC, they go thru the grapes on a sorting table and select only the best for their wines -- a few of which can be had for less than a thousand dollars a bottle. The top crus in Bordeaux do the same thing.

These grapes will also be put on a sorting table, but rather than pick the grapes to use, the worst grapes will be picked out and thrown away. The rest will go on to the pressing (crush); the winemaker will select out some vats or barrels for his own use in his own label (costing from $25 to $45 per bottle), and the rest will be make into wine for the vinyard owner's label (which he sells for $20 per bottle).

[RWebb]

One big problem in trying to grow Pinot Noir is a fungus infection Botrytis cinerea, sometimes called Noble rot. Here is what it looks like on the grapes:


- sorry about the soft focus - I was using a point & shoot, Canon S-90

[RWebb]

Another problem is that birds like to eat grapes.




Netting can be used to physically exclude them - but not how they can get their beaks in just so far to eat up the grapes within grasp.

The black hose at the bottom is for irrigation, required in very hot summers, especially when the vines are young.

[RWebb]

A second strategy to deal with birds is to scare them away somehow.

This giant yellow dildo guarding the fields is a propane cannon.

[RWebb]

This device actually broadcasts distress or warning calls in several different bird "languages."




Close up:

[RWebb]

A third strategy is to just kill the mutha's. Here a surgeon fires at a starling (not a native songbird, and hence not protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act).

[RWebb]

Another problem is yellow jackets. This one is about to get its last meal off of the grapes.

[RWebb]

these puppies were already at 18 brix by Labor Day - pinot on a plate

[Geneman]

Great writeup webb!! Love to see my surgeons showin up for scrub-in and with pino stains on their hands !! Comforting for the pts ! :d frank

[Don Ro]

Interesting and informative thread, Webb.

[berettafan]

PN is SOOOOO 2010!

j/k, wish I was there although I agree the parking lot looks like a very un-fun bunch.

what about those thin wires you see placed in a criss cross pattern over certain small crop areas? Is that something that could work for the birds?

[Don Plumley]

We are in the middle of this right now.

Already brought in 17T of Sauvignon Blanc and 11T of Pinot; We have two blocks more being picked Friday at midnight; 7T of Chardonnay tomorrow. Another 8T of pinot in a week or so, then a few more weeks before Syrah.

For our prime pinot sites, the weather has compressed a typical 30 day harvest into 14 days and the crews are running ragged, it's hard to schedule, the wineries are overflowing. Busy time - woot!

[Don Ro]

How many yrs. from planting to harvesting first crop?

[Don Plumley]

You can have fruit after about three leafs, but most would drop it so the energy can go into the vine. The fourth or fifth leaf can be productive, but the reality is the vines don't come into stride (and this is highly dependent upon varietal, location, etc.) until eight or so years. Our chard block is 40 years old, really love the older vines.