“The time has come”, the walrus said, “to pick those Gruner grapes … ” This is the time when all one’s dreams culminate and coalesce upon a single exciting pleasure – the considerable delight of harvesting Gruner Veltliner.
For weeks I have been watching the fruit hang in the late afternoon light, with each bunch looking like it’s about to explode with amazing vibrancy and flavour – and at last it is time to harvest! This is a difficult process, only because I am so busy tasting the berries as I pick each bunch, that ergonomically it just does not work for me. But fortunately we have a wonderful team of harvesters and I have taken a series of pics to illustrate the joyous process of the harvest.
Ripe Gruner Veltliner bunches about to be harvested at Hahndorf Hill Winery
My, what dirty fingernails I have! (Double click on pic to get right under the nails!) … But I suppose that’s all part of the process. The amazingly vibrant flavours in the fruit this year include melons, paw paw, banana and mango.
- Buckets of freshly harvested Gruner Veltliner.
Look at those bunches light up in the black buckets! They’re about to explode with beautiful flavours …
The rewards of the harvest being poured into the large harvest bins.
The accumulated bounty tumbles into the big harvest bin.
Proud Gruner dad busy at crusher.
What a long day it has been – but now that the grapes are being crushed I can relax with a little *reward. (*See left hand.)
For pre-release allocations of our GRU 2013, and further information, please go to http://bit.ly/XUJJct