Backsberg sees the light…at 4am

This past week saw harvest get underway at the farm. This vintage is slightly different from others though: we are setting our alarm clocks a wee bit earlier. When I say earlier, I mean we are starting to harvest at 4am in the mornings!

Well, you might say, how do you see what you are doing at that time of the morning, surely it is still dark? Yes, indeed it is still pitch dark at 4am. To combat the darkness however, we have equipped each of our pickers with a LED headlamp. The headlamp produces an ideal beam of light over the vineyard canopy area and it is as easy as picking in daylight. I must say that the scene in the vineyards is fairly reminiscent of a science fiction film.

The headlamp we use is similar to the one pictured above left.

There are 3 reasons why we have gone this route: it is better for our pickers, its better for wine quality and the process is environmentally more friendly.

Though our pickers have to wake up rather early to start at 4am, it effectively means that they can work in the coolest time of the day. By 9am we are basically half way through the working day and our pickers can finish up and go home by lunchtime. This means that they don’t have to work in the afternoon heat, which can be extremely punishing at this time of the year. If you have been in the Cape over the last week, you will know that almost every day has been 35 degrees Celsius and above.

From a wine quality perspective it is far better to handle cooler grapes. Handling cooler grapes leads to less extraction of harsh phenolic compounds.

By harvesting more grapes at a cooler temperature, we save energy. Today we harvested sauvignon blanc grapes. From 4am till about 9am the grapes came in at a temperature of about 20 degrees and shifted up to 28 degrees by the last load at midday. At 20 degrees, we only needed to cool the grapes down by 8 degrees to 12 degrees (the temperature we want to handle the grapes at), and at 28 degrees we need to cool them down by 16 degrees. So harvesting earlier and cooler means less energy needed!

So starting the day at 4am makes for a win win win situation.

Have a good weekend.

SB