Hanover Park Vineyard

Hurricanes and Harvest

September 21, 2018

This is that time of the year.  We wait all season to pick our grapes at the best moment. Mother nature sometimes has her own plan for us.

Last week Florence came to our part of the world.  We had “evacuees” from many areas along the coast visiting our tasting room.  They were not sure what to expect over the next few days as were we here in the Piedmont of North Carolina.  We were very lucky to receive our wind and rain, but not too much of either.

We still had grapes on the vine- it was not time yet to harvest them.  So we let them stay and sway in the wind and the rain.  Today the Mourvedre and the Syrah came off the vine.  We look at another week or two for the Cabernets.  These judgement calls have to be made.  Michael said we just need to wait.

This is our twentieth harvest!  I remember the first year when we had 4 tons of Chardonnay in 5 gallon buckets everywhere.  I remember the year the crusher destemmer  broke with tons of grapes- really- sitting around that needed to be crushed.  My dad gave me these big feet for a reason.  I could go on…  harvest number 20!