Monday, October 19, 2009

Sopping Wet

Absolute drudgery. Picking in the rain is never fun. The ground collects under your boots as you trudge your way along the vine row, craned over picking as the rain pecks away at the nape of your neck.

This was a small snapshot of the scene atop Chalk Hill today as we picked at one of our estate vineyards. The elements caused a number of problems prolonging a simple pick into a six hour affair. First, a trailer's rear wheel lost all air as it rolled stubbornly on its rim. Due to soft ground tractors couldn't pass down the vine rows which forced they guys to carry out the fruit from each row. Then the estate liaison arrived to yell at a crew leader for dropping too much fruit the day before further exacerbating an already ugly situation.

To put the icing on the cake, our last block was a serious of terraces in which we formed a human chain to slide the picking bins down the side of the hill. The situation reminded me of other locations such as the Mosel or Gigondas where a pulley system is set up to hall fruit up the hill. No mechanical advantage today however, so la cadena humana pushed on.

At the end, we were soaked, freezing and blood sugar levels were at daily lows. Even the 200 plus Cabernet Sauvignon berries I ate couldn't stop me from a case of the shakes.

I've been begging for rain and I finally got my wish. It is that time of year to see Northern California's other face: saturated, baggy clouds and no shortage of tears.

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