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GRAPE GRO WING Side-by-side comparison W inemaker Steven Rogstad of Cuvaison provided these lab notes taken from barrel samples in April 2011. Field crews al- ternately picked four rows of Pinot noir grapes by hand and then machine. The fruit was harvested at night and delivered to the winery in half-ton macro bins. The hand-picked fruit was destemmed and optically sorted. The machine-harvested fruit was also optically sorted. calculating the cost of harvesting and sorting grapes. Early adopters of the new generation of harvesting and sorting equipment have discovered these machines can accelerate production, reduce the number of field and winery workers and preserve varietal character. Annual sales for these sophisti- cated multi-purpose tractors have doubled in the coastal areas of California, Oregon and Washington since manufacturers intro- duced on-board sorting in 2008. Rogstad, like many other vineyard managers and winemakers, believes that quality begins in the vineyard. Without the highest quality grapes, he reasons, he can- not produce a memorable bottle of wine. During 2009, Rogstad and a handful of other premium U.S. winemakers and vine- yard managers challenged the notion that hand-picked always trumps mechanically harvested fruit. He and vineyard manager Rolando Sanchez led a team that hand- picked and machine-harvested alternate rows of grapes from a 5.5-acre block of Carneros Chardonnay. "I was impressed by the quality of the pick," Rogstad said. Lab results confirmed that the Brix, pH and TA were identical at harvest, with the acids running slightly higher in the machine-harvested fruit. Another Napa Valley winemaker, Jef- frey Stambor of Beaulieu Vineyard, com- pared machine-harvested and optically sorted grapes to hand-picked and sorted fruit from the same vineyard block dur- ing the 2009 vintage. The vineyard team hand-picked or machine-harvested every four rows from a Cabernet Sauvignon block located in Rutherford. for Cuvaison 2010 Pinot Noir Picked Preliminary Chemistry Hand Machine Picked Alcohol pH Tartaric acidity Volatile acidity Catechin Tannin Polymeric Anthocyanins Total anthocyanins 15.11% 3.89 5.8 g/L 0.71 g/L 27 mg/L 18 mg/L 15.06% 3.87 6.1 g/L 0.76 g/L 38 mg/L 426 mg/L 528 mg/L 21 mg/L 265 mg/L 323 mg/L Stambor waited until the winery was ready to release the 2009 Cabernet Sauvi- gnon to evaluate results. "There was not a huge difference between the wines made from machine- and hand-picked fruit," Stambor said. "The wine made from the machine-harvested fruit contained 15% to 20% more tannin, which in itself is neither good nor bad, but is an indica- tion of what to expect and how we might adjust fermentation techniques given the harvest method." Repeated sensory evaluations of the wine by a panel of 20 tasters revealed no clear preference between the 2009 Cab- ernet Sauvignon made from hand-picked and machine-harvested fruit. For batches of 2010 Pinot Noir, Rogstad analyzed barrel samples made from hand-picked and machine-har- vested fruit. (see table above.) "Both wines were very high quality," he said. And like the outcome of the sensory evaluation for Beaulieu Vineyard's 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, the tasting panel for samples of the 2010 Pinot Noir could not agree which way of harvesting produced better results. Man or machine? "In a normal year, we would start pick- ing Chardonnay shortly after Labor Day and harvest it in six weeks," Rogstad said. "This year, we started harvesting Sept. 23." With all of the Pinot Noir picked before the Oct. 3 storm, Rogstad con- centrated on harvesting and pressing the Chardonnay. The vineyard team had picked only three-quarters of the 2011 crop, and rain from the upcoming storm would increase the chances of Botrytis dramatically. Facing some of the same circumstances in 2009, Andy Mitchell, director of vine- yard operations for Hahn Family Wines, conducted his first major test with the new-generation harvesting equipment. (See "The Year of the Harvester?" Wines & Vines May 2010 issue.) Today, Mitchell The Gimbre gondola separates juice from berries, saving juice and expediting the sorting process. Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2012 87