Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/62409
GRAPE GRO WING reform program continuing to get more challenging every year. We saw similar labor shortages in the coastal regions as well as the interior, with difficulty in getting grapes harvested before the rains in October. There were North Coast growers that were offering bonuses to get workers, so some wineries in the coastal areas are experimenting with various harvest machines. (Read more about machine har- vesting in "Coming of Age" on page 86.) Harvest timing has been variety specific and quality sensitive. There are a number of different machines, some with optical sorters, being tried this year. One example is the Pellenc harvester. Some planting layouts (hillsides, slopes, etc.) may offer some chal- lenges to machine harvesting, but never discount engineering ingenuity when the present and future needs demand a solution. Because of grape quality considerations, I believe machine harvesting will not be the highest priority for some growers and vint- ners in the North Coast. But based on our observations, I do believe we will see more machine-harvested fruit throughout Califor- nia and even in the North Coast. Machine harvesting has already made its way into the Central Coast with acceptance by both growers and vintners for many years. Machines harvest 95% in San Joaquin Valley N at DiBuduo says that more than 95% of the winegrapes in the San Joaquin Valley already are machine-har- vested. "Only the remaining head- pruned vines or those trained with a trellis system incompatible with a machine harvest remain to be hand-harvested. I believe the San Joaquin Valley from Lodi south to Kern County will approach 99% machine harvest in the near future." L.D. Having machines in the vineyard has also provided other mechanical viticulture practices. The first viticulture practice being utilized is mechanical pre-pruning, pruning or hedging of the vineyards. This isn't widely done yet in the San Joaquin Valley, although there are a handful of large growers that have been doing it for years. It's something that growers are looking at because of the labor shortages. Many of these practices have been utilized around the world, especially in labor- strapped Australia. A resident of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Laurie Daniel has been a journalist for more than 25 years. She has been writing about wine for publications for nearly 15 years and has been a Wines & Vines contributor since 2006. Experience Matters in Winemaking Just as in the making of world class wines, experience counts when designing, building, and supplying winery equipment. With over 50 years of experience in the food and beverage business, Parkson offers customized engineered solutions for the wine industry: - - Liquid-solid separation Conventional and biological wastewater treatment - Waste and biosolids handling Visit us at the 2012 Unified Wine and Grape Symposium (booth #2606). QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #2606 94 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2012 QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #900g FB@parkson.com 1-888-PARKSON www.parkson.com