Whew! I’m glad that’s over. As romantic as harvest may be to both consumer and winemaker, the fact of the matter is that for those involved in the work it becomes a grind. There may be the charming popping of the corks on bottles of bubbly for that first bin of grapes to arrive at the winery, but after a succession of 16 or more hour days the challenge is to be as committed as you were when the first grape arrived to quality.

What the harvest always reminds the winemaker is the simplicity with which the press views each vintage. Like a wine world version of CNN, writers look for key words and flashy headlines to pigeon hole each vintage.  This simplistic version of the winemaking process promotes ignorance and misconceptions and blinds the public in general to the realities of winemaking. I’ll try to take that on as Wine Camp continues to evolve.

I’m glad to be back to the keyboard after having a close relationship with 300 tons of Oregon grapes over the last three weeks.