Why We Pick at Night

The crew meets at the shed at three in the morning. The lights go on the tractors, someone puts coffee on, and by half past three the first rows are being cut in the dark. It looks like an eccentric habit. It is the single most important decision we make about the white wines.

Cold fruit keeps its acidity

Grapes go on respiring after they are cut, and respiration burns acid. In the afternoon a bin of fruit can sit at thirty degrees, and by the time it reaches the press it has lost the thing that would have kept the wine alive. Picked at four in the morning the same fruit arrives at twelve degrees and the press does not have to fight anything.

It also protects the aromatics

The compounds that make a white wine smell of citrus and blossom are fragile and heat-sensitive. Every degree of warmth between the vine and the press costs you some of them, and no amount of care in the cellar puts them back.

What it costs

Lights, cold hands, and a crew working the hours that nobody wants. We pay a night rate and we keep the shifts short, because tired picking is careless picking and careless picking puts leaves and unripe bunches in the bin.

By nine in the morning the fruit is pressed, the crew is at breakfast and the vineyard is quiet again. Anyone driving past at noon would never know.