grape picking

Multinational grape pickers are proving the heroes of a rain-plagued 2013 Hunter Valley vintage that is now in its nail-biting red harvest phase. Despite rainfall of some 175 millimetres over a 48-hour period, the white grape harvest is almost done and dusted with tonnages down 20 to 30 per cent and quality up. Vignerons are praying for warm, sunny weather this week so they can get their red grapes ripe and into the crushers. Their anxiety rests on memories of a 2008 red vintage wiped out by rain and a 2012 red harvest in which many growers were forced to Read more