Learning the Ropes

Wendy has developed an excellent system for picking over the years. Her three-row process uses pairs of pickers to go frame by frame with enough bucket boys to keep the team moving briskly though each row of grapes.

We were instructed to cut as close to the grape bunches as possible, and avoid including any bits of leaves or stem. We also had to cut out any bits of grapes that had been affected by bird attacks or the Petridis grape disease.

Bill and Wendy would ensure quality a second level control by overseeing the bins, which when filled with glistening fresh grapes, were a beautiful sight. I had a taste on the end a few rows. I must say that they were some of the freshest I’d ever tasted and varied quite a bit from one varietal to the next.

Bucket by bucket, we side stepped our way to the end of each frame, then each row. Grape picking may sound both tedious and boring to you, but we kept ourselves entertained with chit-chat with the locals, eavesdropping on the teenagers’ gossip, and even a few audio podcasts of “60 minutes”, the US news magazine programme - I think Steph is now addicted! Sometimes I would be called on to the more laborious job of bucket boy, away from Steph, my picking partner. This worried Steph on the first day, when she asked “ Are you going to be bucket boy for ever?”



Aisha, the Lawson’s black lab, was an experienced vineyard dog. She often kept the team company and included us in her play sessions with rubber toys. She also has the curious habit of taking a bunch of grapes in her mouth and finding a suitable place to bury it.

Off the vines, we were very keen to learn more about the winemaking process. Wendy was extremely outgoing and included us in the daily updates of how the grapes were looking from the results that came in.

Sugar level 11, Acid 7, PH 3-4

Weather plays a huge factor in the last few weeks - the right time to pick is based on good attention to PH, sugar and acid levels, strategic predictions, and a little luck from mother nature.

If she couldn’t show us other areas of winemaking, she was on the phone to neighboring vineyards to let them know that two visitors would be stopping by. We went to a winery to watch how grapes were taken from the bins and de-stemmed, then crushed and filtered. The winemaker, Michael, was proud to show us his process and let us sample pure, unfermented grape juice - delicious!!

Grape pressing

De-stemming

Tasting pure grape juice

'the machine'

Wendy also tipped us off to head down to the edge of the property at nightfall where we could see her neighbor using ‘the machine’ to shred grapes from vines mechanically overnight.

During our short-lived career as Australian grape pickers, we managed to pick all of the white grapes off the vine for this year’s harvest. We sampled these over dinners with Bill and Wendy. She made us spinach dip, seafood pasta and cake.

The Semillon we picked is the primary white grape from Bordeaux and has been a very successful grape for the Hunter Valley for many years. It balances fruity, crisp and spicy as a younger wine with fresh lime aromas. Semillon can then matures into a buttery white after cellering for at least five years. We then picked Verdhello, a Portuguese grape that was originally brought to Australia during the convict days and planted here at the Fordwich soldier settlement. It produces a white wine with citrus and tropical fruit flavours that also yields a oaky taste. And finally Chardonnay, the rich grape of Burgundy and California which has become Catherine Vale’s flagship wine. Their winery produce the wine in American oak barrels that give what they describe as a creamy mouthfeel.


Since 1997, the Catherine Vale vineyard has produced award winning wine from the vines overlooking the Wollemni brook and hunter range.