Earlier than expected the vintage came to an end for me. Most of the grapes are harvested and what is left will be taken care of by the base crew on the farm, no need for additional helpers. People say it’s been the worst vintage in decades. Thousands of tons of grapes were destroyed by […]
Vintage Life
“It isn’t until you stop that you realize how fucked you are.”. These words of Sam quite accurately describe how the long days in the vintage feel. During the work days there aren’t really any breaks. One jobs follows the next and the machines are always moving as they don’t make any money while standing […]
Clearing Showers
The weather has improved over the last days and we got some work done. Some vineyards are hit by diseases like botrytis but most are still ok. The rain also left many blocks as big muddy puddles which is quite a problem when heavy machinery has to get through there. The harvesters got stuck a […]
Bad Weather
At the moment the Barossa area is getting a lot of rain. That’s bad for me for two reason. Firstly the grapes can’t be harvested when it’s raining because the harvester can’t separate the wet leaves from the fruits. Secondly the grapes had enough rain and any more could do serious damage. The grapes get […]
Time off
Back in Adelaide for a couple of days now. There is probably no work till Tuesday and I didn’t feel like hanging around in that old farm house. It’s a fine place to sleep at but there’s not really anything else to do. Work in the vintage is, as already mentioned, highly irregular. Right now […]
A Circus called Vintage
The last days have been pretty busy and working times have been all over the place. Yesterday I started at 2:30 am, worked till 1pm, went home to sleep and came back at 7pm for a couple more hours. As I’ve been told that’s pretty standard for vintage. “Sleep is overrated.” or “Eight hours off? […]