Pocono Vineyard Harvest
You have some amazing new wine vintages coming your way. The 2016 grape harvest went very well here at Mountain View Vineyard. Here’s a sneak peak behind the scenes at harvest day.
A Fun Tradition
When we first started planting grapes more than ten years ago, we could easily harvest our small crop on our own. As we grew, friends and family would help. Then, customers started getting in on the action because they like to see where their wine comes from.
Life on the Farm
The harvest helpers get a brief lesson on the right way to cut the grape clusters from the vines. Then, they head out with pruners and buckets to collect the fruit.
Fun in the Field
Our volunteers are so much fun to work with. You can tell they really enjoy getting a taste of life on the farm. Some have been coming for years. We look forward to catching up with them every fall.
Vineyard Dog
You’ll see our curious dog, Angel, poking around in some of these photos. It was the puppy’s first harvest experience and it looked like she had as much fun as we dd.
An Excellent Vintage
Don’t those grapes look just beautiful? The relatively dry summer without any major weather issues really helped us out.
Thousands of Pounds of Grapes
This crew harvested more than a ton of grapes, literally. Plus, they got it all done before noon. The promise of sangria with lunch may have been a bit of a motivation.
Vineyard Anniversary Celebration
It was an extra-special day for this couple. They celebrated their anniversary with us. Happy anniversary guys!
Loading Trucks
We packed several truck loads full of grapes. That smiling guy with the orange bucket is Neil. He’s been helping us out for years. We appreciate his knowledge and enthusiasm.
Crushing Time
When we unload the grapes from the truck, they get sent for a ride in the crusher destemmer machine. It crushes the grapes and removes the stems. It’s fun to watch the process. You can check it out in our harvest video at the top of this post.
The mixture of juice, pulp, and skins is called the “must.” For most of our wines, we add yeast to this. The yeast eats the sugars and converts the liquid into alcohol.
Winery Lunch with Linda
You might have wondered where Linda was in all of these photos. She was busy inside preparing a delicious pulled pork lunch and harvest apple sangria for the crew.
The Harvest 2016 Crew
Thank you so much to all of our dedicated volunteers. We had so much fun together. The annual Pocono grape harvest event has become one of our favorite vineyard traditions thanks to wonderful people like you.
Cheers!
Linda & Randy
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