Picking Grapes

Kirk's stepdad, Ray Carlson, owns a vineyard where various varietals of grapes are grown. Chardonnay, Cabernet, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel are the main ones. They just so happened to be picking on Friday so we went out to see how it is done. They still pick by hand at this vineyard, but it is set up to be machine picked if so needed in the future. It was so cool to see the huge crates of grapes being weighed and loaded on the flatbed truck. Each crate weighed approximately 1,000 pounds. I tasted the grapes and wine grapes are tasty. They reminded me of gooseberries.

They have a cooperative relationship set up to get the grapes to be made into wine. Ray provides the land for the grapes to be grown, John Balletto provides the farming labor and know how and they have an agreement from DeLoach Winery to buy the grapes for wine each fall. I learned a lot.