MONETA, Va. WFXR — Before you enjoy a glass of wine, there’s over a year of hard work behind it. One of the most important moments in winemaking is when the grapes are picked—a process that blends both science and art.
This is harvest season at vineyards across Virginia.
We tested the grapes earlier this week to check the sugar levels and pH to ensure they’re balanced, said Stephanie Vandiver, the winemaker at Ramulose Ridge Vineyards, which she owns with her husband, Thomas, in Moneta, Virginia.
There’s an art to it, Thomas added as he picked a bunch of grapes. We could have picked yesterday or tomorrow, but today is perfect. It’s cool, and the sugars are just right.”
On this day, they’re harvesting Traminette, a white grape variety that can make either sweet or dry wine. Ramulose Ridge makes a dry version.
It’s going to be bright, floral, and citrusy, Stephanie described. Perfect for a summer day—very refreshing.
After harvesting, the grapes are taken to a processing area where they’re stemmed and pressed for juice. Yeast and other ingredients are added, and the wine is stored in vats to ferment. The wine from this summer’s harvest will be ready in about a year.
White wines are quicker to produce because they have little to no tannins, which give red wines their color and complex flavor. Red grapes take longer to ripen and need more time to age, so they’ll be harvested later in the summer. The grape harvest can continue into October, but the work is year-round.
We started pruning these vines in January and February, thinned them in March and April, and cared for them all summer, dealing with the weather, Thomas said. Now it’s time to pick. A full year of work leads to this moment, making it so rewarding.