We strive to maintain quality in every vineyard activity.

QUALITY IN THE HARVEST IS ESSENTIAL  

Beginning in early August, we gather representative bunches from vines throughout the vineyard and take periodic samples to check for sugar and acid levels.  Anticipation rises as the grapes get closer to the desired quality levels and we focus on making sure we have everything ready for harvest.   

At Tre Gatti, harvest usually occurs at the end of August, much to the chagrin of our winemaker who would like to delay receiving fruit until after Labor Day.  Like having a baby, however, the grapes tell us when it’s time, not the other way around!  We won’t compromise the quality of the grapes by picking too early or too late.  

Harvest day is both exciting and exhausting.  It begins before dawn and is the culmination of a years work.  The picking crew is full of energy, anxious to pick while the morning is cool.  The workers  fill their picking totes with grapes before emptying them into the tractor-pulled bins.  We always have one crew-member riding “shotgun” on the picking bins, removing stray leaves and any over-ripe bunches.  We pride ourselves on the high quality of our “clean pick”, knowing that every bottle of wine produced from these grapes will be that much better.    

When harvest is finished, the grape-filled bins are placed on a flat-bed truck and hauled to the winery.  As many times as we’ve done this, we’re still anxious to get the tonnage reports and the winemaker’s comments on the quality of the harvest.    At the winery, the grapes are dumped into the hopper of the crusher/stemmer and the resulting  must is pumped into tanks to be fermented and transformed into wine.  On the trip home we congratulate ourselves, filled with a sense of pride and accomplishment and very grateful, knowing we can sleep late tomorrow!     

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