There is something deeply connective and inspiring about the way the sun rises over a harvest morning. The light engulfs everything around you: each leaf, each earwig, each partner on the row becomes lit up in an explosion of vibrant color no camera phone could ever replicate.
Being up at daybreak feels inherently human
As farmers, it's something we are used to. It's in the time before the sun fully beats down and the inevitable ritual of peeling off of a layer begins. There's dew on the grass, red, orange and yellow exploding in the sky and a full day ahead.
Our harvest came early this year, bringing hard, rewarding work in its mouth and our team has arrived hungry for the challenge.
It's a feeling that's difficult to capture in a photograph, but perhaps a little easier in a bottle. If you'd like to taste a bit of what we've been working towards all year, a few members of the family are waiting for you.
The vines decide when harvest begins
The decision of when to begin harvest is never really ours alone. The vines tell us. The grapes tell us. The weather certainly has its say. This year, everything seemed to move a little faster. We watched, we tasted, we waited, and soon there was no more waiting to be done. The fruit was ready, and so were we.
Now the days have found their rhythm
We begin early, moving through the vineyards with excitement and energy. Buckets fill, hands become sticky with juice, conversations travel up and down the rows. By the time the sun is high, the cellar is alive too. Grapes arrive, presses begin to turn and what has spent an entire year growing outside begins to make its way inside.
We often refer to the harvest as the cherry on top here at Gut Oggau. Not because these few weeks are the most important, but because they are the culmination of all of the work done throughout the year.
Harvest is often romanticised, and there is plenty of romance in it. But there is also sweat, dust, tired backs, dirty clothes and the particular exhaustion that comes from knowing tomorrow morning the alarm will ring before the sun rises again. Perhaps that is exactly why we love it. For these weeks, everything becomes wonderfully simple: wake up, go outside, listen, pick, press, taste, eat, sleep, repeat.
And somewhere in between, we usually cool off with a cold Gut Feeling®. You should too.
The cellar is the relaxation station
By the time the grapes make their way into the cellar, so much of the work has already been done. We call our cellar the “relaxation station” for a reason. The grapes aren't coming inside to become something. They're coming inside to relax, to chill, and to continue through the journey of their different forms of being. Our job is mostly to give them the space to do that.
And that's what feels so special about harvest. Suddenly everything is here. All of those months of work, all of that time spent connected to the vines and the land, coming together in this one moment. It's hard work, it's exciting, and there's an incredible energy to it, but it also feels like the most natural continuation of everything we have been doing all year.
We're so excited by what is coming in and so happy to be here, together, doing it all again.
Cheers to our best vintage yet!
With Love From the Vines,
Stephanie and Eduard Tscheppe
