Mechanical Harvesting of Wine Grapes

The question of using mechanical harvesting versus traditional hand picking is a source of contention in the wine industry. Mechanical harvesting of grapes has been one of the major changes in many vineyards in the last third of a century. First introduced commercially in the 1960s, it has been adopted in different wine regions for various economic, labor and winemaking reason. In Australia, the reduced work force in the wine industry has made the use of mechanized labor almost a necessity.

A mechanical vine harvester works by beating the vine with rubber sticks to get the vine to drop its fruit onto a conveyor belt that brings the fruit to a holding bin. As technology improves mechanical harvesters have become more sophisticated in distinguishing grape clusters from mud, leaves and other particles. Despite the improvement many harvesters still have difficulties in distinguishing between ripe, healthy grapes and unripe or rotted bunches which must then be sorted out at the winemaking facility. Another disadvantage is the potential of damaging the grape skins which can cause maceration and coloring of the juice that is undesirable in the production of white and sparkling wine. The broken skins also bring the risk of oxidation and a loss of some of the aromatic qualities in the wine.

One of the benefits of mechanical harvesting is the relatively low cost of running a harvester that is able to run 24 hours a day and pick 80-200 tons of grapes in contrast to the 1-2 tons that an experienced human picker could do. In hot climates where picking quickly or in the cool of night is a priority, mechanical harvesting can accomplish these goals very well.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_%28wine%29

See also: Bouquet, Roses, Floral