Another side to wine

You must know that we like wine. The evidence would be the various posts on wineries: here, in the Okanagan, Napa, and anywhere else; and the many photos of me with a wine glass in my hand.

Thanksgiving Day 2012

We belong to the Wine Club at the Muse winery about 30 minutes from home and enjoy going to the vineyard for lunch in the summer and other events including really hilarious musical farce theatre in the summer (Suddenly Sasquatch this year). Muse has 3 small vineyards on Saanich Peninsula and buys grapes from the Okanagan for the rest of its production. This year we decided to help with the grape harvest being amazed that volunteers/friends/family are the pickers (clippers actually). We were assigned to the home vineyard; the one we sit beside in the summer, on the patio, sipping a crisp Ortega.

summer on the patio at Muse

It’s a pretty easy job to harvest grapes, only the clusters are lower on the vine than is actually comfortable unless you are very short. Peter (owner) follows old-world practices so keeps the lowest grapes because they benefit from reflected heat from the ground. Other vineyards will focus on higher grapes for different reasons, maybe more sun, maybe easier harvesting. 

Muse owner Peter Ellman

Secateurs in hand and rubber-booted we got underway at about 9:00 AM on the first cloudy day in living memory. Because of the angle, both stooped and twisted or on one knee, I quickly decided this would be a one-time-only event and was thankful to have an appointment with my chiropractor later in the day. After a while Jim and I started to work on both sides of one row, together, and got into the rhythm.

The grapes we picked went right into the de-stemmer/crusher for a little instant gratification! Later, having stripped the vineyard, had a great lunch with lots of wine, and an enjoyable reunion with an old SMUS colleague, we heard ourselves saying to others that we’d see them next year. I can’t honestly say it was fun, but it was satisfying. Plus, the owners are upbeat and cheerful and we like them well enough to help out.  Now we have a different sense of belonging to Muse and a new appreciation for the wine process. 

Thanks to regular yoga and walking Rithet's Bog my aches were very minor indeed.