Start of Day
Harvest workers start their day at 7 a.m. to take advantage of cooler temps for harvesting grapes.
A Basket of Traminette
In the Vines
I love this shot of one of the workers getting into the vines to get this cluster.
Another Bushel
The vineyard workers move fast through the rows. They are paid by the number of bushels they pick.
Traminette
Indiana's Signature Grape - Traminette. Ted Huber noted this is the oldest vineyard of the grape in the state.
In a day's work
Workers gather 5-6-7-8 bushels of grapes before the tractor makes the rounds to get them back to the production facility.
Weighing Grapes
Ted Huber moves this container onto the scales. The container, when full, holds about 1,000 lbs of grapes.
Moving fast
Workers maintain a brisk pace - soon enough, another large container is filled.
Long rows
Indiana Traminette in one of the long rows of Huber Vineyards
Getting in there
This younger vineyard worker balances the basket against the fence post supporting the vines.
Large Vineyard
Hubers have more acres in vineyard than any other Hoosier Winery. About 80 acres are in production but Ted plants every year.
Beautiful grapes
There is something quite beautiful about this fall bounty,
Topping it off
After dumping another bushel it takes some rearranging to top off the container.
Chambourcin
Monday's work concentrated solely on Traminette but I couldn't resisting shooting the beautiful Chambourcin just one row over.
Boo!
I like wine, You like wine. Birds like wine grapes. This stoic fella hopes to scare a few of his fine feathered friends away.
One bad grape
So sure there are some bad grapes in a bunch - but much of that gets caught in the sorting process.
Great Grapes!
Some shots are just pretty - like this one!
About done
At this point in the morning workers had almost cleaned out the largest of the Huber Traminette vineyard.
Fall in Southern Indiana
There truly IS more than corn in Indiana.
Tight Squeeze
The tractor actually gets up and down the aisle with a great deal of ease, but turning around and backing in looked tricky!
De-Stemming
As the guys wrapped up in the vineyard, I headed to the production facility. Here is what happens after hand sorting.
Still Picking
Oops, they're still picking out there!
Cooling Down
I like the industrial look of this pipe. It's part of a cooling unit that takes the grapes down into the 40s before being crushed. It's part of controlling the chemical winemaking process that keeps the fruit tasting fresh.
Cool Crush
Here is a better look from previous shot. The coils are the cooling unit feeding grapes into the custom crush machine.
