This week, I joined the team at Mount Pleasant Estates in Augusta for its seasonal grape harvest. Any preconceived romantic notions I had of how this process actually works were proved false before we even began. Like most agricultural endeavors, the harvest began early in the morning. Before sunrise. Covered in darkness.
Armed with a healthy dose of strong coffee, I met Mount Pleasant president Chuck Dressel and head winemaker Colin Pennington. Though we started early, Dressel explained the harvest this year actually began late.
The grape we harvested that day, vidal blanc, is the last white grape harvested during the season, and due to a colder spring and mild summer, the grapes appeared on the vines about 28 days later than usual. Mount Pleasant uses the vidal blanc to produce its well reviewed Villagio and Villagio Estates wines. This fresh, fruit-forward wine could be compared pinot grigio in style.
Our grapes were earmarked to become Villagio Estate wine, featuring the highest quality vidal blanc grapes produced this season. Even though this year’s grapes are later than usual, the team at Mount Pleasant said it is happy with the fruit’s high quality.
A large, 14-foot machine, sensibly called a “picker,” does the actual harvesting from the vines. Once the fruit is gathered in large bins, its transported to Mount Pleasant, where the wine-making process begins by crushing the fruit. The winemakers process the vidal blanc grapes into juice and use underground pipes to transport it to stainless steel tanks where the juice ferments.
As it ages, the wine’s flavor changes from green apple to harsh grapefruit, finally becoming the pleasant, fruit-forward, aromatic finished product. Harvest at Mount Pleasant Estates continues into October with red grapes chambourcin, St. Vincent and Norton up next.
Villagio and Villagio Estates are expected to be available in May 2014. The Villagio will retail around $10 a bottle, and the more complex Villagio Estates will be roughly $21 a bottle.
This article appears in September 2013.