mechancal picker?

It doesn't. It beats the vines with plastic canes, causing the ripe berries to fall off the vines, catches them as they're falling and runs them via conveyer belt into a big bin. It's a bit rough on the vines, and they have to be trellised and spaced appropriately for the harvester. One advantage is that it leaves behind the stems and underripe berries. Also, the harvesting can be done in the cool of night.

Tom S

I gotta see that! I'm guessing that a second harvest isn't possible if a mech. picker has gone through. That machine must bash the hell out of the berries too, right? Warren Place

HiYall Mechanical pickers , yes, but why pick at night ? Reg

Wow, wasn't exactly what I had pictured...

Do they work well or is it just that they are cheaper and some missed fruit can be tolerated? In which case, do they ever have someone go through and quickly pick what was missed?

Don S

Night is usually cooler than day. Cooler grapes translates to less phenolic extraction during the crush/press process and cooler intial temperature in the must.

clyde

As TomS eluded, with a proper trellis system they can be extremely efficient.

Going back in to pick what's left is called gleaning. My first job in the industry was working for a small winery in Monterey CA. They did virtually all of their production from gleaned fruit. The older trellis systems would cause some fruit to be left behind at the end of each row. Made for easy picking because you'd just walk along the roadway, never far from the gondola.

clyde

I've ridden on one of these harvesters and they are really quite good at what they do. As for a 2nd harvest, it would be very difficult within a given row since the machine can't choose which clusters to shake off. However, some growers will harvest certain rows later than others within a certain variety if they want to let some hang longer. The berries don't get "bashed." In fact, they get to the winery generally in very good shape. The vines get shook, but with some unavoidable exceptions, the clusters don't get beaten with the paddles. I was always a believer that hand picking was best for grape quality but now that I've seen the results of mechanical harvesting, I'm not sure that there is significant loss, especially if there is someone picking out MOG as the berries fall into the bins and as the grapes are being put into the crusher. Economically it's not even close (though the machines are incredibly expensive). No labor problems and the speed is a huge advantage.

Mechanical is great for whites when you're relatively close to the processing area. GRapes are cool and they come off quick.

But there is a lot of juice, so for long distanc trips if the grapes are warm you can run into oxidation and/or phenolic extraction problems.

Reds are fine. In fact saves time in the winery as you process through the crusher and there are only a few stems.