Preparing for the Upcoming Harvest
With the Home Wine Competition just completed, it’s time for home winemakers to start planning for the upcoming harvest. This year’s grapes are ripening on the vines. Last year’s vintage is tucked away and aging. It’s relatively calm in the home winery and everything is running pretty much on autopilot.
It’s the perfect time to start planning for the next vintage, before the bustle of the harvest season.
There are many questions a winemaker must consider before the harvest. What grapes will I get? Will I make a different varietal this year, or maybe a new style of wine like a rose or a blend? How many varietals and how much of each will be needed? Will I have enough space and equipment to process it all? In what condition is my equipment? Is it clean and ready to use? What test chemicals, yeasts, oak and other supplies will I need?
There’s one big question we OCWS winemakers don’t have to ask: Where will I get the grapes? We’re fortunate to have several sources of high-quality grapes. Most of the fruit we buy comes from vineyards in premier growing regions like Santa Barbara and Sonoma counties. Our sources supply us with the same high-quality fruit sold to commercial wineries. These grapes always produce excellent wines which, over the years, have garnered many awards for OCWS winemakers in the OC Fair Home Wine Competition.
There’s another factor working in our favor this year. Economic conditions in the wine industry have led to an oversupply of grapes. Commercial wineries are buying less than in the past and vineyards are turning to home winemakers to buy that excess fruit. We may have access to new sources of high-quality grapes this year.
The 2025 Winemakers Group grape order form will be sent to our winemakers this month. This is an exclusive opportunity to get high-quality winemaking grapes from premier growing regions. Grapes will be picked up from the source and delivered to a distribution point in Orange County. The order form will have a list of available grapes, pricing, estimated harvest dates, pickup information and other details.
To help novice winemakers, the Winemakers Group will hold a pre-crush workshop in early September. It’s a great introductory class for those making wine from grapes for the first time. It’s also a valuable “refresher course” for experienced winemakers who just want to brush up on their knowledge.
The workshop will help you plan for harvest with advice and tips from experienced OCWS winemakers. You’ll get instructions on how our grape pickup works and learn how to prepare before getting them. We’ll show you what to do when you get grapes. You will learn how to take them through the entire winemaking process.
The workshop will be combined with an equipment “swap meet.” We will have a listing of used winemaking equipment that needs to be “rehomed.” Equipment might be free or available at a greatly reduced price. Some small equipment may even be available on-site. It’s a great opportunity for new winemakers to get started. Look for details on the pre-crush workshop in upcoming email notifications.
IMPORTANT: To get Winemakers Group email notifications, your OCWS membership profile must be set to receive Winemakers Group information. Log on to the OCWS website, go to the top menu that says “Account” and click on “My Profile.” If you are the primary member, scroll down to the question that asks: “Interested in Home Winemaking?” Make sure it says “Yes.” For a dual membership, repeat this for the secondary member.
It takes only a couple of minutes to make sure you’ll be notified about grapes, classes, and winemaker happenings throughout the year. Cheers!
—Ed Reyes, ed@ocws.org