Rest, relaxation become a thing of the past for winemakers once harvest season gets started

Sometimes I'll rag on winery owners for not calling me back right away.

Then there's the other side; not posting information for a week or two from winemakers and owners who DO call me back. That's the case with Jason Price at Twin Brook Winery in Gap, Pa., where large crowds are expected these next two weekends as part of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail's Harvest Festival.

He called me a few weeks ago in response to an e-mail about the harvest, one he noted can begin as early as late August and continue into November. They grow 12 varieties of grapes at Twin Brook; the earliest to come off the vine are the Foche and Cayuga grapes and the latest are the Cabernet Sauvignon.

"Not the case for this wonderful vintage," Price said about the timeliness of the ripening, which has been delayed several weeks by all the rain. "That's not the case everywhere. Southeastern Pennsylvania there seems like there are all these microclimates that have their own thing going on, but we're experiencing some real delay in ripening."

It hasn't quite provided the same number of horror stories as the 2003 vintage, the worst this decade."I wasn't here then," he said, " but I know that was a real challenging year and I think this year is really giving '03 a run for its money."

Price said the days are long during the several months of harvest, up and picking with the sun and then into the cellar to crush and press the grapes and get them into the tanks. "It can be a 16-hour day," he said. "Last week, Tim [Jobe] and I ran 22 hours straight. We were doing Cayuga, some grapes we got in Gettysburg, and by the time we got all the grapes back and cleaned up the press and locked the door, it was 22 hours straight."

But, like accountants during tax season, there's no sense griping about it. "You realize [the hours are going to be long this time of the year]," Price said. "You can't complain about it because you know about [the long hours during harvest] when you went into it."

Brandywine Valley Wine Trail switching to a holiday open house for its December celebration

Hearing there won't be a Brandywine Valley Wine Trail vintners dinner this fall is disappointing but understandable. It's a lot of work and has to be costly, considering that the wineries involved not only provided the wine served at dinner but poured far more during an hour-plus time frame that preceded the dinner, as folks arrived and hors d'oeuvres were being served. All of this took place amid the spectacular backdrop that Longwood Gardens offers.

Instead, the wine trail this year will hold a holiday open house on the weekend of Dec. 5-6, according to communications chair Karen Cline. She noted that the trail is "doing an open house this year as a coordinated event to bring attention to the idea of gifting wine for Christmas---local/regional wines in particular. I don’t have all the particulars yet from each winery but so far, I see a trend of no tasting fees and wine pricing specials. Stargazers is introducing some new wines. Festive holiday atmospheres, including music and holiday sweets, will be the standard."

More details will be forthcoming on that and the annual Harvest Festival, scheduled for the last weekend in September and the first weekend in October. That will include a grape stomp at Kreutz Creek Vineyards in West Grove, something you're beginning to see at more wineries around the region..