Buckingham Valley Vineyards and Winery Harvests Grapes on Eve of 50th Season

Harvesting grapes is a science. One that Jerry Forest and the rest of his winemaking family has perfected over the years at Buckingham Valley Vineyards and Winery, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2016.

“We take samples every day or so,” Forest said of the 100-berry sample that the winery takes, smashes and lab tests for variables including PH, acidity, sugar, seed ripeness and color. “Very seldom do they come together perfectly.”

Other factors, including torrential rainstorms and hurricanes could prompt an earlier-than-planned harvest, Forest said.

So far for the 2015 growing and harvesting season - which continues through early October - Forest said the vineyard is already having a “fantastic season” with Cayuga, the first variety harvested yielding 19 tons of grapes as compared to last year’s 11 tons.

“The quality is beautiful and the quantity is considerably up,” Forest said while overseeing the sorting of Marechal Foch grapes for the winery’s best-selling Diego Red wine.

For the last 30-plus years the winery has automated much of its processes, using machines to pick grapes in minutes instead of hours.

“It used to take all day to pick one of the varieties and now (my son) John does it in an hour,” Forest said, adding that 40-50 pickers were brought on in the old days to help harvest.

Once grapes are picked, they’re dumped into a gondola which holds three to five tons of grapes and then sorted by hand, with winemakers removing leaves and stems before grapes are pumped into a fermenting tank.

In one to five years (depending on the variety) the wines will be bottled and ready for consumption. Buckingham bottles between 35,000 to 40,000 gallons of wine every year.

“We always run out,” Forest said of the wine.