Dombeya Scholarship 2009- Ntando in Australia, Part 3

A bit of history about Voyager Estate. It is 300ha farm of which 130 ha is under vines. Their flagship wines are Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Their other cultivars are: in whites, it's Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Chenin Blanc. The reds: Merlot and Shiraz. Most of the cultivars are white, their ratio to reds is about 55 % white and 45 % red. All their Chardonnay is whole bunch pressed for both normal wine making as well as sparkling wine. All of the Chardonnay is hand picked the rest of the cultivars is picked by the harvester. The total harvest production is about 500 - 700 tons depending on the weather that year.

The day finally came when the harvester made its parade on Thursday the 5th of March. I have never seen one in action so I was pretty excited but (my) its loud; I was trying to make a video that didn't work out so I am going to try and express my joy in words! Sadly no reds have come in yet we are still on whites it might be a while it took us almost three weeks to finish picking the Chardonnay; we are on to Sauvignon Blanc now.

The harvester in the picture above was about a quarter of a million (Australian dollars of course) about 10 years ago I don't want to mention how much it is now! The yellow lines in the middle are called the beaters they shake off the berries off the stem of the bunch into the conveyer belts situated on both sides. The fans at the top (the two green flaps) remove the leaves and mice along the conveyer belt blowing the dirt straight into the ground. Interestingly there is a magnet along the conveyer belt at the top to remove any metals that might be present. How it works is that the harvester picks the berries and on the adjacent row there's a trailer carrying a one ton bin where the berries fall in.

The black fish scales at the bottom shake the berries to ensure that the berries don't fall to the ground by directing them to the conveyer belt. The long arm on the side directs the berries to the bin on the trailer. Lastly the green flaps you see at the front stop any backward movement of the berries from the back side.

The gap in between the beaters is called the pinch which is set differently for each block depending on canopy thickness, age of vines and the size of vines for example the small, young vines would need a smaller pinch and the older and bigger vines would need a bigger pinch. In conjunction with the size of the pinch the speed of the beater is also adjusted to ensure berries are not shattered or damaged and the bunch is shaken not pulled off. Other factors determining size of pinch is the brittleness of the rachi, characteristics of the cultivar and ripeness of it thereof. Cultivars such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are the hardest to pick and the Sauvignon Blanc is easier. This Wonder Worker even carries a drum of water on the side to wash hands or drink water as you go along (cool). With this machine only 3 people are necessary for the picking and in 1 hour it harvests one hectare.

Before you think what's the point of this history lesson or what it's just a harvester think about this. Michael Wright the owner of Voyager has been convincing me about labour vs mechanical harvesting. He reckons it's cheaper to harvest mechanically and use the rest of your money in winery machines which are also designed to use less labour in the long term you make more return in your profits. I know it's easier said than done but its well worth the thought when he explains it so well (a very passionate man about wine and business). He's got the figures for this on paper, it's true. If you think about it 3 people harvesting almost 60 hectares on time as scheduled can save you a lot of money.

Maybe the saying is true that you need to spend money to make money (I know there's risk involved and of course human kindness but what's happened to the labourers???).



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