Aside from the new gumboots, cleaning of the cellar, hiring of seasonal grape pickers and the occasional Harvest festival which pretends it’s for guests to experience grape crushing/picking for themselves when really it's free labour, winemakers across the world have many different traditions and customs that help them get ready.
Here are just a few from around the globe:
Australia – It’s customary for these blokes from down-under to welcome in harvest with a 100 year tradition, Wombutt tapping. The Wombat is a sturdy little creature that usually lives a peaceful life in the Australian outback but during harvest time, he becomes the prized possession of any serious winemaker. The idea is to find a Wombat and tap it on the butt. Don’t be fooled, these creatures are quite fast and they have a clever habit of being able run at speed and then stop dead still to trip up predators. Many a shin has been bruised in these games.
UK – A recent tradition, as this is one of the newer wine making regions of the world (technically they have been making wine for years but let’s not go there) – One can only pick the first bunch of grapes on a sunny day with the temperature being above 15 degrees....The world is still waiting for them to start.
Italy – A statue of the Roman God Bacchus, made entirely out of pasta, is erected in every plaza in the country. A weekend-long festival happens - think live music, olive oil showers and Vespas. People throw last year's wine at the statue and then wait until11:59pm on the Sunday. If Harvest is a go-ahead, then all the wine on the statue should disappear as the great god Bacchus has drunk it all and is blessing the New Year’s vintage.
France - Escargot racing started in the early 14th Century and whilst it was reputedly an underground sport, in recent years it has gained much favour in professional winemaking circles; cellars will buy a snail (or they might have their own as snail breeding is big in France) and will mark the shell with the first cultivar that they wish to harvest. They all gather together and race the snails. The first snail to get over the finish line will be the first variety that should be harvested.
North America - As traditions go, it doesn't get more patriotic than this. One may only start harvest if a Bald Eagle carrying the American flag flies over your vineyards. Winemakers in their haste to begin picking have been known to hire circus Eagles lest they have to pick at high balling and only produce sweet, high-alcoholic wines...again.
South Africa - Finally we come to our own winemakers: We have a braai, check the grapes and then "we get picking bra". Sometimes we make great exclamations about how amazing this year's harvest is or how white blends are finally going to make it - in some circles I've heard they only bathe in klippies and coke during Harvest time and that it takes a hell of a lot of good beer to make great wine.
I'd love to know how any of you prepare, of have prepared for Harvest...?