Ah!  Harvest time!

At wineries around the country and the world, that means many things.

In the vineyards, owners and winemakers worry about the weather, the birds, the handling of the precious grapes.  There is a frenzy of activity as the moment of picking arrives.  The grapes must be carefully sorted, selected, de-stemmed, crushed. The juice must be properly stored and processed.  Through it all, the ordinary tasks still arise.  At the tasting room, patrons still arrive, expecting all the charm and attention they expect the rest of the year.

Some wineries find creative ways to deal with this.  At a winery here in New Jersey (Unionville), we almost signed up to spend a day helping them pick, just to see how it was done and say we had done it.  They had a complete package, with a personal tour and tasting to thank you for your free labor.  Where else can you find deals like that but in the winery business?  It sounds like something out of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn!

We didn’t sign up for that one because we had been invited to a birthday party for a friend, and didn’t think people would understand if we showed up in dirty clothes, just a bit sweaty.  Next year, we may have to duck out on the friend and head for the vineyards.

Seriously, most people we’ve talked to seem to think that would be fun.  My Saturday paper had a travel article about a family that called ahead to make sure they could spend a day picking at harvest on their recent trip to Europe.

Partly that’s because people will do just about anything if you put it to them in the right way.  Partly it is for the novelty of the thing, which allows you to steal the conversation the next time you are at a party.  But I think there’s something more to be seen and learned here.

Years ago, we drank relatively little wine, like most Americans.  Over the years, by friends and family introduced us to wine, and one day we looked around and realized we hardly ever had mixed drinks anymore, and that beer had mainly become something for football games.  Wine softly slithered into our life like a vine; one day, it was just there, a part of meals and parties and friends that seemed inescapable.

Why?  Because it brings us to a season of harvest festivals.  September and October are filled with events that celebrate wine.  You’ll find a sampling of events in the next few weeks listed below, but this is far from all there is.  Check your local winery to see what they are planning.  Visit Weekend Winery to check out their website.  Pick a weekend and have some fun – drop everything, go out into the country, be a tourist, and just have some fun.