Harvest

harvest, both the process of picking ripe grapes from the vine and transferring them to the winery (or field pressing station), and its occasionally festive, if frenetic, duration.

This transition period in the winemaking cycle from vineyard to cellar is also known as vintage (crush in much of the New World), and récolte or vendange in France, vendemmia in Italy, Ernte in Germany, cosecha in Spain, vindima in the douro and colheita in the rest of Portugal.

1. Coombe, B. G., and Dry, P. R. (eds.), Viticulture, ii: Practices (Adelaide, 1992).
2. Loftus, S., Puligny-Montrachet: Journal of a Village in Burgundy (London, 1992).