Any thoughts on what are some of the best machine harvested (wholly or significant majority) wines.
Also the most expensive.
1 Like
Very interesting questions though I have no answers. It’s hard to know which wines are machine harvested, that information isn’t usually provided but sometimes importer sheets can just say it and you’re like, oh, ok who knew.
What is the most expensive machine harvested wine? I’d love to know any of the contenders if we can find that information. Sorry I have no info.
1 Like
This is a tough one - quality and machine-harvested don’t normally appear in the same sentence today!
In Bordeaux the only properties I can think of are the Quié stable, so Rauzan-Gassies and Croizet-Bages, along with, I imagine, Bel Air Tronquoy de Lalande, none of which would figure highly on anyone’s list of top châteaux, although to be fair I’ve had some really good Rauzan-Gassies 2000 and 2001 over the years.
Elsewhere I have no idea.
Some of the Lurton stable from Pessac Leognan are machine harvested. As is Larose Trintaudon. Quality is fairly good.
I recently took WSET 2 (was fun!) and one of the curious points that they insist upon is that machine-harvested grapes can produce just as fine a wine as hand-picked.
I feel that this is probably true but a bit disingenuous to state so directly. The operative word is “can”.
We know that many of the world’s best vineyards are on perilous slopes or just simply not designed for the requirements of machine harvesting. Further, perhaps there is something about the constraints that machine harvesting requires (spacing, canopy management, training regime) as well as artifacts of the operation itself (soil compaction?) that affects quality.
So given a vineyard that is planted in such a way to enable machine harvesting, would there be much of a qualitative difference in the finished product if hand harvested? Probably not. But these are likely not the wines we all seek out. But to be fair, there are probably plenty mid level and everyday wines where it makes no appreciable difference.
Anyway, also interested in hearing about any high quality examples
3 Likes
Can’t wait to hear everyone’s opinions on this
2 Likes
Can you even make bad wine from Bien Nacido fruit? That vineyard is huge and I think they utilize machines instead of pickers there.
This is purely speculation, so someone more knowledgeable please feel free to correct me but I have to imagine a lot of the grapes in NZ are machine harvested, given the smallness of the country and the tightness of the labor market there.
4 Likes
Back in the 70s Trefethen won a big tasting held by Gault et Milau.
Machine harvested chardonnay.
I remember watching a demonstration of a mechanical harvester in Volnay in the early 80s. I asked Gerard Potel what he thought. He was impressed, pointed out that his pickers–mostly students given to drunken orgies-- the people they got missed a lot as well. Working a mechanical harvester on hillsides is not easy.
Back when Obama was President,ICE audited many companies in wine country.Various documents were found to be false, so lots of workers got sent south.The result??Wages went up fifty per cent. I think this was an incentive to invest in machinery.
Someone with deeper regional knowledge would be able to call out which vineyards/ farmers machine harvest. In general, I associate machine harvesting with high trellising and expensive farm labour. Typically in more northerly, or high altitude, regions. Machine harvesting is also friendly to night harvesting, which I associate with fresh, fruit forward wines. But it’s also useful when there’s a risk of imminent bad weather (Bordeaux). Also associate with varieties whose grapes ripen simultaneously (so not quality Chenin Blanc, for example). Obviously, also not useful for whole bunch or noble rot harvesting unless there are some super duper AI powered machines out there. A sign of quality machine harvesting would be the accompaniment of fastidious sorting. .
1 Like
Came here to say this. A lot of NZ and AUS wines are machine harvested. I am sure there are many examples of high quality and higher priced wines from these regions
Correction, meant latitude, not altitude (obviously).
Interesting way to frame that
1 Like
I just wanted to give a time frame.
As I recall, that is true in Australia, too, because labor isn’t plentiful. Also, I don’t think there are many steep hillside vineyards, but I could be wrong.
1 Like
A true Berserker question.
3 Likes
Grand Cru Chablis?
I wonder if anyone has experimented with vinifying and bottling two batches from the same harvest - one machine-picked and the other hand-picked - to see if it makes a difference.
(Drifting the thread here slightly)
1 Like
It is true that some of the Vineyard is machine picked, but I’m guessing that most of the wines that you will find here on WB or not.
Cheers
1 Like
From what I’ve heard, there are vineyards in Burgundy that are machine picked. Obviously not grand crew but some of the village stuff most likely is.
This is an interesting question but one that is very difficult to ascertain as most wineries don’t talk about how they pick their grapes. And the assumption will be that if they do not mention it, it is handpicked 
Cheers