Joy Tries It: Harvesting grapes while learning about the season

A few days after visiting William Falk Farms with Joe Pillitteri, owner of Lakeview Vineyard Equipment, I received a message from my lovely friend Donna telling me I could get on the last ride of the season with her brother-in-law at the Skubel Family Farm. I had to pinch myself — there was so much more I wanted to know. Plus another ride on the harvester — yes please!

Dylan Skubel is a fourth generation farmer. He’s also assistant district chief for the Niagara-on-the-Lake fire department. Basically he’s the kid who is actually living the "what I want to be when I grow up” dream. Epic!

Dylan and I hop into the cabin of the harvester — even though it’s just my second trip I’m feeling comfortable as we take off for another day of fall picking, and talk about the grape harvest.

“We usually start harvesting at the end of July and finish by late August to the start of September. In the beginning the leaves are green and full and it’s cool to look across the field and it's just all grapevines, and then you get to this time of year and the leaves start to change colour and you see them all starting to fall off so you know that it's coming to the end of the season,” said Dylan. “The crops are still recovering from the winter damage two years ago, but I think the sugar's there and the quality is there. The winemakers seem to be really happy with the product that's coming in. So it should be a good year.”

I ask Dylan if he has any concerns about freezing grapes this late in the season and learn something I didn’t know — it’s really about protecting the leaves this time of year.

“Our goal is to keep the leaves on as long as possible,” he explains. ‘We use wind machines to keep that temperature above freezing. Once you get that first frost, the leaves will start to fall but the sugar comes from the leaves so you want to try and keep those leaves on as long as possible to make sure that you can get the sugar.”

(Scientifically speaking, learns Joy, grapes accumulate sugars as they grow on the grapevine through the translocation of sucrose molecules that are produced by photosynthesis from the leaves.)

Dylan goes on to explain the use of wind machines after the grapes are picked. “We’ll use them in the middle of winter, if it's getting too cold and we think the vines might be at risk of winter damage,” he said. “We’ll use them to circulate the air because the air at the height of the wind machine is usually three to five degrees warmer, so it will circulate that warm air down and bring some of the cold air up so the frost doesn't settle and damage the vines.”

I remember early in the season there was some frost, creating fear that we would lose the harvest. Was that ever on his mind?

“It’s rare to have a hundred per cent crop every year. I don't think that the wineries could handle that volume so to have a little bit die back and have 90 to 95 per cent remain, it’s probably the best spot to be in,” Dylan explained.

This harvester seems really high-tech, and I’m starting to wonder if AI will be a factor in our vineyards. I call Joe and ask about autonomous harvesting.

“These machines are really intuitive and easy to use,” he replied. “Once we have the settings in he's (the operator) not going to change those for the day. It's just the driving. So with a half-hour of training, you would have been able to finish the field. I'm not joking. You would have been able to finish the field without issue.”

I’m doubtful but thank Joe for his confidence in me.

In terms of autonomous self-driving, Joe explained,  “Our supplier from Cognac France, Gregoire, has developed a trademark technology called Easy Pilot Auto Steer. It uses a combination of cameras and vine sensors to sense the position of the machine and do the steering for you. Completely autonomous machines are probably trailing well behind the pace they’ve taken in things like corn and soybeans because there’s a lot of variables that still require an operator so we can’t use full GPS at this point, but the newest machines make it very easy to drive.”

I ask Dylan, from a harvesting standpoint, if local growers are lucky to have a company like Lakeview headquartered right in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

“Yes, absolutely. We’re on our third harvester now and Joe and Jesse (Willms, Joe’s business partner and Red Seal agricultural technician) or one of their staff, come out and they'll do training. They’ll  show you how to use the machine properly and they’re always a phone call away if you have any questions. Last year in the middle of icewine season, I picked one row at 2 a.m. We had a breakdown and Joe was down here right away with Mike, their service manager, trying to figure it out at minus 20 degrees. It’s just the type of person that Joe is. He's always willing to help someone out and he's just that type of business person that wants the best for his customers.”

One last question for Dylan, this one about what wine he likes. “My favourite would probably be the Jackson-Triggs Grand Reserve Pinot Noir. It's a full-body wine with a lot of good flavours in it and it's not too sweet. It pairs really nicely with a good steak.”

I’ll cheers to that!

We're sending reporter Joy Sanguedolce on assignment to try things that make Niagara-on-the-Lake unique, vibrant and fun. If you have any ideas for this series, reach out to [email protected].