Joy tries it: Reporter drives a grape harvester

When I pitched a new series idea to The Local, I didn’t think I’d be where I was last week: 14 feet high on a $600,000 mighty machine, picking grapes on one of the last days of the 2024 harvest.

The concept of the series is simple: to try the things that make Niagara-on-the-Lake unique, vibrant and fun, shining a light on all that's amazing right here in our backyard.

Somewhere on the list was ‘drive a harvester’ — yes, the hulking machine we see in the fields every fall when the days are bright and the sun is rising. My idea was that by next harvest I’d find a farmer willing to let me try it out. I’d have the time to research, study, and gain the trust of a grape grower who would allow an ex-Toronto city girl to hop aboard.

Well, things don’t always work as planned — sometimes the stars align and they work out better. The star that entered my orbit was Joe Pillitteri, a beloved local legend and the owner of Lakeview Vineyard Equipment.

The result of a quick phone call was a meeting at William Falk Farms an hour later with Joe and Trevor Falk, who was harvesting that day. “I’ll get you picking grapes before my tee time,” Joe said, while providing an opportunity to experience and learn about the 2024 Niagara-on-the-Lake harvest aboard a 18,000 lb. harvester on a sunny Friday morning in November.

Frank is the main operator on this day, and I’m riding shotgun, with Joe in the third seat, which is not really a seat but more like the bench on a Zamboni.

The first thing Frank did was turn on all the belts, the fans and the cleaning system. By the end of the first row I’m in the driver’s seat — I wasn’t expecting that. Let’s go!

We’re up high and the view is spectacular. Today we are picking Cabernet Sauvignon, a French grape known to transform into a world-recognized, full-bodied, dry, high tannin red wine. Sante!

The cabin of a harvester puts you 14 feet (4.3 metres) above the ground and we’re travelling at 4.5 km/hr down a row of grapevines. At this speed I’m picking around three acres an hour. ”If you were picking these grapes by hand, it would be between 100 to 150 people to try and pick at this rate,” explained Joe.

So why do people still hand-pick?

”If their farms are small, they can't really justify the capital expenditure, but we're in a market now where we've sold equipment in the United States to people with as little as four acres, because there just aren't people to do this work. This is a brand new machine. This is a significant investment, so they might go with a smaller used machine, but really 95 percent of the fruit in Ontario is picked by machine for table grapes, or for a regular table wine. There's some select reserve wine where there's still the belief that it's better (to hand-pick), but everything that we know about grapes and wine now tells us that subjectively or objectively, the quality of wine is as good or better with machine-picked fruit than it is with hand-picked fruit.”

“Some of the best wines in the world rating-wise are machine-picked,” Joe continued. “We've sold equipment in Napa Valley, where they're harvesting grapes that are going into a $110 bottle of wine, and they are machine -picked. They don't necessarily advertise it, but it is a  really necessary part of our industry now.”

How does one become a harvester?

“Well, in Frank's case, he was born into it. The thing with this job is you have to be a good operator, so you have to understand the equipment. Frank understands the farm, he understands what he's looking for in the bin. Frank can look at what's inside the bin and look at what's left on the vine and say, I need to increase the picking head speed or I need to increase my ground speed or increase my fan speed, He knows that.”

“An operator understands every input and output that goes into what they're trying to do here,” Joe added. “It also helps if you're a nice person, and Frank's a really nice person.”

I can attest to that. Frank had his son working alongside on this day and you could see that they were genuine and passionate about the work.

When asked about what the 2024 vintage will be known for, Joe said it’s looking good. “The weather's been exemplary. This harvest, the yields are down slightly, but the quality is going to be exceptional, so everything was ripened to perfection or beyond. The grapes are just at the point where they're a little dehydrated, and a winemaker would say that the character of the fruit really comes out in those situations. So in 2024, by all predictions it is going to be outstanding.”

From what I’ve been told, 2020 is the vintage to beat. Any chance with 2024?

“It’s always in the bottle, but it has the same characteristics to be as good as any year we've ever had here,” said Joe.

Outstanding!

Next, I’ll continue the conversation with Joe and share details about my ride along with Dylan Skubel from Skubel Family Farms. His insight into the wine industry in NOTL is fascinating. Stay tuned.