Earlier this year we visited Old World Winery in the Russian River Valley, near Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, California. We loved the wine and enjoyed the conversation with winemaker and proprieter Darek Trowbridge. And we signed up to be on the mailing list.

In early September I got the following email from the winery:

Hello Old World Community, we are calling on you to come and pick grapes, and then stomp them!

We want to get 30 people to pick and stomp, meeting early in the morning, catered lunch provided with Darek’s Prickly Pear Ice Cream to finish, and we want to do it twice, Saturday and Sunday the 12th and 13th. This will complete my harvest for 2015 so come be a part of it, we will be making memories!

Having never harvested grapes, my husband and I were intrigued by the opportunity. So the following Sunday at 6:30 a.m. we arrived at the winery in the early morning darkness. Darek greeted us, and as dawn increasingly lightened the sky, he pointed to a pink bakery box of donuts to fortify ourselves for the morning ahead and made introductions as everyone gathered.

The group complete, we carpooled a few miles east to a Syrah vineyard on a mild slope, the first of two vineyards we would pick that day. Darek briefly explained how to pick the clusters and handed out the picking trays and tools – extremely sharp curved blades for those who were experienced and less threatening small scissor-like clippers for us novices.We all chose a row and worked in pairs, one on either side of the vine. It was still very early morning – cool, calm and quiet. We heard bird songs as the soft conversation of our fellow harvesters floated around, with occasional laughter punctuating. It was actually mesmerizing to focus on clipping the clusters’ stems in the peaceful atmosphere and we had to remind ourselves to occasionally look up and around and enjoy the scenery as the day wore on.

As we moved down the row and filled a tray, Darek picked it up and brought us an empty one, minimizing our need to carry the trays ourselves to the large bins on the flatbed trailer.

By late morning, we’d completed that vineyard, and after a water and snack break in the growing heat of the day, we carpooled to the other, much smaller vineyard of hundred-year-old-plus Abouriou grapes. The process was the same and the group finished that vineyard in much less time.

Back at the winery, a forklift-driving Darek offloaded and weighed the bins full of just-harvested grapes, and the stomping began for those who wanted to participate. I preferred to watch and listen. It took quite a while for the stompers to complete the job, admitting it was a great workout and talking about how they could feel the stems and seeds as they stepped vigorously, causing a sloshing, slurping sound. Talking and laughing, people rotated in and out and worked at it for well over an hour.

At the same time, everyone enjoyed lunch and glasses of wine poured from the tasting room, sitting on the patio in the now warm early afternoon sun.

And as promised, they served Darek’s prickley pear ice cream – deep pink-purple, sweet and full of seeds from the winery’s prickly pear fruit.

It was a great day and we were very happy we participated. The fruits of our labor that morning, according to Darek, would be pressed and put into barrels by the end of the week.

We’ll be looking for that vintage in a couple of years.