Written by In the last couple of months, I’ve changed sceneries. Trading up the bustling streets of Adelaide and night work for rolling hills covered in vineyards. That’s right, I’m working at a winery. I’m not the one getting up at all hours of the morning and getting my hands too dirty, but I’m working in the cellar door and fine dining restaurant. Maxwell Wines is a family owned winery in McLaren Vale, a region in South Australia, that draws many tourists, wine lovers and enthusiasts, sommeliers, wine makers and everyone else in between. The property is roughly one hundred acres and is also home to the famous Maxwell Mead (FYI fermented honey).
As a staff bonding/learning experience, Mark Maxwell invited all of the staff to come out at dawn to handpick a couple rows of tempranillo. I was so excited the night before that I couldn’t even sleep properly. It was lovely getting up early and driving through the Adelaide Hills with the sun rising in my rearview mirror, creating sprays of hot pink and orange across the sweeping sky. Fortunately it was still cool, surprising after the extreme heat that had pushed itself over South Australia for the last week. I was handed a bucket and a pair of fluorescent orange clippers and got to work. The leaves were bulging from the branches. I hadn’t realised how big these crops were, I couldn’t see over the top. I poked my hands through the greenery looking for bunches of tempranillo. Unfortunately, birds and heat had already gotten to a lot of the fruit, but we persevered.
Once the buckets had been collected, we reconvened back at the winery. After some well earn’t bacon and egg wraps and black coffee, we were able to see the grapes be sorted from it’s stems and other debris, then pumped to a separate container where they soon would be crushed.
I’m very excited to taste the finished product. Check out some photos from the morning:
