[{"document_url": "https://www.duckhorn.com/blog/the-tools-of-harvest", "unformatted_src": "/assets/images/blog/courtney-p-blog.jpg", "src": "https://www.duckhorn.com/assets/images/blog/courtney-p-blog.jpg", "formatted_filename": "courtney p blog", "alt_text": "Courtney Preston", "rendered_width": 48, "rendered_height": 48}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.duckhorn.com/blog/the-tools-of-harvest", "unformatted_src": "/assets/client/Image/harvest/vineyard-tools.jpg", "src": "https://www.duckhorn.com/assets/client/Image/harvest/vineyard-tools.jpg", "formatted_filename": "vineyard tools", "alt_text": "Vineyard Tools"}, null, null, null, null]
August 18, 2016 | Courtney Preston

The Tools of Harvest

Harvest is such an exciting and high energy time of the year. During this time there are some very important tools that we use in order to safely and efficiently harvest all the grapes over a 2-3 month period. Here are some of the Vineyard Team's most important tools: Picking pan/lug:

This grey box is important for hand harvesting fruit. Our harvesting crews use these lugs to pick fruit into. Once they fill up one of these they dump it into a bigger bin that gets transported to the winery.

Gloves/ Safety Vest:

The cut resistant gloves and bright orange safety vest are very important for keeping the crews safe and visible!


A good pair of reliable, warm and comfortable boots make the long work hours so much easier!


The majority of our harvesting is performed at night and although we have large, overhead spotlights to make the area we are picking bright as day it still helps for the guys to have headlamps so that they can see the fruit perfectly with no shadows.

Picking knife:

This is the tool that each harvester uses to cut each cluster from the canes.


While it is our Winemaker and her taste buds who decides when the fruit is at the optimal maturity to harvest, we in the vineyards use a refractometer to run quick tests to assess if the sugar content in the fruit is at a point where it needs to be sampled more extensively by the Winemaker.
 @ Aug 18, 2016 at 10:53 AM
Cool post Courtney! Natalie da Silveira
@ Aug 18, 2016 at 11:36 AM
Wow this is awesome! Excited for harvest season! @ Aug 19, 2016 at 1:55 PM
Awesome post!!
