We rang in autumn with the first Waits-Mast harvest for 2018 on September 25 at Mariah Vineyards in Mendocino Ridge. After a late night pick and battling traffic from the first day of the massive Dreamforce conference, Mariah owner Dan Dooling rolled up to the winery as San Francisco’s Tuesday noon siren blared.
Mariah fruit arrives, September, 2018. Photo: J. Waits/Waits-Mast Family Cellars
Delivering the gorgeous and tasty pinot noir fruit, Dooling remarked that it was some of the best fruit he’s seen.
Winery chit chat runs the gamut during harvest and this week Jennifer enjoyed listening to and participating in debates about musical preferences. One intern complained about “frozen car BO-sounding music,” while there was also some trash talk about Warrant and Black Keys. Eventually someone was brave enough to select music for the fruit sort (daunting when you consider all of the strong opinions).
Mariah Vineyards pinot noir grapes about to be dumped on the sorting table. Photo: J. Waits/Waits-Mast Family Cellars
While discussing the merits of various sub-genres of metal music (any thoughts on Christian screamo?) we hand sorted the grapes. One of the easiest fruit sorts, with only a smattering of items that needed to be pulled out from the bins (mostly green leaves), it was a fantastic start to the Waits-Mast harvest.
Mariah Vineyards fruit on the sorting table for the first Waits-Mast fruit sort for 2018 harvest. Photo: J. Waits/Waits-Mast Family Cellars
