Edwards Vineyard Harvest Is a Family and Friends Affair

It was daybreak on a recent Saturday as cars gathered at in Ramona. The sun began to stream over the nearby hills and down through rows of orange, gold and green leaves at the spot on Highway 78 in the Witch Creek area.

"We're getting started a little late," Beth Edwards said, as the harvesters trooped into the vineyard at 7:30 a.m.

Beth and her husband, Victor, were wrapping up the final picking of the sirah and petite sirah for 2011.

"We stayed up until midnight talking about all this and making lunch for today," Beth said.

As they moved among the rows, Beth chatted with friends about the upcoming feast: ham, as well as salads, cheeses, deviled eggs, brownies, pumpkin bread and, of course, petite sirah and cabernet from the Edwards Vineyard. The harvest was a chance to catch up with each other about the latest happenings in everyone's families.

"This group is the biggest I've seen come to the vineyard," Austin Edwards—Beth and Victor's son—said.

Beth smiled. "They're friends—and friends of friends," she said. "They come up from all over San Diego county."

Among the Ramona helpers, for example, was Kristina Griffin, owner of On the following weekend, fellow winemakers Carolyn Harris, Teri Kerns, Micole Moore and the Schweitzer family came out, along with David Sossaman, who lives nearby. It was the occasion of the cabernet harvest.

"This is the Ramona community," Victor said. "We help each other. If people are finished picking at their vineyard, they go help someone else."

Some people already knew the technique, having come for several years. They picked up latex gloves and shears from buckets by the refreshment table and meandered in among the rows. Through the leaves, they said, "Hi there, we're back again."

"Oh, hi!" Beth said, peering among the leaves. "Is that you?"

Many wore wide-brimmed straw hats, anticipating the late morning sun.

Among them was Victor, walking up and down the rows, advising volunteers on how to select the best grapes. Victor and Beth and the experienced harvesters moved swiftly through the vineyard like a swarm of locusts, filling up 5-gallon buckets and leaving them wherever there was shade.

The novices worked more slowly, learning to look for signs of unacceptable "raisining" or mold.

"Don't worry, we go over them again before they go into the crusher," Austin, 19, said.

"Austin is the family's meticulous one," Beth said, with a smile. "He helps with the chemistry, the testing and the final pruning."

Austin is now working at the winery full-time, while he decides if he wants to do this for a career.

Karl—Beth and Victor's oldest son—also works full-time at the vineyard, and is producing his first petite sirah. He smiled broadly as he offered this information.

Victor also works at the vineyard full-time.

"I haven't had a real job in years," he quipped.

Victor is a walking encyclopedia of winemaking information. He's very focused during harvest, organizing for the grapes to quickly move up the hill to the electric crusher.

"Is winemaking a passion?" Patch asked.

Apparently deep in thought, he didn't respond, but Karl quickly did.

"You bet it is!" he beamed.

Earlier in the day, out among the grapevines, Victor could be heard telling harvesters, "Next time you have a bottle of really good wine at a restaurant, you'll understand all the hard work that has gone into it."

Beth explained, "You bring it in from the vineyard the way you want it in the glass. If it's at about 25 Brix today, it will give you about 15 percent alcohol."

The Brix measurement quantifies the sugar content by weight. A measurement of 25 Bix is generally considered optimum for most table wines, according to many wine sources. Victor explained that hot days dehydrate the grapes, thereby increasing the sugar ratio.

"I shoot for 24 to 25 Brix," he said. "We had a slight frost after the rain. But then the grapes got a chance to dehydrate with the Santa Anas. The higher the sugar content, the higher the alcohol level."

But of course, the optimum grape, and its subsequent wine, are somewhat in the subjective nose and palate of the winemaker.

As Victor stands at the crusher, heaving buckets of grapes into the churning blade, he occasionally grabs a cluster and sniffs it, tastes it or turns it over in his hand. Maybe he'll approve it and toss it back into the crusher, or maybe it will go into the waste bucket.

"I'd rather make a moderate amount of great wine than a lot of mediocre wine," he said, chatting with some less experienced winemakers who had come to learn parts of the process.

"Victor is into flavors," Beth said. "He waits until the grapes have the sweet fruit flavor. He eats down the rows as we're testing them."

"You know you've picked on the right day when you go back out again after the harvest looking for some more grapes just to eat," Victor said. "Good grapes make good wine."

He explained that grapes grown in California tend to have a higher sugar content than French grapes because of all the sun. So, generally, the French alcohol content is lower than California's, at about 11 to 12 percent, he said.

The Edwards "cold soak" their grapes in tubs containing plastic bottles filled with ice. The grapes stay in the tubs for 24 to 62 hours.

"Then we inoculate them with potassium metabisulphite," Victor said. "That will kill anything left behind by bees or humans and it also kills off any naturally occurring yeasts."

Then, he said, he adds the desired amount of yeast, and then the juice that will one day be wine goes into oak barrels.

"We have about 40 oak barrels," Victor said. "Oak does magical things to wine. Some of the alcohol evaporates through the oak and that intensifies the wine. It also gives it so many different aromas."

Before leaving, this reporter decided to buy a bottle of the Edwards 2007 petite sirah.

"This was a really good year," Victor said, handing over the bottle as though he was entrusting me with it. He said it is "full bodied and will go well with roast beef, lamb or a beef stew."

Beth gave me the 2007 harvest story as she took me to a great vantage point overlooking the vineyard, leaving behind the circle of friends relaxing with their lunch under a big oak tree. The family's dog, Doc—named after Doc Holliday—snoozed next to them.

"That was the year the Witch Creek Fire went through here," she said, looking down the hill. "We were standing right on this spot and had just finished lunch when we saw the flames coming. We had barbecued that day. Thank goodness it was steak."

The fire began on a nearby property. It ultimately burned 197,990 acres and took the lives of two civilians. More than 1,600 buildings were destroyed. 

The Witch Creek Fire took out a barn on the Edwards property, Beth said, but the grapevines were spared.