Grapes fresh from the vine - Vol. 2

The Riesling needs harvesting, and I'm one of the party again.

Back in the vineyard

Karoly already asked for help with the Riesling harvest during the Zengő harvest in August. And of course I instantly offered - harvesting grapes is a lot of fun, especially when in good company.

The Riesling parcel is bigger than the one of the Zengő grapes - but we are more people, too. Karoly's family from Eastern Hungary, close to the Romanian border, came for this reason only.

We start an hour later than in August, the sun rises later, too, and the weather is surprisingly different already. While we sweat in the early morning during the last time we are now shivering in the strong and cold wind whenever we stop moving around for more than a minute or two.

During the joint breakfast a school of starlings is gathering above the vineyard and we watch them with their wild dance in the wind.

Working is in pairs again, so there is a helper on both sides of the vines, which helps getting to all the grapes in the most efficient way.

Even with nearly twice the amount of helping hands in comparison to the Zengő harvest we work till deep in the afternoon - the grapes are loaded around 15:00 and we are all looking forward to the late lunch.

We eat Pörkölt, a traditional Hungarian meat dish with potatoes and egg noodles.

The last Riesling of 2017 is used to toast to the successful end of the harvesting day - and then I'm already on my way back to Vereb, where I will meet later with Sebastian and Ayse to visit a Hungarian Folk Music festival in Martonvásár. But that's a story for another day.