Harvest at Glow Glow - 5 min with Jess

One week at Glow Glow

Have you always wanted to know what the harvest at Glow Glow looks like? Jess dared to go behind the scenes and gave us some exciting insights. For one week, she was allowed to participate in the harvest at Glow Glow together with many nice people. The result? Painful legs, an aching body, but a more than fulfilled heart!

Best pour yourself a Glow Glow Pinot Noir or Riesling and let's dive in!

The Basics for Harvest Week

8gb: What winery did you help out at, Jess? Tell me.

Jess: "I went to Glow Glow Wines in Mandel, in the Nahe region."

8gb: How long were you at Glow Glow for the harvest?

Jess: "I was there for a week from October 4-10."

8gb: How big was your harvest team?

Jess: "We were a big international group for the harvest team - about 20 people with people from all over Germany (several from Berlin!), Estonia (check out their restaurant and bakery, Ireland, England, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and the US)."

A Day in the Glow Glow Vineyards

8gb: What was a typical day?

Jess: "The harvest at Glow Glow typically begins at 6:30 a.m. with a group breakfast. At 7:45 a.m., we got in the car (or the infamous Glow Glow Range Rover) and headed out to the vineyards. Depending on the day, we harvested different varieties of grapes from the Baumbergers' various vineyards.

On the first day we started with Muskateller- my favorite grape to snack on! On other days we picked Pinot Noir, Regent, Scheurebe and Müller-Thurgau. Each grape had to be examined very carefully to ensure that the best grapes were used for the wines. The Regent was particularly tricky, as some of the grapes smelled of acetic acid (vinegar) and had to be carefully sorted out.

Around 12 o'clock we returned to the house for a delicious lunch. This was prepared by Elena and Lydia - absolute experts in the kitchen! Quite often there was a big soup that warmed us up and gave us new energy for the second half of the day."

My personal favorites were the homemade curry and all the different whipped butters during the week. For example, butter with fermented mustard seeds - sooo good!

8gb: Makes us hungry just reading it, wow! And what happened next?

Jess: "After an hour of lunch, we went back to the vineyards and continued picking and sorting the grapes. Every time we filled a bucket, someone would call out, "BUCKET!" And the buckets were emptied into a big canister attached to the tractor. Around 4pm we always took a coffee & cake break and wow, the cakes did not disappoint!"

8gb: And in the evening? What did your program look like then?

Jess: "Then we finished the harvest around 6:00 p.m. and made our way back to the Baumberger Winery. Each evening we were served a 3-course meal, with a soup, a main course and dessert. It's hard to pick a favorite dish because they were all so good, but I would say my personal favorite was the creamy polenta with corn and parmesan. I feel so spoiled after last week and can't thank Elena and Lydia enough for all the delicious food."

8gb: Now get to the wine, Jess!

Jess: "Haha, sure! For dinner, Pauline opened a selection of bottles - usually matching what we had picked during the day, or various tasting bottles from friends of Pauline and Carl, and some of the classic Baumberger wines! Also the nice people fromSelection Sauvage in Amsterdam shared some very special wines with us, like the Cabernet Franc from Pascal Lambert in Chinon as part of the Zulu Vins Project."

Wine Yoga and More

8gb: And what was particularly nice for you? Tell us about some of these moments?

Jess: "A special moment was on Thursday when we hadWine & Shine Yoga. We each filled a glass and Jenny, the yoga instructor, led us through a yoga flow while we sipped delicious wines likeWaiting for Tom Red andMarto White, just to name a few. At the end of the class, while we were in Shavasana, I opened my eyes and saw a shooting star flying across the sky. A surreal ending to a beautiful evening."

8gb: And what was a particular challenge for you?

Jess: "The biggest "challenge" for me was processing so much new information and exchanges with such a large group. Besides the physical work that my body was also not used to, there were so many interesting conversations and inspirations that after the long days it was important for me to process everything we had done and shared together!"

And Piri was very close(e)

8gb: Would you like to tell us an anecdote in closing, Jess?

Jess: "A special part of the week was our visit to Piri - just 11 km from Glow Glow. Piri is going to shake up the wine scene big time, I tell you. She showed us her wine cellar and we tasted our way through the various steps of the fermentation process: from direct-pressed grapes to several days of carbonic maceration to the first bubbling barrels in her wine cellar. And, of course, we took a few bottles to share with the entire harvest team."