It is midday and for the last six hours winery staff across Central Otago have been flat out processing grapes from the district's largest harvest.
Music helps pass the day for workers transporting, pressing, tipping, pouring, crushing, stirring, and labelling grapes.
Most wineries in the district are processing between 40 and 100 tonnes of grapes a day, which can mean staff are on site from 6am to midnight, seven days a week.
Central Otago vineyards are expected to produce about 10,000 tonnes of grapes for production this year.
Most of it will be made into pinot noir, which is fast becoming one of the district's main exports.
Quartz Reef Winery in Cromwell owns about 25ha of vines at Bendigo, near Tarras, from which about 4.5 tonnes of grapes per hectare is expected.
Owner and director Rudi Bauer says the next few weeks will be the busiest of the year for both vineyard and winery staff as grapes ripen fast and in great quantity.
‘‘We are flat out processing pinot noir.
‘‘This week we have been starting about 6am and finishing about 6.30pm, but it is set to get busier in about two weeks, when everything ripens at the same time,'' he said.
Next door, staff at VinPro winery and the Central Otago Wine Company are also hectic.
VinPro winemaker Carol Bunn said the winery processed grapes for about 18 clients who grew vines at Gibbston, Bendigo, Pisa Moorings, Lowburn, Bannockburn, Springvale, and Earnscleugh.
Ms Bunn said 10% of this year's production had been completed in the past week and staff were gearing up for the inevitable rush when the bulk of grapes ripened.
‘‘In another week we'll be processing up to 100 tonnes a day.
‘‘The whole process of picking up all the fruit, fermenting it, and barreling it takes about eight weeks,'' she said.
Ms Bunn estimated the winery would process about 800 tonnes of grapes this season, which it had never done before.
The winery was getting close to capacity and ‘‘it's pretty much full on every day'', she said.
Nationally, the 2008 grape harvest is expected to produce a record volume of between 225,000 and 245,000 tonnes.
