Harvest in Maple

 Last weekend was harvest time. Harvest is a particularly special time of year,  for people who make wine. As a purely neophyte in knowing anything about winemaking, I have by serendipity fell into a totally new world  of this special art. French,  Hungarian,  and ofcourse- these days my favourite wines are made by my favourite Italian who has explained much to me about the “hows”, and I have to admit I am starting to be quite an expert as he is a wonderful teacher-this is strictly his hobby as he does have a serious day job. Well wine making is in his blood-he has a beautiful huge vineyard in Maple  Ontario- a few miles from Toronto, and it is a wonderland this time of the year-.

I see nature and the earth as an intimate romance of weather and climate that magically spawn delicious grapes literally from the ethers. I feel blessed to see how he has nurtured these grapes till now - like babies and now it as if by magic, it turns into fantastic wine. It is not as easy task and many years of experience needs to go wholeheartedly into the process. I will carry these good times, memories with me forever.

Wine also serves a loftier purpose by bringing friends and family together-during this season we have had so many fun times-his family are wonderful-my family have come up a few times and were immediately treated like family. I am so fortunate to have those I love together - in the making  and the drinking of the wine-though often the older ones are opened, not the latest ones! 

This is a glimpse of what a harvest looks like through my “rose-coloured glasses”-as a novice wine connoisseur. Maybe I shall get better with time-so I hope. Harvest time is not easy-well for me, as it is rather a new experience.  The alarm buzzing before 5.30am that does the opposite of make me want to hit the snooze and doze off a couple dozen more times-. For me, it makes we want to throw the down comforter off and jump out of bed-realizing I was already alone in bed –Gio was  gone. I walked through the hallway with its beautiful but creaky original wood floors trying not to wake anyone else, and then tip toed into the kitchen to turn on the kettle to make up a pot of fresh coffee. But-I was already pretty late, everybody was already around the table, dressed ready for work.

Looking outside was simply awesome-the trees were already changing to myriads of fall colours -and the orange sun peeked through the trees projecting  the most beautiful image  of the surroundings. It was a bit chilly in the house, as there was a little frost during the night. And-I am not used to getting up that early- 5.3o am is rather early still-the sun was hardly warming up anything yet.

–Gio`s mom was already ready with  a huge, breakfast. Scrabbled up some free-range farm fresh eggs and threw a couple of pieces of bread in the oven and a tall pile of pancakes stacked in a pile with a huge bottle of maple syrup next to it sat on the table. A fresh brew of a pot of bubbling coffee`s fragrance permeated the whole house.“It’s going to be a long, hard, hot, sun-soaked day Suzie in the vineyard and a lack of a hat, sleep and/or calories will catch up to you pretty quickly if you’re not careful”.

 I was up for the weekend, and  it does takes a couple days to get adjusted to the work-but all was worth it, and with what seems like as much wine poured at dinner as is sold by the winery during the day its hard to get to sleep on time.I am so happy of this special experience, this blessing –to witness this wonderful new world that I am privy to, and to enjoy and see nature at its best-at its glory and at its abundance of blessings of the fruits of this wonderful planet-we call earth.