The Hands That Make the Wine
The cellar workers and pickers whose names never reach the label.
The label carries the estate’s name, but the wine is made by people who rarely get mentioned: the seasonal pickers, the cellar hand who watches the ferment at 3 a.m., the bottling crew that works in a single frantic week.
We talked to several of them about pride, exhaustion, and what it feels like to drink a wine you helped make. Their answers complicate the romantic image of the lone genius winemaker.