UNION — Elmer and Holly Savage owners of Savage Oaks Winery, in Union, hosted their Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 1, to give the general public a chance to experience the harvesting of grapes that will be made into wine. The most important part of picking grapes is waiting until the right moment; but, how do you know when the right moment is?

"The number one factor is when they taste right,” said Elmer. “The sugar content is important because the sugar content is what determines the alcohol the grape will produce. The third component is the acid content of the grape. As the sugar goes up, the acid comes down.”

That balance is what determines picking time.

Savage Oaks grows 10 varieties of grapes, all cold-hardy, hybrids.

"They can survive the winters in Maine and they are also short season varieties because we don't really have a long growing season," said Elmer.

Is it important to get the grapes in before the first frost?

"Maybe not the very first frost," he said. "They get soft once they are hit with a bit of frost, so we have to hustle a little bit once we do get frost."

The vineyard will produce 15 to 20 types of wine with the harvest, including blueberry wine that is made with fruit from its own blueberry fields.

George's River is the winery's most popular white wine. The wine is produced from the Cayuga fruit. It retains good balance and structure producing a wine similar to a Riesling.

"Barn Red is our dry red wine and that's our most popular," said Elmer.

The Grape Harvest Festival is an open invitation to customers and guests to help pick the crop.

 "We begin about 9 a.m.,” said Elmer. “It's not a stressful day. We usually pick our Cayuga grapes that morning, but they’re not quite ready, so we're picking some of the other grapes. Once the grapes are picked we start crushing and pressing and that's always fun to see."

It's not large wooden tubs with barefoot women dancing around inside crushing grapes. It's done by machine.

"We usually have a lot of grapes by the time we're ready to start pressing," he said. "We're crushing and pressing like mad trying to keep up with all the pickers. People watch the grapes turn into juice and start the fermentation process.”

Anybody who picks can enjoy a burger on the vineyard. Lunch is included, sort of the fruits of your labor.

"It's something not many people have done," said Elmer. "It's a pretty fun day, a relaxed day. It's not difficult. We have shears to cut the bunches off and we give them a little bit of instruction."

Savage Oaks Winery comprises a 95-acre farm.

"We have 15 acres of wild blueberries," Savage said. "We have three and a half acres of grapes, plus beef cattle on pasture lands and hay fields, so it's about 95 acres all together."

The winery gets a break from the vineyard during the winter, but come spring things start to get busy.

"As soon as we lose a little bit of snow, we start pruning back the vines," he said. "It takes about a month's time. We get bud break around the first or second week of May and that's when the growth starts and it happens very quickly. It's a lot of labor. There are a lot of functions that need to be done during the summer. Grapes are very labor intensive."

Fungal diseases are the biggest factor in growing grapes.

"Cultural practices have a lot to do with it," he said. "Moisture is what brings on those diseases, so if you keep a lot of open space under your canopy, so you keep a lot of airflow that keeps your vines dry. We use organic sprays if the conditions are okay. This year was a good year because it was nice and dry. The grapes like this kind of dry, hot weather. Fungal diseases were not a big issue."

Neither were bugs, but turkeys said Elmer can be a problem.

"The Japanese Beetles were not bad this year," he said. "Turkeys can be a real problems and we take measures to ward them off. Deer aren't so bad, but they are around. We have coyotes too. They don't like grapes, but they do like deer."

Savage said it looks as though the harvest this year will be superb.

"Again, this dry weather is what's needed for a good quality grape," he said. "The volume is right up there, a little above average. It's a little less then it was last year, but the quality really makes up the difference. Probably the best quality grapes we've ever had."