Pic of the Vine - October 2016

Harvest season: part choreography, part critical response as winemaking teams throughout the state juggle grape delivery with sorting, crushing and storing. Resident photographer Richard Duval spent weeks on the road from Chelan to the Columbia River Gorge, capturing the frenzy and the joy of harvest.

A stop at the Gorge’s Syncline Winery - a working farm and winery - offered Duval the chance to capture winemaker James Mantone and his team crushing Boushey Vineyard Syrah – one of Syncline’s signature wines. “Endless hours on the crush pad underscore the tending of critical details as grapes go to wine,” Duval noted. “As a winemaker, Mantone is both artist and scientist, relentlessly focused on instilling what he calls ‘nerviness’ into his wines. It’s work – physical, mental work – but the results are pure magic.”

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