Clockwise from top right: Pickers transfer grapes to bins to be delivered to the winery, where Stone Hill’s winemakers will eventually barrel-age Norton for at least a year.
that wasn’t being used to make fine red wines, and now it is. It’s satisfying to have played a part in the revival of Norton, and the Missouri wine industry in general.” Back in the Traminette vineyard, after eight long hours of mechanical harvesting, the crew is inching toward the final rows. I’m standing on the harvester beside R.J. Nolte, my hands wrapped tightly around one of the platform’s railings, which are much stickier now, covered in a night’s worth of grape juice. This method of harvesting might require fewer workers, but for the crew working tonight, it’s still very physically demanding. When that old field of Norton was first hand-harvested more than a century ago, the process was not much different than it is today. There’s no question that mechanical harvesting is more efficient, but from the driver’s seat, it takes just as much hard work. “I feel really privileged to be taking care of these grapes,” Pehle says. “Thinking back to 100 years ago or more when the first vineyard manager planted [those old Norton vines], and over the years, all the people who took care of them…It’s an honor for me to take care of them now and to pass them on to future generations. They could be here forever. Well past me, I’m sure.” By 6:20am dawn has broken, painting the horizon a deeply hued, soft pink-purple. Twenty-five minutes later the harvest is over, and the crew heads back toward the dirt road, our exit back to the winery. As they begin to break down the equipment and haul bins brimming with grapes onto the delivery truck, one of the grape sorters asks his coworkers if they have any cold beer.