Winery & Grape Harvest
A working day that would have happened without you anyway.
At a glance
- Duration
- 4–6 hrs
- Season
- September and October
- Region
- Areni, Vayots Dzor
- Group
- 2–10
- Vegetarian
- yes
- Vegan
- no
- Price
- on request
Every route is put together differently — we work out the price once you ask.
Fitness
Four to six hours bent over and in the sun; crates of twelve kilos get carried.
Why these months
From November to August we advise against it: outside the harvest nothing hangs in the rows.
What to expect in Armenia
By seven the first crate at the vine is already half full, and the people who filled it have been there since half past five. Nobody greets you at length; somebody points at an empty crate, puts secateurs in your hand and goes back to their row.
The harvest runs through September and October, and the exact date is decided by a measurement rather than a calendar. A few days beforehand the winemaker walks the rows, tastes berries, measures the sugar and then names a date that can still shift by two days. That is why we give you a window for this one, and it can still move at short notice.
The work itself is quickly explained and slowly learned. Secateurs, one hand on the stem, one cut, the bunch into the bucket, rotten and green material stays on the vine. After twenty minutes you have it. After two hours you notice that the rows in Areni lie above a thousand metres and that the sun stands differently there than at home.
Your hands turn sticky and stay that way. Must dries on skin into a layer that everything sticks to — dust, leaves, wasps. Wasps are the reason full crates get carried away at once; they go for whatever is leaking on the ground.
Lunch is eaten in the yard, usually in the shade of the shed, usually too much of it. Afterwards you do not go back to the rows but down into the cellar: the morning’s grapes run across the sorting table, and there whatever you missed gets pulled out again. It is uncomfortably honest, and it is the moment most people understand why clean picking matters.
At the end you taste last year’s wine from the same cellar. The vintage you helped with will not be drinkable before next summer, and you cannot take that bottle home from here.
A full crate weighs twelve kilos. You may carry it thirty times in a morning, and the next day you know exactly which muscles were involved.
Included
- Working the harvest
- Lunch in the yard
- Cellar tour
- Tasting of the previous vintage
Not included
- Travel to Areni
- Bottle purchases
Bring
- Clothes that may take grape juice
- Hat and sun protection
- Closed shoes
We provide
- Secateurs
- Buckets and crates
- Gloves on request
Allergens
Lunch in the yard involves wheat, dairy and nuts; tell us about intolerances when you book.
Safety and weather
When the weather doesn't cooperate
The winemaker decides when picking stops, not we. Grapes picked wet carry water into the must and spoil his vintage; in rain the picking ends and the work moves into the cellar.
How we keep you safe
The secateurs are the only dangerous tool of the day and cut through a finger cleanly — they are put down closed and never into a pocket. Wasps sit in full crates and in the juice on the ground: drinks stay covered, open shoes stay at home. Anyone tasting at the end does not drive.
Sound like your kind of day?
Tell us what draws you — we'll build it into your trip or plan it on its own.