Beaujolais Villages trials mechanical harvesting

The traditional harvest is by hand in Beaujolais but since 2004 it has been allowed to harvest by machine in AOC Beaujolais. This year a new experiment is launched to also use mechanical harvest for AOC Beaujolais Villages and Cru. Mechanical harvest is generally more cost effective and can produce at least as good results as manual harvest – if done properly. One difficulty is that vines trained in e.g. Gobelet (as is the tradition in Beaujolais) cannot be harvested with machine. The vines have to be “re-trained” in e.g. Guyot, which is not a small task. vitisphere.com