By the time I arrived at 11 a.m., about 20 volunteers had been at work for around four hours. It's not an all-day assignment, though. Though a few Virginia vineyards have turned to mechanical harvesters, the vast majority still use human labor to harvest the grapes. In a bad year, when you've got some rot or problems in the vineyard, you can tell a hand harvester not to pick the grapes. But you can't tell an automatic harvester that.
Harvesters begin at opposite ends of a row in groups of two and work toward the middle.
Using special pruning clippers, they move along slowly, pulling back the foliage, clipping the ripest fruit and loading it into shallow plastic crates called lugs. Each lug carries about 30 pounds of grapes. Parker supervises the volunteers, walking swiftly up and down the rows, pointing out clusters to toss and to keep. The cutting process is very close, careful work. But snacking is permitted.