Crew 4
One van
Four, for Canopy Half Days
The smallest crew we send, and the canopy minimum: four workers for a four-hour half day, €296. About half a hectare of shoot thinning in a morning.
Canopy rates§4.1History · Since 2008
How It Started, on a Parcel Near Fuenmayor
Marta grew up on her family's Tempranillo near Fuenmayor. She pruned it for ten winters. By the end of them, every neighbour on the track had asked her to come and do theirs next.
In 2008 she said yes properly. Three pruners, one van, and a list of parcels short enough to fit on one page.
Every season since, the work still arrives the way it always has. One grower tells another over the fence. This is the first time the crew has had a website, so if you found us here rather than at the bar in the village, write and say hello.
- Season one · 2008
- Three pruners and one van, working parcels within an easy drive of Fuenmayor.
- Winter crew now
- Fourteen regulars, pruning from December to March.
- Harvest crew now
- Up to twenty-four pickers, mid September to late October.
- Where we go
- Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and the near end of Rioja Oriental, up to 90 km from Logroño.
- Who books us
- Family growers and small bodegas with 1 to 25 hectares of their own, short of hands in the busy weeks.
§4.2People · Leads and crews
Who Comes Out to Your Parcel
Fourteen regulars in winter. Up to twenty-four at harvest. Most of them have been on these rows with us for years.
Every crew has a lead, and every lead has done at least five seasons with us. The lead walks the day's rows with you when the van pulls in, carries the tally clicker, and is the one who stops work for rain, frost below minus 4°C or afternoon heat over 36°C. Stopped hours are not charged.
Everyone on the crew is paid by the hour, not by the vine. Paying by the vine makes people fast. Paying by the hour lets them leave two clean buds on every spur, which is the whole point. You can read what the crew does to each vine in Report 02.
In winter we start at 8:00, stop for almuerzo at 10:30 and finish at 15:30. From June to August it is 7:00 to 14:30. Never on a Sunday.
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Crew 8
One van
Eight, the Usual Size
Most jobs. About 2,400 trellised vines pruned a day, or 1,600 bush vines. One full day with eight pickers is also the harvest minimum.
Output per crew -
Crew 12
Two vans
Twelve, for Tight Weeks
Larger parcels and short windows. A van carries nine, so twelve means two vans, and past 40 km from Logroño travel is counted for each.
Travel table
§4.3Calendar · January to December
The Year, Month by Month
Twelve months on Rioja parcels, in the order the crew lives them. If you want us in a given month, the booking date is usually one or two months above it.
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01
January Pruning · Frost mornings
Back in the rows on 7 January. Frost on the wires most mornings. Below minus 4°C the lead holds the crew in the van until it lifts.
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02
February Pruning · Tying down
The longest pruning weeks. On Guyot parcels the canes are tied down behind the pruners, and the hill parcels of old bush vines get their turn.
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03
March Last pruning · Wood out
Last of the cutting, and the cut wood pulled out of the rows. March slots go on shorter notice, if we have them.
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04
April Booking canopy
Budburst, and the parcel walks for summer. Canopy work for May to July should be booked by 15 April.
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05
May Canopy · Thinning
Shoot thinning and desuckering the trunks, in crews of 4, 8 or 12, charged by the worker-hour.
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06
June Canopy · Summer hours
Summer hours start: 7:00 to 14:30. Leaves pulled on the morning side only, and the wires lifted as the shoots climb.
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07
July Topping · Harvest booking
Topping by hand, and work stopped when the afternoon goes over 36°C. Harvest week windows should be booked by 31 July.
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08
August Waiting on the grapes
Pickers confirmed for each booked window. The 20% harvest deposit is refunded in full if you cancel before 1 September.
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09
September San Mateo · First Garnacha
San Mateo week in Logroño, then the first Garnacha. The exact picking day is fixed 3 to 5 days ahead, once you have your sugar readings.
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10
October Harvest · Last crates
Monday to Saturday in the rows, never Sunday. The last crates go onto the grower's trailer at the row end, and that is where we stop.
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11
November Closed · Mend the van
Closed 3 to 17 November. The van goes in for mending. From the 18th we walk parcels for winter, and pruning should be booked by 30 November. Marta's closure note says the rest.
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12
December Pruning starts again
Secateurs sharpened, tape on the handles, first cuts of the winter. Closed again from 24 December to 6 January.
§4.4Field note · Badarán
A Job We Still Talk About
- 1Trunk, planted 1931
- 2Arm
- 3Two buds kept
- 4Cut wood removed
V-04 Garnacha · Vaso · Badarán · February
Field note · Told at almuerzo
The one we still talk about at almuerzo is a Garnacha parcel above Badarán, planted in 1931 on a slope so steep we passed the cut wood down by hand. Four February days, two buds on every spur, nothing rushed. The grower's family still works it, and every spring the shoots come out even.
Vines planted before 1970 are never priced off a sheet. We walk the parcel first and price it by the parcel, because a hillside of ninety-year-old vaso takes the time it takes.