the crush

I love this time of year where I live.  I live at the very base of the Napa Valley, and I drive up into the area where grapes are grown at least once a week. 

It's harvest time.  It's this crazy science of timing where the growers are trying to choose the perfect date to harvest for maximum flavor.  We are scheduled to have a small heat wave this weekend, and tonight, as I was driving home from knitting up in the city of Napa, I could see and smell lots of activity.

There were portable flood lights set up on the hills of several vineyards, work trucks parked along the roadsides.  People moving in and out of rows of vines with big crates. And the smell....it's very unique.  It doesn't smell like wine yet, but it doesn't smell like grape juice, either.  It's something in between, and it's a very distinct odor.  The whole valley will smell like this for weeks and weeks. 

It smells like fall.