SOUTH &
EAST GRAPE
HARVESTING
was established in 2023, and is made up of three partners who combine to offer a service of unbeatable experience and expertise.
Our Harvesting Operation
We operate a self propelled New Holland Braud 9090L harvester.
On-board Auto-Dosing Of SO2 solution:
The harvester is fitted with an auto-dosing unit for liquid sulphur dioxide. This enables the anti-oxidising agent to be added gradually to the grapes as they enter the machine, rather than as a single addition made manually prior to the grape receival bin being filled. This results in an even distribution of anti-oxidant throughout the entire batch of grapes – and berries being treated with anti-oxidant as soon as they arrive in the receival bin.
The Most Gentle Harvester For Young & Old Grapevines.
The New Holland Braud system has two unique design characteristics, acknowledged universally by winemakers, which protect the grapevine from physical damages that can occur with other designs of machine harvester. This makes it especially well suited to harvesting in young vineyards as well as with older vines.
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Noria cup system – soft, flexible, polyurethane baskets which move around the vine trunk without causing any physical abrasions that can happen with other mechanical harvesting systems. The interlocking design works so that no grapes are able to fall onto the ground. This system is unique to the New Holland Braud harvesters and has been the benchmark for harvesting quality since it’s inception in 1979.
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Suspended harvester head – the harvesting head is suspended from the chassis on chains, ensuring that it remains in vertical alignment with the grapevines at all times. This avoids the rubbing than can occur with a harvester head that is integrated into the chassis of the tractor unit when operating on uneven ground.
Noria system
Volker Scheu
has over thirty five years experience as a winegrower and producer in the Rheinhessen region of south west Germany. He has been a key figure in the establishment of new vineyards in England for twenty years, having been the first contractor to offer GPS guided vineyard planting back in 2006.
Duncan McNeill
has twenty four years of experience as a viticulturist, having trained and worked in New Zealand between 2001-2004, followed by a year working in the Rheinpfalz region of south west Germany and returning to England in 2006 where he settled in Essex. Since then he has provided training workshops, consultancy advice to the UK wine industry and set up his own vineyard management business in 2011 which has overseen the development of the Crouch Valley winegrowing region in southern Essex.
Mikey Hollington
has been involved in agriculture all of his working life, grows grapes on ninety acres of his own family’s vineyards and now runs his own vineyard machinery contracting business, providing the full range of tractor operations in vineyards throughout the whole of Essex. Working closely with Duncan McNeill and a number of other vineyard owners, Mikey currently operates his machinery across more than 600 acres of vineyards across the region.
About Us
The Most Gentle Handling Of Grapes:
The side discharge mechanism for unloading grapes on our harvester ensures that any damage to grape skins is kept to a fraction of that which occurs with ‘rear tip’ mechanisms, which are used on the majority of other harvesters.
Rear tipping grape discharge can cause excessive damage to grape skins (with greater juicing) due to the ‘rush’ of grapes via gravity when being tipped vertically out of the hopper.
With ‘side discharge’ the grapes are not released via gravity, but are horizontally released via a conveyor.
Feedback received from our winery clients since our launch, confirms that the condition of the fruit upon arrival at the winery is far superior than with other harvesting systems in use.
We operate a self propelled New Holland Braud 9090L harvester.
On-board Auto-Dosing Of SO2 solution:
The harvester is fitted with an auto-dosing unit for liquid sulphur dioxide. This enables the anti-oxidising agent to be added gradually to the grapes as they enter the machine, rather than as a single addition made manually prior to the grape receival bin being filled. This results in an even distribution of anti-oxidant throughout the entire batch of grapes – and berries being treated with anti-oxidant as soon as they arrive in the receival bin.
Our Harvesting Operation
We operate a self propelled New Holland Braud 9090L harvester.
On-board Auto-Dosing Of SO2 solution:
The harvester is fitted with an auto-dosing unit for liquid sulphur dioxide. This enables the anti-oxidising agent to be added gradually to the grapes as they enter the machine, rather than as a single addition made manually prior to the grape receival bin being filled. This results in an even distribution of anti-oxidant throughout the entire batch of grapes – and berries being treated with anti-oxidant as soon as they arrive in the receival bin.
Our Harvesting Operation
Gallery
