Cutting-edge grape harvesting machine is the pick of the bunch

IT’S the latest thing in grape harvesting and a sure sign that Tasmania’s wine industry is coming of age. Normally, it takes a crew of 24 pickers up to seven hours to harvest one hectare of grapes but this $500,000 Pellenc 4680 made short work of 11ha of sparkling grapes in 20 hours at Ian Roberts’ Riversdale Estate at Cambridge recently. “The machine has cut labour costs by up to 80 per cent, it’s huge,” Roberts said.