Leaves in the vineyards are turning from green to red and yellow and the canes are brown and getting brittle, ready to go dormant for the winter. Grapes for sparkling, white, and light red wines are all in. Only the Cabernets still hang, ripening a little longer in the Autumn sun. Harvest season is not over, but the end is in sight. For the migrant workers who tend the vineyards and work in the wineries, this moment in time is the culmination of months of work, literally seeing the fruits of their labour, and signalling a countdown to going home. The Lake Report returned to two of the wineries we featured at the beginning of the series Heartbeat of the Harvest to sit down with some of the workers for their perspectives. Today we meet three of the workers at Chateau des Charmes. 

Three of the workers at Chateau des Charmes sit down in the warm October sunshine to talk about the season, with winemaker Amelie Boury translating.

Now that only the Cabernet grapes are left in the field, they know it’s getting close to the day they’ll be reunited with their families in Mexico.

They have been in NOTL since March 15, so by the time they leave around mid-November, they will have been away from home for eight months.

Their smiles are wide and easy, and their camaraderie with each other and with Amelie is evident in their banter. 

They say harvest time is very exciting because they see how the work they’ve done together as a team has produced a good crop, and that’s very rewarding. They say when they see how beautiful the grapes are, it gives them a sense of pride.  

But the biggest grins come when they talk of going home. The closer it is, the more it’s on their minds. Their speech is peppered with words like familia, ninos and amigos.  

Benito Velazco is the foreman: He’s Amelie’s right hand in the vineyard and he runs the press as the grapes come in.

He’s been working at Chateau des Charmes for 12 years, since 2012, about the same time that Amelie started there.

Velazco says learning about all of the different aspects of the vineyards and winery has been very interesting and it gives them all more of a feeling of not just being a worker, but a feeling of contributing in a range of meaningful ways. 

Juan Antonio Estrada has worked at the winery for seven years. He specializes in bottling and labelling. He has three kids at home: His sons are 20 and 21, his daughter 11. 

Jesus Ivan Ruiz is just finishing his second year working in Niagara. His kids are younger, a four-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. Amelie says he’s good at everything, but especially driving the tractor. 

All the men talk to their families daily, usually via video, but Ruiz says that doesn’t mean he won’t still be surprised at the changes he sees in his children when he gets home.

Velazco says the hardest part of being away is missing big life moments, some joyful, some not. Missing occasions like birthdays, celebrations, and other milestones. His daughter is 14.

Ruiz adds it’s difficult if someone at home has health problems or other issues while he’s away, because he’s just not there to help.

But they agree their big sacrifice is worth it for the gains they achieve for their families. 

Estrada is proud that he has been able to pay for his sons’ educations, and he beams when he explains that his eldest son will graduate from university in December, with a degree in business and administration.

He says he’s lucky to be able to afford a house for all of them and enough clothes to dress properly.

Velazco has been able to build an addition to his home, so that his mother can run a small convenience shop there, and he can pay for the medical support that she needs.

Ruiz talks about being able to pay for education and buy clothes for his family and fix up his house. He says if he was in Mexico year-round, he could not afford anything. If he stayed in Mexico and worked, basically it would just provide enough to eat and live from one day to the next. 

Even with their focus on going home, they share some of the things they’ve enjoyed over the past months, things like barbecues with the whole team of 20 or so people three or four times over the summer, going into Toronto to see a Blue Jays game, spending a day at the beach in Port Dalhousie, bowling, visiting Niagara Falls, eating out at Silks and shopping at the Penn Centre. 

A lot of that shopping is for things to bring home. Lots of clothing, which is better quality than they can get at home, and shoes, sometimes specific brands for the kids, like Converse or Nike.

Sometimes they buy electronics like iPads or cell phones because they’re less expensive here. They all laugh, saying they arrive with one suitcase, but leave with three.

Their plans for when they get home vary. 

When Ruiz goes home, he takes one month of vacation, and then he works in the corn fields for the next two months. He does manual labour, harvesting the corn in the mornings and husking it in the afternoons. It’s harder than working in the vineyard.

Velazco is content to spend time with his family and just do odd jobs around his home, after eight months of hard work here.

Estrada will help his father on his farm.

All of them talk of having fiestas with friends and family, to relish their favourite foods together, like barbacoa and carne asada. 

Until then, their work continues for now mostly inside the winery, where grape juice from this harvest is fermenting in huge tanks and more mature wines from previous years’ harvests are ready to be bottled.

Once the last grapes are picked and pressed, they’ll be on their way home, until the vines need their hands-on care again in March. 

Next week, Heartbeat of the Harvest continues with a visit with Oral Walters and Wayne Blake, who are from Jamaica and work at Stratus Vineyards.