The business of Wine Country is never more evident than at this time of year, when summer slides into fall and the activity that takes the noble grape and begins the process that, in a few months or, more likely, a few years, will turn it into special bottles of wine. It is inescapable, a benign result on all your senses, from visual to olfactory and beyond. It is what makes the valleys and hilltops hum, what makes the whole wine-drinking world focus on the harvest, the crush.

No matter what crop you raise, be it corn or cauliflower, beets or soy beans, the harvest is a critical time. A turn in the weather, like what happened in northern California in 1989, for instance, can have a great effect. With other crops the effect can be instantaneous, but there are always crops of the same kind growing somewhere else. If you lose the alfalfa crop in part of Kansas there is always alfalfa in Nebraska. If something happens to the grapes on Mount Veeder or in Dry Creek, then that is it for the year, for the vintage.

There is always a mix of urgency, anticipation and concern at this time of year. Some visitors always wonder why there are not harvest festivals on every street corner during crush. The answer is simple. Everyone is too busy going about the everyday, and sometimes 24 hour a day, business of harvesting grapes and making wine. The celebrations have to wait for a calmer time; when the wine is safely tucked away in barrels and tanks, then there will be plenty of time for big celebrations. Now is the time for smaller, more personal ones.

If you are visiting at this special time of year, take the time to find a winery where they’re crushing, when the grapes are coming in from the vineyards and the mechanical part of the process begins. That is when all of your senses are really assaulted, as trucks and men move quickly, the presses and the crusher destemmer do their work, when pipes and hoses cross this way and that. If you haven’t smelled the sticky sweet smell of grapes being crushed, you can’t fully appreciate the finished product. Nature has played her hand, now it is up to the winemaker to craft the raw product into the finished. Weather doesn’t matter now. It is all up to experience, intuition, knowledge and still, perhaps, a bit of luck here and there.

This is the time of year when the Farmers Markets that are in every county and in almost every town are the most fascinating. At no other times is there such bounty evident. Restaurants and cafes from Fort Bragg and Hopland to Santa Rosa and Rutherford have daily specials that reflect the items that are showing up in the markets, or in their own gardens. So even if you are traveling you can share in the harvest. And if you’re driving home later, there is no reason you can’t pack up a cooler or basket with local herbs, plums, cherries and a bunch or two of flowers and take it along with you. It’s one simple, easy and remarkably inexpensive way to make your visit to Wine Country last a little longer.

Enjoy your visit in Wine Country, appreciate the work that goes into making every bottle of wine you take home with you, order in a restaurant or find on the store shelf. There is an old saying that wine is part farming, part art and part luck. During crush you will find that it also a lot of hard work. But, as millions of people who enjoy the wines of northern California’s finest vineyards will agree, it’s worth it.