Huge Harvesters - Huge Dollars

My sampling of those very ripe, sweet juicy Sauvignon Blanc grapes is all but over. :-( .... I and the dogs took our usual walk to "Gateway Vineyard" this morning and found a collection of very impressive machinery had been positioned alongside the vineyard.
There were two tractors and hoppers and these enormous harvesters. Three of the beasts.
Hori on the left, and Ian on the right side of today's blip, explained that the vineyard is to be harvested, starting from 7.am tomorrow morning.
The guys were getting all the machinery in place today to save time tomorrow.
The three big harvesters are called Pellencs which sounded to me like "planks". I was a bit confused over the name so consulted a vineyard owner friend of ours. We then found a heap of information about the machines on the internet including a video made by Wither Hills vineyard showing one of them actually harvesting grapes. Very impressive.
The Pellenc in front is pretty well brand new..it has only had 12 hours use. It cost over half a million dollars. Just think...there were three of them standing there.
There is obviously an enormous amount of money tied up in the wine industry in Marlborough.
This particular vineyard grows for the "Villa Maria" label... another one for all you wine buffs to watch out for! "Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc 2013"
I am hoping to be up at the vineyard very early tomorrow, wearing my hi-vis vest and armed with cameras and lenses. A great opportunity to photograph these big beasts in action!
I will have to leave the dogs at home for this exercise as they could be a liability during harvesting. Their walk will have to wait....