We’ve got a Pellenc 890, this is our third season running that harvester. We’ve been using machine harvesting and machine harvested fruit for probably 25-30 years now and when they came out with the onboard sorting system, the Selectiv’ Process…that’s what really pushed us towards Pellenc. The fruit that’s coming out of that machine is very very clean there’s hardly any leaves, very few stems, and it can go right in a tank without any further processing once it gets to the winery. For us at Silver Oak that’s really important. One of the factors that caused us to buy a machine to go to machine harvesting is the ability to be able to pick when we want to pick. For us, a day or two later than we want to really makes a huge difference in fruit quality. So being able to pick the amount we want, the time we want and keep on that schedule is really important. We’ve been very satisfied with the quality of the equipment. It’s in three seasons that we’ve been running it, we’ve had just a few minor issues that got straightened out quickly. Can’t say enough about the service department, they do a great job. They’re available 24/7 and we’ve used them a couple of times at all hours of the night. We chose this machine because we think it’s the best in the industry right now.
