North Stonington ― It was around 8 a.m. on Thursday when the rows of grapevines at Jonathan Edwards Winery in North Stonington started filling with the noise of voices and a running tractor.

Volunteers and staff were harvesting Cabernet Franc black grapes in the back corner of the vineyard, the last grapes at the estate to be harvested this season. Vineyard manager Christian Moore said the grapes will be used to make its 2024 Estate Cabernet Franc, which will be available in late 2025 or early 2026.

“We’ve been having community help since our first harvest in 2002” Moore said, “And we have a dedicated group of local volunteers that love to help us pick fruit.”

Cyndi Schneider, of Pawcatuck, has been volunteering for the harvests for eight years. This year, she was joined for the first time by her friend, Jennifer Roberts, of North Stonington.

“This is part of my fall now,” Schneider said as she clipped grapes from a bench she brought to the vineyard. “And one of my favorite parts.”

Karen Slawski and her husband started volunteering with the harvests when they bought a house on the same street as the winery about 20 years ago. This year they are recently retired and were able to join for a few mornings.

The self-described avid gardeners have no grapes of their own, but Slawski said they enjoy the view across the street of the vineyards.

“These harvests are such a nice social, neighborhood, community event,” she said. “Our friends are here and we get to hang out after and make some new ones too.”

As volunteers sat on stools or benches or buckets, Moore offered some advice about choosing grapes.

“We don’t want anything wrinkled or covered in that white fuzz,” he said.

A tractor slowly traveled through the rows of vines when the volunteers were done picking. Staff members then picked up the buckets full of grapes and dumped them into the back.

Rosie Korten of North Stonington started coming to the vineyard when she moved here from Florida about three years ago.

“When we were looking at homes I remember getting excited ‘Oh there’s a winery nearby’ ” she recalled.

Soon after she and her family moved to town, Korten volunteered to harvest, and credits that work as helping her build a sense of community and make connections in a new place.

“I’ve met friends, neighbors, the first selectman, all right here,” she said. “Early in the morning with pruners in our hands - and a glass of wine after.”

Volunteers are typically treated to wine and pizza after their stint in the grape rows while staffers start the process of removing the stems and pressing the fruit into juice. After the grapes are fermented and crushed with skin and seeds, they are then aged in oak barrels until they are ready to be bottled, said Moore.

“We’ve had a beautiful harvest this year,” Moore said. “We’re going to be enjoying lots of excellent wine from 2024 in years to come.”

s.gordon@theday.com