Workers flock to harvest

THE annual vintage brings lots of anxiety and hard labour to Hunter vineyards and wineries and also attracts a ‘‘foreign legion’’ of workers. As vignerons battled against the rain that threatened the 2015 harvest and restricted the use of mechanical harvesters, they relied on an all-nations army that included Australian regulars and hand-pickers from Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, England, Wales, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.