CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE- Wednesday's beautiful weather made for the perfect backdrop as local residents and visitors helped a Cape May County farm and winery finish the last picking of the 2010 wine harvest season.

Here at Natali Vineyards, it's all about lending a helping hand. "This is grape fun!" said volunteer Mary Rowe of Cape May Court House.

Rowe is just one of about 40 volunteers taking part in the vineyards last grape picking party of the harvest season. And along with the other volunteers she's become quite the expert on picking cabernet sauvignon. "If they're at the top, we simply taste them because they're usually pretty sour but now and then you find one good and sweet."

Natali Vineyards hosts these harvest parties because they believe learning hands on about how a small New Jersey farm and vineyard operates is an important lesson to experience. "Really people get to see the process and passion behind it. We do everything by hand from the vine to the wine," said Kevin M. Celli, Vineyard Manager for Natali Vineyards.

Which allows them to pick only the best grapes for their small batches of award winning wines. "We want to lean toward biodynamic farming as much as possible so while picking by hand we have the option to remove any bad berries which make the wine much better," Celli explained while cutting bunches from the vines.

And makes volunteers proud to be part of the Jersey wine making process. "It really is a good feeling…part of the earth, part of the evolution of things," said Rowe.

Anthony Scrocca of Cape May Court House said, "It's nice to pick what you're drinking as well as what you're eating…pretty cool keeping it local."

The volunteers picked eight rows of cabernet sauvignon grapes during the grape picking party. And Natali Vineyards believes this is going to be one of their best vintages yet. But the volunteers won't get to taste the fruits of their labors just yet; the juice from the grapes will age on-site in oak barrels for the next two years.