Grapes are harvested using a large combine that conveys them on a belt and down a chute and into a tub where workers in rain slickers throw out as much of the stems and leaves as they can grap. The long tubs are dumped into a crusher and the remaining grapes shoveled out, which begins the process of separating the juice from the grapes. The waste product is taken to a compost site by a dump truck, and will later be returned to the same fields where the grapes were grown and spread as fertilizer.

After grapes go through a pressing to extract more juice and separate out the pulp, the juice is stored in tall stainless steel fermenting tanks. Yeast and vitamins are measured out in the laboratory and added to the wine, as are bags of dextrose, a sugar, to bring the wine to the desired sweetness. When it is ready, some of the bottled product is brought to the winery store where visitors are free to sample and purchase as many of the fifteen types of wines produced by the St. James Winery as they like.

Grapes ready for harvesting hang on the vine at sunset. They will be picked in about six hours, when a crew starts work in the middle of the night in order to avoid the heat of the day.