The Grapes are Coming!

...And have been since early yesterday morning. Warm to hot weather over the weekend (it hit triple digits!)has ripened up the Sauv Blanc grapes, and we have been processing roughly 8 tons per day since yesterday.

The vineyard team arrives earlier than the production team, so by the time that I roll up around 7:45am, we have a full "press load" ready to go. By press load I mean enough grapes to fit in CLC's 3 ton grape press, which we actually squeeze about4 into. The grapes are in "half ton" bins (see below... bins are stacked waiting to be taken to the vineyards and filled), which hold closer to 900 lbs of Sauv Blanc grapes. Other varietals with bigger grapes and tighter clusters will actually tip the scales over half a ton.


We use a forklift to load the press, with one peron operating the fork while the other uses a shovel to endsure all of the grapes are making it into the press, and to also help level out the grapes in the press. Once shovel cannot level out the grapes, we close the lid/door on the press, rotate a couple of times, then open the lid and continue to load. Once the press is loaded, we run an automated press program, which takes roughly 2.5 hours. We pump the juice from the press into two different holding tanks through 3" hoses using an air compressor... one is referred to as "free run" juice, which is the juice that the press squeezes out up to 600 millibars of pressure. Once we hit the 600 mark, we shut the valve to the free run tank and send the >600mbar juice to the "press" tank.

(above)This is the area where we load the grapes into the press... on the left is the sorting line for reds, and on the right half of the picture is where the press is located, underneath the ladder, which is where we stand to help get the fruit through the funnel. Ill get some better pics up shortly.


Once all of the juice is pressed, we make our first additions, which always include some sulfur and Lysozyme, which work with the eachother to inhibit bacteria, or as I like to say, prevent funky stuff from happening. This is very standard in all winemaking, both recreational and commercial. Within a few days the wine will be inoculated with yeast and begin fermentation. The grapes have come a long way to get to this point, and are now truly embarking on their journey to becoming wine.