Grapes coming in!

You can't believe the weather here. Absolutely stunning. Warm, sunny days and cool evenings. Harvest 2009 is shaping up to be a beauty.

SO.. Here's a look at the work involved in receiving grapes.

Step 1: You get a trailerload of beautiful Sauvignon Blanc, freshly picked...

 

You could send these grapes through a crusher/destemmer (More on that later...) or you can toss them in the press in whole bunches, which is a nice way of really getting to the pure flavor of the grapes. This is best used only on perfect fruit. Since these grapes will probably go into Vespa Bianco, we'll press them whole. (Stems also act as a sort of "drainage mesh" allowing juice to drain more easily.)

Step 2: Into the press!

Andrea is up on the trailer putting the grapes into the press. On the ground you have Ettore and Cristian waiting to rinse the grape cassettes with our home-made, hi-tech, semi-automatic hi-pressure cassette washer (TM).

Step 3: Toss the empty cassette to Ettore...

 

... And Ettore runs it through the washer...

 

and the rinsed cassettes are stacked into 3-packs...

 

...and then the clean cassettes are taken back out to the vineyards to be refilled by the pickers...