Crush is nearly here!!

The end of August and the beginning of September is harvest time in the wine industry. Everyone’s hard work and dedication leads up to these next few weeks. Even the weather has not been kind to anyone’s crop this year we are still looking forward to a good harvest of mainly our red grapes.

We are just now beginning to test the grapes to check for their sugar content so that we know just the right moment to pick each glorious purple bunch. For that reason we can’t give a whole lot of notice on when exactly we are harvesting. The time has to be just right in order to make the best wine possible.

Once we bring in our harvest, the grapes go straight to the crusher/de-stemmer ( a new toy that Joey got last year). The juice, seeds, and skins are then pumped into our hydraulic press to be squeezed then pumped into one of our stainless steel tanks to begin fermentation.

Red grapes are not pressed for nearly 2 weeks. They are instead allowed to ferment on their skins to develop color and flavor before being pressed and then put in a tank to continue fermentation.

We know lots of folks may want to get some first hand experience of the Crush season at a winery. If you do, keep an eye on our Facebook page where we often call out for any volunteers.