This when the fun begins....
Friends and family are invited to this annual two-part event, and everyone arrives around 10:00am. Before they arrive I take care of the finishing touches in setting up the staging area.
Once the crew arrives, the first step is to sanitize the crusher, barrels and buckets. I use a product called One-Step... a percarbonate cleaner that uses oxygen as a catalyst. I've found it to be quite effective and it needs no rinsing... but I rinse anyway. ;-)
Once everything is clean we are ready to rock 'n' roll. Grape cases are divvied up according to each 55 gal drum... two for table wine and two for Merlot. Everyone then gathers around the table and goes through the cases, picking out leaves, errant vine pieces and any fruit that shows signs of mold.
Buckets of sorted grapes are carried over to the raised barrel platform and poured into the crusher's hopper. The crusher actually squeezes the grapes just hard enough to break the skin.
Halfway through the process the traditional espresso break with homemade biscotti happens.....
The crushing continues until all four drums are filled and wiped clean on the inside above the grape must. Pre-fermentation specific gravity and temperature are measured and recorded for each drum.
The drums are then covered with moving blankets to retain heat during primary fermentation. A portable heater is plugged in and set to 80 degrees F along with a fan to circulate the room air for an even temp in the unheated garage. Finally my CO2 monitor is set up to warn me of elevated levels as primary fermentation progresses.
When the work is done we sit down for a traditional Italian meal and talk about wine .
