The first step in processing each batch of fruit is destemming and crushing the fruit. When we are making a white or rosé, we then juice the grapes in the press and pump the pressed juice straight into one of our stainless steel tanks. If we are making a red wine, we pump the must (juice, grape skins, and seeds) into either an open top fermenter or a tank so we can ferment the juice with the skins. That helps us extract the color and flavors from the skins. During fermentations of red wines, we punch down the open top fermenters twice a day. When we finish the red wine fermentation, we press the wine off the skins and seeds. Meanwhile, white wine fermentations take about twice as long as the warmer red wine fermentations so we watch them carefully to make sure that the yeasts are healthy and that the fermentations are continuing.
Considering that we have nearly twenty different wines in various stages in the cellar already, it is easy to conclude that the cellar is chaotic. And, we still have more grapes to process.
