On Sunday, we started harvesting Edelweiss and on Monday, we started processing these grapes. Processing involves: weighing in the grapes; running them through the destemmer-crusher; pressing off the juice; and pumping the juice into the tank in which it will be fermented. We can do all of the processing steps regardless of the weather so in spite of the fact that it was soggy on Monday, we made good progress.
The bottleneck in processing fruit that will be used for white or rosé wines is pressing. We can press a little less than 4 tons in a 2.25 hour cycle. In a long ten hour day, we will handle four press cycles and then clean up. This means that we can press about 16 tons per day. This should result in about 2,500 gallons of juice per day. We may be working on Edelweiss only for the next 4–5 days!
These grapes will be used to make Iowa White Blossom, Iowa Edelweiss, Star Spangled White®, and Oskyfizzante® Iowa White.
Meanwhile, we are continually sampling and testing other grape varieties to determine which grapes we will harvest next. And, we will be monitoring fermentation on the Brianna.
