What We Did
and how.
For one family wine, we ordered 60 crates (called lugs), totaling 1080 lbs from our distributor in Chile, South America. The grapes all arrived in refrigerated transport on Friday, May 5th. The grapes were all moved indoors, for crushing the next day.
On Saturday, May 6th, with the help of family and friends, we crushed all of the grapes and added sulfite to kill any wild yeast and micro-organisms that may have made the trip from Chile. The 60 lugs took about 30 minutes to crush in our powered crusher-destemmer and the grape must was pumped into a fermentation tote for their 24-hour cold soak.
On Sunday, May 7th, we added yeast nutrient to ensure a good fermentation, and we inoculated the must at approximately 11am. Fermentation has already started and we will keep close eye to ensure that the yeast are happy and finishing their jobs.
A Few Pics
from the day.
