Meramec Vineyards  Beginning of Harvest Report for Vintage 2010

   We started our 2010 Harvest  on Sunday, August 15 picking a small acreage of our Seyval by hand.  The birds had started their harvest the prior Thursday and were getting more than their fair share of the delicious grapes that were (obviously) ripe.  Sometimes, we feel that we should ditch the parameter measuring of brix (sugar) and acids and just follow the birds.  They know when the grapes are ready.  These white grapes are our first to ripen and the birds know where they can get a delicious grape treat as a much sought after part of their feasting.  We do our own taste test and these grapes are lovely.   This grape will become our Bistro Gold and will be part of the blend of our Celebration White and also a part of our Bistro White.

   The Cayuga White grapes were the next arrivals at our crusher station on Monday morning.  We buy some from a neighbor (hand picked in yellow lugs i.e., plastic crates) and some from another grower.  Those arrived in one ton wooden bins used with the mechanical harvester.  This is one of the few grapes we don't grow ourselves.  (We sell some of our excess Concords and Catawbas to other wineries.)   We use the Cayuga in our Celebration White and our New World White.

    When you come to the winery drive around the building and you can check out the activity on the crush pad in back.  The grape dump station is in place with its shoot positioned to the opening of the crusher destemmer "in the pit".  If we are crushing or just finished you may see a pile of grape stems on the ground where the destemmer part of that piece of equipment spit them out.  Quite a pile from several tons of grapes!.  We put these back on the farm where they compost. 

  You may see some of those yellow lugs and there might be a few big wooden and/or plastic one ton bins on the pad.  These are all visual signs that it is HARVEST time.

  The yellow Vasilin press with its catcher pan is in place.  It's the big cylindrical yellow thing. The grapes with seeds, skin and all are put in the press and then the end plates are gently brought together to press out the juice which drips from slits in the cylinder into the catcher pan underneath.  From there it is pumped into a tank. If you see "the yellow thing" rotating slowly like a tumbler then you are watching the actual pressing of the grapes.  Look for drips of juice falling from the cylinder into the pan.  That's the juice that will be wine!

    When we clean the press, we remove all the seeds and skins that remain after the juice of the grapes is pressed out.  Called pomace this is carried back to the farm where it composts.  If the press was just cleaned from its last use, you'll see some parts standing against the press and you may see some wayward seeds and skins on the ground. 

   By the way the difference in making white and red wine is that with white wine, we press the grapes first and put just the juice in the tank to ferment.  For reds we pump the grapes (skins, seeds and all) into the tank, and start fermentation "on the skins".  This allows for more extraction of color pigment and other compounds from the skins which adds to the complexity of the red wine.  At some point during the fermentation we press the red and just continue with the liquid and discard the pomace and lees.  For whites we prefer a fruitier lighter wine and so we don't ferment whites on the "skins".

  We pump the juice from the white grapes from the press into the tank in which we ferment it.  We check the sugar making sure there is the proper amount of sugar solids to make the proper percent alcohol we want to achieve.  We add sugar if needed to bring it to that level.  This is a normal and allowed winemaking practice in the USA. although in parts of the old world adding sugar is not allowed.  We taste the juice and begin our olfactory and gustatory evaluation of the future wine. 

  The fermentation is started by adding a standard yeast that we like for this particular wine grape.  Then Mother Nature is in charge.  The yeast multiplies and begins its work of metabolizing the sugars and producing alcohol with its byproduct of carbon dioxide.  (Uh oh, are we contributing to the co2 levels - hope it is not significant.  The vineyards are a carbon sink as they grow so maybe we can call it even.  Perhaps a grad student can check this out.) 

  But we digress.  The winemaking is in the "hands" of the working yeast cells.  There's foam on the top of the wine in the tank and if you put your nose up to smell there will be a tingling sensation (the co2) as well as some lovely aromas as the wine is being created.  From now on we monitor that the fermentation is proceeding well, the yeast is continuing to work, and the temperature is cool to preserve the delicate flavors and fruitiness.  When fermentation nears its end (several days up to weeks in some cases depending on the temperature of the must) we rack (that is pump it) the wine to another tank leaving behind the "lees" things that precipitate out the juice including some suspended grape pulp and dead yeast cells.  Once fermentation is complete (no sugar left) we make sure there is no oxygen in contact with the wine (or as little as possible).  That means the container is full leaving no head space.  When the wine is fermenting, the co2 protects it from oxygen as co2 is heavier than air.

   So the first of vintage 2010 is in.  (Vintage year is when the grapes were harvested - their birth date so to speak.)

   Now we're getting ready for the next grapes to come in - the Vignoles on Monday, August 23rd.  Most of the white varieties ripen earlier than the reds.  The varieties we use will be coming in every few days from now till the end of September.  The harvest is underway.