Harvest

Harvest in underway at Zenaida Cellars in a big way. Here are a few pictures of what has been happening on the back pad for the last couple of weeks. Check out the new equipment that we have added to our production line this year. Eric went through and explained what all of the equipment is and why it is important when he had a break in the action! Don't hesitate to comment with questions and we will do our best to get them answered.


Forklift with dumper, essential winery equipment. We pick our grapes directly into macrobins and then slowly, very slowly, ever so slowly dump onto the incline sorting table. Notice the aspiring winemaker in the foreground, Stella loves to help.

The sorting crew. As the grapes are dumped into the receiving hopper, they are moved along on the conveyor belt toward the de-stemmer. Crew members sort through the clusters for MOG. (Material Other than Grapes) MOG is pretty self explanatory, however we also sort for raisins, unripe clusters and other undesirables.

View showing the whole system with the final grape destination-Z bins.


More expert sorters........sorting.......sorting.


An excellent shot of the belt. The belt helps to spread out the clusters allowing for better hand sorting.

Viognier cruising along up the conveyor belt.

End of the line. The belt delivers the fruit to the de-stemmer. The first stage of sorting is complete. Grapes are removed from their stems and drop onto yet another sorting table.


Grapes, traveling on the "love machine". This sorting table moves in very small concentric circles, a gentle shaking motion, sending fruit over screens that filter out raisins, shot berries(small undeveloped grapes) as well as other bits. We hand sort here for "jacks" small pieces of stem that look like ....jacks. It's important to remove all this because... it doesn't taste good.


Grapes dropping from the de-stemmer.

Look closely at the table. You can see the two screens (darker grey squares). The bits fall into a dark scary area underneath (not shown).

Perfect grapes dropping in.

End result. The grapes, after being sorted, sorted and sorted. Sweet! Look how perfect and clean that is. This is what I like to see. Reds will be fermented in the "Z" bin, however, whites are delivered to the press for......pressing. Our lingo is really not that complicated until we design labels or compile winemakers notes. (This photo was not digitally enhanced).

Very happy winemaker, directing production from the forklift.


Loading the press for the final squeeze. The grapes are pressed and the juice is pumped to a refrigerated tank waiting inside the winery for cold settling before fermentation.




Comments

Anonymous said…
My fiance and I are Zenaida wine club members and we are going to get married at your location next year. We love your wine and wanted to know if it might be possible to get some of the stem clusters that you are removing and use them as centerpieces at our guest tables?
JO said…
Contact Jessica directly through her email on the main website and she will be able to help you out.