From Vine to Wine

Before we could break grape, I sifted through the large, white grape bins removing MOG, or Material Other Than Grape. Because machines do most of the grape harvesting, many extra items—twigs, vines, leaves, bugs—can end up in the hopper.

I took this sifting opportunity to sample some of the fruit. As a kid, wine grapes consistently disappointed me: they were much smaller than the ones from a grocery store, and their seed seemed to take up over half the flesh. When I’d inadvertently crush the seed between my teeth, a slew of bitter tasting tannins would be released in my mouth, ensuring I wouldn’t go reaching for another sample. But tasting them now is a different experience. The flavor is sweet and complex, and much less tart than traditional grapes. Packed in tight clusters, each grape tastes a little different from its neighbor and each bunch, depending on how much sun exposure or leaf cover it had, tastes different from the next.  

We had two varietals to crush that day, Chardonnay, a white grape, and Pinot Noir, a red. The flesh of both white and red grapes is white; it is the red skin that gives red wine its color. Because of this, white wine is pressed only, which squeezes the juice from the fruit, but leaves the skins, stems, and most of the seeds behind. Red wine, on the other hand, is crushed first, which keeps the color imparting skins in contact with the juice, and pressed later.

First up was the Chardonnay. My dad operated the forklift, while Jeff, the winemaker, pitched grapes into the wooden cylindrical press. After all the grapes were in, the press was closed up and turned on. The plates at the end of the cylinder moved together, gently crushing the grapes in the middle. This causes the juice to flow out slats in the bottom, and into a vat below, where it is collected and pumped into a large stainless steel tank.

Pressing is a slow process and requires a bit of finesse: you don’t want to press the grapes too much, or else you’ll crush the seeds and release tannins, making the juice bitter. However, you do want a bit of the tannic flavor, which can add some depth and complexity to the otherwise sweet juice.