Pickin' Grapes and Makin' Wine

Talk about good timing.

Just when I was learning the harvesting and winemaking process in my Grapes and Wines of the World class, I actually got to go pick grapes!

A weekend or so ago, Jim and I went to his family friend's vineyard to help them harvest their grapes. They started the vineyard a couple of years ago to make their own wine.

It was a gorgeous morning--the sun was out, but it was still cool. The vineyard wasn't that big, so the work was easy. That's a good thing when you have to start at 7:30 on a Saturday morning!

Hand harvesting was all that bad. You just have to watch out for the spiders! Grape picking is glamorous, n'est pas?

Here, the grapes are in a machine that de-stems and crushes them. You just turn the hand crank on the side and the drop down into the bucket at the bottom! When we were done, they placed the crushed grapes in big food-grade plastic barrels and covered it. The skins stayed with the juice because that is where red wine gets its color and distinctive characteristic of dryness. Tannins create the "dry" sensation you feel after you drink wine and the skins are where you find the tannins.

At some point (not sure when...guess I should study a bit more, huh?) they will add sulfur dioxide to the grapes to eliminate any unwanted microbes, usually natural yeasts already found on the grapes. These wild yeasts interrupt the desired fermentation process.

Then the grapes ferment until there is no more sugar for the yeast to ferment. At this point, the skins are separated from the juice and then the wine is left to age (for red wines). The aging process helps lower the tannin level to create a more mellow wine flavor.

In this vineyard, Norton grapes are grown. Norton grapes are the state grapes of Missouri. The Columbia Daily Tribune's food section ran an article on Norton grapes and local Missouri wineries a couple of weeks ago. I know I'm excited to try it.

A lot of this information came from my class. Of course, I always want to know more than my teachers tell me, so I've been reading Wine for Dummies, and I really like it. It has a lot of information on individual grapes, wines and regions.