It all starts with grapes. Okay…It starts with the vine but for today’s blog we are starting at the grapes.
As do many vineyards, Finca Viladellops not only grow grapes for their own production of wines but they also sell grapes to other wineries. They sell the grapes whole or they perform the process of squeezing the juice and selling that to other wineries.
The pictures below show the process for grapes that are going to be sold as juice to a winery.
The grapes are picked and then placed in cold storage until ready to be pressed. Here they are removing the grapes from the cold storage unit.
The grapes are weighed before crushing.
Nothing digital with the scale.
Then the grapes are then ready to be pressed.
The leaves and stems are removed.
The leaves and stems are fed through the black pipe (in the photo below) and shoot out into the truck parked outside. They, along with the skins, will be used as compost.
A little slow motion video here. The liquid is water as they have finished pressing and are rinsing out the press.
The grapes are fed through the silver pipe and into the tank to be juiced.
I love the window to the grapes. 😉
It is difficult to get a good shot of the juice that has been extracted.
The juice then goes down to the cellar through this cleverly designed pipe which is the handle of the staircase.
The winery that purchased the grapes/juice will then send a truck to transport the juice to their cellar to make their own wine.
The bins are washed and ready to be filled once again.
After juicing the tank is cleaned and the skins and seeds are removed. These will be used as compost.
So, that is a glimpse at one part of the harvest. Much more to share in upcoming posts. Writing this post has me thinking that it is time for a glass of wine. Cheers!
The Winery Woman 