Pelee Island Winery Continued…

As a home winemaker my hat goes off to winery owners and workers. Thanks to great manufacturers like Winexpert and Vineco (who do all of the hard work for us) I can buy a quality wine kit, make it according to the instructions and enjoy a great bottle of wine every time.

Not so at the wineries. What they have to do is not so easy… Before I talk about the equipment, one thing that was constantly stressed to us was the importance of cleanliness. All equipment is cleaned and sterilized and inspected before use (which of course is the same for us home winemakers).

Once Pelee’s grapes are harvested they are trucked to the Pelee Island Winery, where they are separated and destemmed in a long stainless steel trough with along auger in it. The grapes are poured into the trough and the rotating auger gently does its work. I say gently because they want to keep the grape as solid and unbruised as possible before pressing.

The grapes are then transferred to a large horizontal stainless steel tank. This is the press. Inside the tank are pneumatic bladders that are slowly inflated so the grapes are not bruised while being crushed. The raw juice is then pumped into holding tanks and checked for quality at their on site laboratory. None of this work is different to the preparations for the juices that go into wine kits.

Once the grapes are pressed the juices are pumped into stainless steel tanks, yeasted and the fermentation process begins…

Stay tuned as my Pelee Island blog continues next week.

Filed under: General by WineSense