grapes harvest

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Page 1: Grapes Harvest

Grapes harvest

Page 2: Grapes Harvest

It all starts with grapes on the vine: and it's important that these are properly ripe. Not ripe enough, or too ripe, and the wine will suffer. The grapes as they are harvested contain the potential of the wine: you can make a bad wine from good grapes, but not a good wine from bad grapes.

Page 3: Grapes Harvest

Teams of pickers head into the vineyard. This is the exciting time of year, and all winegrowers hope for good weather conditions during harvest. Bad weather can ruin things completely.

Page 4: Grapes Harvest

Hand-picked grapes being loaded into a half-ton bin.

Page 5: Grapes Harvest

in warm regions quality can be preserved by picking at night, when it is cooler. This is much easier to do by machine.

Page 6: Grapes Harvest

These are machine-picked grapes being sorted for quality.

Page 7: Grapes Harvest

Sorting hand-picked grapes for quality. Any rotten or raisined grapes, along with leaves and petioles, are removed.

Page 8: Grapes Harvest

These sorted grapes go to a machine that removes the stems. They may also be crushed, either just a little, or completely.

Page 9: Grapes Harvest

These are the stems that have been separated from the grape in the destemmer.

Page 10: Grapes Harvest

Here grapes are going to be loaded and then taken by conveyor belt to a tank, from where they are being pumped into the fermentation vessel.

Page 11: Grapes Harvest

This is where red wine making differs from whites. Red wines are fermented on their skins, while white wines are pressed, separating juice from skins, before fermentation. This fermentation vessel - a shallow stone tank from Portugal's Douro region - will be filled up

and then the grapes will be foot trodden, so that the juice can extract colour and other components from the skins.

Page 12: Grapes Harvest

The red grapes have been foottrodden, and fermentation has begun naturally. These men are mixing up the skins and juice by hand: this process is carried out many times a day to help with extraction, and

also to stop bacteria from growing on the cap of grape skins that naturally would float to the surface.

Page 13: Grapes Harvest

These red grapes are being fermented in a stainless steel tank. During fermentation, carbon dioxide is released so it is OK to leave the

surface exposed. Sometimes, however, fermentation takes place in closed tanks with a vent to let the carbon dioxide escape.

Page 14: Grapes Harvest

In this small tank the cap of skins is being punched down using a robotic cap plunger. In some wineries this is done by hand, using

poles.

Page 15: Grapes Harvest

An alternative to punch downs is to pump wine from the bottom of the tank back over the skins.

Page 16: Grapes Harvest

Here, fermenting red wine is being pumped out of the tank, and then pumped back in again. The idea is to introduce oxygen in the wine to help the yeasts in their growth. At other stages in winemaking care is

taken to protect wine from oxygen, but at this stage it's needed.

Page 17: Grapes Harvest

Once fermentation has finished, most red wines are then moved to barrels to complete their maturation. Barrels come in all shapes and sizes. Above is the most common size: 225-250 litres. The source of the oak, and whether or not the barrel has been used previously, is

important in the effect it has on the developing wine.

Page 18: Grapes Harvest

This is a basket press: once fermentation has completed and the young wine has been drained off the skins, the remaining skins and stems

are pressed to extract the last of the wine that they contain.

Page 19: Grapes Harvest

And this is what is left at the end - the marc. It can be used to make compost.

Page 20: Grapes Harvest

The inside of a tank that has been used to ferment white wine: the residue consists of dead yeasts cells.

Page 21: Grapes Harvest

Barrel halls can still look quite traditional. Cool underground cellars are perfect for maturing wines - a process that takes anything from

six months to three years.

Page 22: Grapes Harvest

Some wines see no oak at all, but are kept in stainless steel tanks to preserve the fresh fruity characteristics.

Page 23: Grapes Harvest

Finally, the wine is ready and is prepared for bottling. Often, filtration is used to make the wine bright and clear, and to remove any risk of

microbial spoilage. The glass on the left has been filtered; on the right you can see what it was like just before the process.

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