PS: During the whole harvest period of the grapes, because different grape bunches ripen at different times, the workers do not directly harvest the entire plot at once, but manually select the ripe grape bunches for picking, so the whole harvest period will last for more than a month. During this time, it is very likely that they will harvest this plot in the morning and another plot in the afternoon, and there will even be a Merlot one hour and Zinfandel the next. In order to avoid confusion, try to describe the events and grape varieties as much as possible.

Today is an important day for the Monterena Winery. Today is the beginning of the new year's harvest season, and from today, the whole winery will be busy with the grape harvest and wine making for the new year. From today, it will be almost a month before all the grapes are harvested and vinified.

Early in the morning, Xiao Yifei came to the winery, and Bo, Carmel and others were waiting at the winery, waiting for Hanna to send someone to send the Chardonnay.

Bo kept looking at his watch, pacing back and forth from time to time, Xiao Yifei was also a little nervous, a year of hard work and dedication, now look at this time.

"Come, come, come to the winery right away."

Martin trotted down the hill behind the winery.

"Everyone, get ready, everyone."

After a flurry of chickens and dogs, the sound of trucks was heard, and new grapes were delivered.

A forklift truck drove over to unload the basket full of grapes, and in the morning sun, the blue and white Chardonnay bunches were crystal clear and beautiful.

Beau immediately rushed up, ripped off a grape, and measured the sugar with a Brix meter.

"Not bad, 23.4."

Another basket was picked, and the sugar content reached 23.2.

"Yes, let's start picking."

This batch of Chardonnay can have a sweetness of more than 23 degrees, which is really good, at least it has reached the average sweetness of Chardonnay in Napa.

Bo is talking about selection, but there is another process before selection, which is the separation of fruit stems, that is, picking the grapes from the fruit bunches, which is definitely not a manual operation, but a destemming machine. There are also white wines that are pressed in whole bunches, that is, the whole bunch of grapes is thrown into the press to extract the grape juice.

In addition to white or light-colored grapes, white wine can also be made from grapes with red skin and white flesh, because white wine is fermented with fruit juice and comes into contact with the colored grape skins like red wine.

Two young men carry a basket of grapes into the winery, pour the grapes into the machine, which automatically pulls the grapes off the stems, which are thrown out of the machine and sent to a transfer box, where they are later broken up as raw materials for compost. At the same time, grapes that had been picked out by noble rot and pecked by birds, these substandard grapes appeared here, and they were all selected by the workers in the field.

The grapes are sent to the sorting table for manual selection. On the selection table, a few people who had been waiting here for a long time immediately began to work, slowly picking out a layer of unqualified grapes from the grapes passing in front of them, and inevitably leaving some grape leaves and vines during picking, which were also the objects to be cleaned.

The selected grapes are transported by a conveyor belt to a screw conveyor and then to a press.

There are many kinds of presses, spiral, air bag, etc., and the winery has bought a more expensive and better air bag press. The pressing of white grapes, including Chardonnay, must be controlled to prevent too many tannins from entering the grape juice in the skin and pit, so the pressing force must be grasped well.

Depending on the degree of crushing of the grapes, white grapes such as Château's largely unbroken grapes are obtained by an air bag press, and the juice obtained at a pressure of 0.8 atmospheres is artesian juice, which is the best source of fruity dry white wines. The pressure before 1.4 atmospheres is the average juice, and the last is the pressed juice. The winery ferments these separately before blending them into Chardonnay.

Carmel had been here for a long time, staring at the press to set the parameters and watching the grapes being pressed out of the juice by the machine. After pressing, it was the separation of the pomace and the juice, and Xiao Yifei watched as the cloudy grape juice was squeezed out and flowed into a jar.

Beau took a wine glass, scooped some from the jar, took it to his nose and sniffed it, looked at the color again, shook the grape juice in the glass a few times, sniffed it again, and brought it to his mouth and tasted it slowly.

"Medium quality, not bad, you try."

After speaking, he handed Xiao Yifei a wine glass, Cameron set the pressing parameters, and he had already come over, he had just made a glass with Bo, and he also nodded at this time, agreeing with Bo's statement.

Xiao Yifei learned to scoop a little and sniffed it. The grape juice in the glass has a faint fruity aroma, and when you look at the color, the cloudy grape juice is more cloudy than the grape juice sold outside, and it is not as bright as the finished white wine. Shaking it vigorously, the fruity flavor is a little stronger, and there is also a little smell like grass that has just been picked in the morning.

Xiao Yifei tasted it, in addition to the taste of grapes, there was also a little bit of peach flavor, and there was another taste that Xiao Yifei had never tasted.

It seems that the training of a sommelier makes sense, and you can only tell the taste inside the wine if you remember the various aromas and flavors. Otherwise, it's Xiao Yifei, who knows the taste but can't say what it is.

In addition, due to the small damage to the grape skin and pit, the astringency of grape juice is not serious, and it can basically be drunk as juice.

Martin and several other winemakers are also starting to taste this year's new juices.

"Well, it's indeed moderate, but it's a pity that the weather isn't good."

If the vintage had been better, this year's Chardonnay would have been a good vintage. This is the unanimous conclusion that everyone has reached. Of course, except for Xiao Yifei, he can only say that he has seen the crack in the door now, and he has not entered at all.

Personnel from the winery's laboratory take samples to measure the acidity and sugar content of the must.

Every winery will have a laboratory. The laboratory is very important in the winemaking process, it is mainly used to test the various indicators of grape juice and wine, to determine the amount of reagent to be blended, to determine when the fermentation is over, etc. With these scientific tests, the quality of the wine is better and more stable. It is also thanks to the laboratory that winemaking becomes a science detached from the personal experience of the winemaker.

The most important indicators for grape juice are acidity and sugariness.

Sour, the acid of grapes is also called tartaric acid, which is actually grape acid. Acids are important for wine, they inhibit the reproduction of bacteria and allow fermentation to proceed smoothly; It can be a refreshing wine; It can also react with alcohol to become an ester, so that the wine is fragrant; Finally, it increases the storage and stability of the wine.

The acidity of the grape juice is mainly adjusted by sulphur dioxide, and the addition of sulphur dioxide also facilitates the clarification of the juice. Because grape juice is highly susceptible to oxidative spoilage, the sooner sulphur dioxide is added, the better.

Sugar is also important for wine, because sugar turns into alcohol under the action of yeast, and it is alcohol that distinguishes wine from grape juice. The sugar content of the grape juice determines the alcohol content of the wine, and there is generally a conversion formula here, which can generally be considered that the higher the degree of the wine, the better, but the average wine is only about 14 degrees.

We have already used a Brix meter to test the sugar content of grapes in the field, but there is an error in the measured data, and we can only roughly judge that the sugar content of the juice measured in the laboratory is the most accurate.

The lab test results are in, and the data is not bad, the acidity of this batch is only slightly high, with an average sugar content of 23.3. Overall, the juice was good with proper adjustments.

At this time, a guy who had just come with the grape cart came over and looked at the test results in the laboratory.

There are too many odd jobs here in the winery these days, and Xiao Yifei can't recognize them all. That's when he came out to see the results, which made him a little special.

Xiao Yifei asked David, who came to the workshop because he had nothing to do:

"Who's that?"

"You don't know? He is a member of the Wine Merchants Association. ”

"What are you doing here?"

"Of course, it's monitoring, if the grapes are not up to standard, and the wine merchants association does not approve it, you are not allowed to hit the name of Napa, otherwise you will be fined."

I'll go, won't I?

"Every winery has it?"

"Of course."

Fortunately, it's not just sent to Monterena, otherwise it's blatant discrimination, so Xiao Yifei has to talk to them when he has a meeting. But there are too many employees in this association, and there are more than 400 wineries in Napa Valley.

"Then how many people are here, and the Wine Merchants Association has raised so many people?"

This question is, of course, answered more authoritatively by Bo, a former director:

"Not only at the time of winemaking, but also when the vineyard is growing."

There are too many redundant people.

"Otherwise, where do you think the annual membership fee of the winery goes? Of course, these people are not regular employees of the association, and are generally only hired for a few months, which is considered temporary employees. ”

Fortunately, everyone has paid a lot to establish the Napa brand, which is also a sacrifice to maintain the highest wine price in the United States.

A jar of artesian grape juice was full, Martin took an electric pump, closed the electric switch, and the grape juice was pumped down the pipeline into the large jar outside.

Xiao Yifei now knows the function of several large jars outside, and they are mainly clarifying containers. Fresh musts are added with sulphur dioxide and left in these jars for 24 hours to clarify and adjust the acidity before the must enters the fermentation process.

Because the must is highly susceptible to oxidation, the temperature of these clarified irrigation is generally controlled below 10 degrees Celsius.

Xiao Yifei also found that in the jar of the best artesian juice, they actually put a lot of pressed skin residue, didn't they just use a press to separate them, how could they be mixed together.

"What is this for?"

Martin replied, adjusting the temperature of the jar to 3 degrees Celsius:

"This is a low-temperature extraction to extract the fruity aromas from the grape skins with the best artesian juice. Let the wine have a natural fruity aroma. After listening to this explanation, Xiao Yifei rolled his eyes in his heart, he had just separated them, and now they were together again, isn't this a fool's errand.

PS again: There is something in the unit on the weekend, and I have set a scheduled release.