Filed under: Harvest Adventures
Alright, DAY TWO! Today was a hands-on job kinda day. We had a ‘work order’ to complete which instructed us to rack Sauvignon Blanc off the lees (sediment collected at the bottom of the tank) into another tank 70-80 yards away. One of my first tastes of the actual “winemaking” process…
So we began with locating the correct hose, fittings, pump, and the tank to rack the juice into. Next, was the task of sanitizing the hose to avoid any negative bacterial affects onto the juice. After sanitizing and rinsing, we began to pump juice from one tank to the other, leaving the lees behind.
Once some of the juice was in the other tank, yeast was added. But first, the yeast needed to be “charged up” and prepared to do its job. So in a bucket we added yeast and warm-to-hot water along with some sugary juice. Right away I saw the juice begin to bubble (this is where all the magic happens). The yeast was turning the sugars in the juice into alcohol and releasing CO2 and heat in the process… fermentation had begun! We added it right into the tank and continued to pump juice.
Today was a great learning experience and gave me a little preview of how the rest of harvest is going to feel.
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I never thought of yeast as being the fermentor (Is that the correct word? Probably not!:~)
Comment by Rhonda Howard September 12, 2008 @ 8:20 pm