We've captured some of the more exciting parts of wine production on film for you.
Video is being streamed on the left side of the site, or feel welcome to download the video by clicking the links on the right side of the site.
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Enjoy!
Mechanical Harvesting is a process used extensively throughout Niagara. The large harvester lurches over and rattles the vines, shaking individual grapes from their stems. The speed of this process far outpaces hand-harvesting; critical for an area when rain can come quickly.
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Grapes are unloaded into 1-tonne bins before being pressed. We typically harvest 2 to 3 tonnes in each pass of the mechanical harvester. With some types of grapes, that's all we'll harvest!
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Upon harvest, grapes are loaded into a destemmer: a device which separates the grapes themselves from the cluster-stems. We do this to maximize fruity characteristics. Stems are full of harsh tannins which most contemporary winemakers try to avoid.
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Stems are deposited in the bin below before being distributed back into the soil later. Meanwhile, the grapes are processed and readied for the press.
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Red wine is being pressed through a large horizontal screw-press here. There is a difference between the white and red juice that could be here. White juice pressed in this device would be called "must;" we do so to separate juice from the skins before fermenting. Red wine needs its skins to produce its colour, thus it has already been fermented. We press the finished red wine to remove the skins, seeds, and other solids.
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Most white wines are fermented in stainless steel, but our Chardonnay is often fermented in oak barrels to improve taste and texture. The main byproducts of fermentation are alcohol, heat, and carbon dioxide. The airlock featured is bubbling as carbon dioxide escapes, while preventing oxygen from entering the barrel.
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The bottling line efficiently prepares about 45 bottles per minute. Wine fills the bottles, they are stoppered with a cork, a capsule is sealed on top, then they are labeled and repackaged. It's a lot of work, but we can't drink all our wine from the barrel, can we?
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When Icewine is pressed, we apply upwards of 300 bar pressure to half a tonne of grapes for 10-20 minutes. The result is a thick, slow-moving juice which tastes sweeter than we can describe. Some of that sugar will become alcohol after fermentation, but the rest gives Icewine its trademark flavour.
