Harvest 2010 - Cleaning

One of the most important jobs in any winery over harvest, and one that keeps us very busy, is cleaning! Everything must be cleaned before and after coming in contact with any fruit, juice or wine.

Today we hand-picked some of the Riesling from our Home vineyard, and it was pressed this afternoon. After pressing the best juice from the fruit, the skins are emptied out of the press, and the press is then cleaned. To do this, someone has to climb into the press to hose it all out. Today it was Lars, our Swedish Cellarhand, who donned his wet weather gear and climbed in.


This photo shows the two main parts of the inside of the press. The tan coloured part on the left is the membrane - which inflates and squashes the grapes against the right hand side. The metal on the right hand side is covered in small holes which act like a sieve, and allows just the juice to drain out.

Here, Lars is about to clean the press, and get it ready for the next fruit to arrive.