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September 10, 2012 | In the Winery | Serena Lourie

The sorting table

It is a brilliant piece of equipment. Whether we are sorting one ton or seven tons, I am always happy to be on this line.  When the fruit drops into the hopper I get excited knowing that shortly I'm going to be looking at each and every cluster that goes into our wine.  The point of the sorting table is to inspect each cluster before the cluster get destemmed .  Usually what this means is that I'm removing grape leaves that fell into the pick bins and grape clusters that don't meet our standards - maybe they have too many raisins or didn't ripen evenly.   Because we do an initial sorting of the grapes while we are out in the fields standing on the tractor rail, our grapes come in very clean and we're just picking out an occasional leaf or cluster. There is something about the rhythm of the table that is exciting and reminds me that soon the grapes that just left the vines will be cold soaking and shortly thereafter fermenting.  It kicks off an incredible period of change for the grapes.  - Serena