My First Crush

I’d say it’s a clear indication of my stage in life when the word “crush” connotes a step in winemaking as opposed to any matter of the heart.  But given that I missed the crush for my Chilean Malbec, my heart was indeed aflutter when I got word that my Chardonnay grapes were in from California this weekend.  While record levels of rain and flash flooding meant that I had to delay my pick-up for a day, I resolved not to take that as a biblical sign to find a new hobby. 

My 3 lugs of grapes, totaling 108 pounds, were indeed waiting for me at Harford when I arrived.  While that seems like a lot of grapes, it’s fortunately not so many that I wasn’t able to examine the bunches one at a time, removing any mushy or moldy grapes as I went. 

The crusher/de-stemmer, the one piece of hardware that I’ve avoided investing in so far, is elegant in it’s simplicity.  A massive corkscrew spins inside a metal trough and crushes the grapes into a giant bucket below, with the stems magically rolling down a conveyor belt and accumulating in a separate container to the side.  The only way to mess this up is to jam your hand down into the corkscrew, which would have the effect of ruining a perfectly good batch of grape must, not to mention an otherwise functioning hand.

The entire process took less than 30 minutes, producing 11 gallons of must, and the best part was that because I was renting the thing at Harford I didn’t even have to clean it up.  I went inside to pay and as I walked through the door I heard the bookkeeper, Roxanne, at the counter speaking to another customer about Pinot Noir.  “Perfect timing,” she said to me. “Bill here had some questions about winemaking, and I told him you were the Pinot Noir expert around here.”  With the actual winemaker, Kevin, at his day job, here was my moment of truth.  After years of research, here was my chance to show off what I had learned.  I could also refer him to my new blog about winemaking, just the push in readership that this website could use.  Bill looked at me anxiously with his pen and paper in hand, ready to record my sage advice.  “Do you think I’ll need to add potassium sorbate to my Pinot Noir?” he asked.  My answer was clear and concise.  “I haven’t had to use it,” I said.  The unspoken reason:  I have no idea what that is. 

Potassium Sorbate – An ingredient not required for the making of Pinot Noir.