What Is This Crush You Speak Of?

It's Saturday morning, I've had some yogurt and fruit and a cup of coffee. My freshly washed clothes are hanging to dry and I'm trying to figure out my plans for the evening. Yet this is no typical Saturday, how could it be after five 13+ start to crush? Days are long and labor intensive, muscles ache, and my purple hands have seen better days. All of this was to be expected, but until you throw yourself into the mix, it would be difficult to understand what it is. Luckily enough, the initial excitement and anticipation hasn't died off for me and the more grapes that get processed, the more 'winemaking' duties there are to be done.

Many people talk about wine as a living thing, and anyone who has seen 'Sideways' can probably remember the seen where the hypocritical Miles (his most prized wine was composed mainly of Merlot, despite the movie's bashing of the same varietal) and Maya wax on about the uniqueness of each and every bottle, everything that goes into making it, and how it is constantly evolving until the moment that that cork gets taken out. I, too, like this idea. So here is crush from a grape's perspective, so to speak.

--Unloading: Grapes arrive in 18 kilo or 40 lb. bins. Those bins are unloaded onto a slide, and the freshly picked grapes and everything else that comes with them pop out onto the the scene. No bums are smacked but I can imagine it would be a bit of a shock to slide down a ramp and crash onto the sorting belt.

--Sorting: This is where all undesirables are taken out. By all, I mean probably about half of them. Green leaves are the biggest enemy, but any and all foreign items should be discarded. Such items may include sticks, spiders, bugs, dirt clumps, different types of grapes and from one vineyard, we see quite a few olives, since the bins are placed under them to shade them from the sun.

This would be the formative years of a wine. You go through picking out the bad apples in life, and whatever one takes from these essential years, will stay with you and shape the person you become down the road. If you hang with the wrong crowd, you might end up in prison and if you don't sort out the crap on the sorting belt, you might end up on the bulk wine market.

--Destemming with the option to crush: The grapes taken the incline up to the top of the belt as we might take a roller coaster. Whereas we come out in one piece, the grapes fate isn't the same. They pass through the destemmer, berries fall down to another container (or pump) and stems get shot out the back end. Some people choose to crush the grapes as well at this point, rollers are used to squeeze the grapes and break them open. If not crushed, anywhere from 25-75% of the berries will come through unscathed. Either way, it's a very stressful moment I'm sure.

This equates to the dramatic life lessons and my favorite, 'character builders' that we all must go through. They are often painful moments, but nonetheless necessary. I can't imagine having your stem ripped off you feels good and then getting doused in Sulpher Dioxide would just make matters worse. Depending on the winery, this is also where you might add other things like tartaric acid to prevent a flabby wine (a lot of people like the taste benefits of picking grapes at higher brix-more sugar, but consequently compromise the wine's natural acidity).

Move, Lift, Move, Dump, Lower: Here at Bodega Elvira Calle, we use a gravity flow system, which in this case means that wine (or must technically) is not pumped into tanks. Since pumps aren't doing the work, we are. Grapes fall from the destemmer into a receiving bin. Each bin, when full of grapes, weighs over a 1000 lbs. We move the bin to a crane which then hoists it up to the top of the cement tanks. Depending on the vineyard and quantity, we then move the bin once again to the appropriate tank and pull a lever to empty the bin. A days work includes 35-40 trips which at times seems extremely daunting and at times manageable.

This final stage is the time where you've found some stability in life. Not so many late nights and anxiety about your future, this is your future, you are where you're supposed to be, doing what you will be doing. You've figured things out so to speak, and are the summation of what you've lived to that point. Were you well nourished and healthy on the vine, did you have enough sun, did they pick you at the right time, did you avoid bad crowds or are you surrounded by stems and leaves and olives? Changes can be made and the winemaker will adjust you but can't change you. You will be inoculated with yeast and you're skin will sag and break, your chemistry will change, you are no longer who you were before. Frequent check ups on your Brix, pH and acidity will be measured and analyzed to make sure all is on track, that you are healthy. And with 2-3 weeks, you will become the desire of so many thirsty individuals, your destiny and theirs will meet and they will judge you. You will be swirled and spit in some cases, mixed with ice in others, and if you end up in the hands of Miles, you might just be consumed from a styrofoam cup in a diner, accompanied by a hamburger to your final resting place.