2010 Vintage

This blog is a diary of how my friend Rachel and I will be turning twenty crates of grapes into delicious red wine, using traditional Italian methods. Her father was an Italian chef who used to make his own wine at home using imported grapes from Italy. Rachel wants to keep up the family tradition, I want to learn the craft, and we both love red wine!

DAY ONE: 20th September 2010

The grapes arrive: twenty crates of Montepulciano D'Abruzzo in great condition considering the long journey from central Italy.

I calculate about 158kg of grapes, and they're delicious. They arrived quite late in the day so we arranged to crush the following day.

In the background the 210 litre fermenting barrel
drying after being sterilized.

DAY TWO: 21st September


With various children and neighbours assembled,
we begin crushing the grapes, appropriately enough under the canopy of grapes.



The bunches, stems 'n' all, are thrown into
the mangle type crusher perched directly on
top of the fermenting barrel.

Everything gets very sticky. At first juice leaks out down the front of the barrel, and we try various bits of wood to lift the cog mechanism off the lip of the barrel, until a couple of little jenga bricks does the trick!

                                                    Everyone has a go turning the crank.

Any mouldy or dried grapes are weeded out, along with leaves and twigs.

After about three hours, and some refreshment, the barrel is about three quarters full, with a cap of crushed grape skins already formed on top.

 

We'll leave this now for a week to begin fermentation – no added yeast or sugar.