Last night we carried on a family tradition. We started a new batch of wine. My Dad had gone to get the grapes earlier in the day, and after supper it was time to crush them. no, we don't stomp around on them in order to get them crushed, we have a passed down from my Grandfather or Great grandfather grape squisher. I know that's not the technical term for it, but at the moment I cannot recall the actual name, and press sounds too simple so...
We had to crush eight boxes of Zinfandel grapes. Each box is 42 pounds I think. So each of the girls took turns turning the crank and watching the juice and grape bits fall into the barrel. After the squishing, the grape juice pulp stem mixture sits in the barrel for almost a week before being transferred into bottles to ferment. We will have our first taste around Christmas, but it will be drinkable around Easter. I really look forward to doing this with my Dad and the girls who each ate their own weight in grapes before the grapes met the squisher. Hopefully this tradition will continue for many more years.
2 comments:
Okay, now I am really jealous. The memories that your girls will have are just wonderful. Good for them and good for you too!!
That looks AWESOME! My great grandfather made wine in his basement. It was not very drinkable, but everyone did just to make him feel good about it. I hope yours turns out great!
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