We are replacing our destemmer and want to upgrade our grape delivery to the destemmer. Want to even out delivery of grapes with some pre-destem sorting. We destem into bins. What’s working and what isn’t?
Wow, I am not even certain what the question is, but there is no substitute for a good eye, a strong arm (or 6), and intense work.
We used a P&L Specialties Inclined sorting conveyer with 6 sorter guys+ 1 person to pull the grapes onto it from the bin dumper.
In a a year like 2012 you question whether you really need it, but almost every other year you are glad to have it.
It does take up a lot of room tho, and we are considering a floor level sorting table, but one way or the other you gotta raise up the grapes into the Destemmer… (unless you have some kind of way to run the Destemmer in a pit of some kind.)
Was looking at the pl specialties incline belt as one option. Thoughts on cleaning, does it bridge and clog, spread out the grapes well?
Like the idea of not needing an elevator to lift the grapes to the destemmer.
Any other thoughts?
James - I’m sure you have already picked your destemmer but if not I wanted to mention the Euroselect as it one of three destemmers that does not use the basket-finger design. It allows for grape destemming in 2 regions and has a built in elevator…see youtube below. I have used this in a private winery in Ontario and works well and allows for fewer operators. For reds we had a flat shaker table → Euroselectdestemmer → elevator → tank. A 2nd shaker table could be inserted after the destemmer for additional sorting that the first table or destemmer couldn’t address. Either way you might take a look at Euromachines offerings…Cheers, Gary
re; P&L Specialties Inclined sorting conveyer
It does not clog, but nor does it do any spreading, it’s merely a variable speed inclined conveyor, so you have to have humans for everything except moving the clusters up the line.
It’s a hassle to clean (just like everything else we use, no worse no better) , but I console myself that at least it combines the operation of two separate pieces of equipment, i.e. a conveyor + elevator .
You can see alternate arrangements here: Winery Crush Pad Equipment | Carlsen & Associates
At my old winery we had two shaker tables- one on a platform for sorting whole clusters and going into the destemmer, and the other under the destemmer so that we could sort out jacks, etc. The good thing about the metal shaker tables is that you can just power wash them off. And kind of table with a belt sucks to clean because of the juice that gets underneath.
By hand. Many, many hours spent at the top of a hopper at the sorting table. Pulling out less than par clusters, and all the weird stuff that ends up in a picked bin. Then keeping the right tempo to match the paddle speed and optimal de-stemming of whole, uncrushed berries. When you hear the ‘slosh’ sound, you gotta adjust something.
Some days/vineyards are better than others. But the idea is, the difference shows in the final wine.