When grapes are crushed by people stomping on them with their feet, how is sanitation maintained?
I would think that leg hair, sloughed epithelial cells, and fromunda cheese would not have a salubrious effect on the must!
mmmmmmmmm…brett.
A bit of barnyard funk…my thoughts exactly.
Most wineries don’t so that but the ones that do dont do anything other than making sure feet are clean. Keep in mind the must becomes an alcohol solution so that kills most microbes. And any objects like legg hair would settle down with the lees and get left behind.
You would be surpised at all the bugs and bird shit and stuff that winds up in a fermenter. Leg hair is the least of your worries.
Toe jam is one of my favorite descriptors for a nice, complex Syrah.
lol
“Toe jam with notes of leg hair and tweety guano"
Kinda like this:
I agree that I wouldn’t worry about hairs, etc. But I was assured by a pathologist who hosted a wine group years ago that 12% - 14% alcohol wasn’t enough to kill most bugs. Certainly to sterilize with alcohol you have to use a much purer form. Whether microbes can survive alcohol, the heat of fermentation, competition from vigorous yeast and the aging process – that’s another matter. By analogy, hard cheeses are much safer because the aging process (and salt) kills even nasties like listeria.
It’s very rare that we have to have someone jump in and it is more likely to happen when bucketing out a tank fermentation than when starting one. I use the same citric acid/So2 solution we use to sanitize hoses. Make a large bucket (30 gallon), jump in, then get into the tank. It’s almost always me who does this, it’s very unpleasant as we’re usually doing it in November and the temps are in the 40’s. I big part of the process is extracting me and getting me rinsed and warmed back up.
Paging Larry at Tercero
I was under the understanding that treading by foot is now allowed per OSHA.
I have only treaded by rubber boot, as the grapes are usually very cold in the begining and stems can be sharp.
When bucketing out 5 ton fermentors we had a stool that we put in first so that we were never over boot top in depth.
Ever since seeing John Charles Boisset on Mondovino jump in a fermentor in boxers I have had different thoughts about his wines.
Spray feet and legs in 70% ETOH and you will kill just about everything on your feet. I doubt DRC worried much over the years when they sent a nude man into the vat for hours on end the day after picking. Almost all modern tanks send people into them to shovel out pomace after the free run juice is drained out. Usually you wear sanitized boots (proxycarb+citric) but that does not stop a lot of sweat from making it into the pomace as it comes out the tank on the way to the press. Don’t forget the spiders and other stuff that makes it into the fermentor now and then, especially open tops.
I would be more worried about eating a hot dog.
I remember when Rico T found a whole spider in his Beaucastel, a very natural wine!
While at Peachy, we had people wear fishing waders during the stomping.
I’ve never been a big fan of leg hair, and unless you are thoroughly spraying under your toenails with 70% EtOH… ![[bleh.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/c/cbb27a94fa73081862abf910a8bfa05e2ae2f5c3.gif "[bleh.gif]"){kind=small}
…
Yeah.
To make a great Burgundy, it is critical to use a naked free-range grape-stomper who has not bathed in at least a week. The unique qualities of Burgundy are due primarily to the ease with which such people can be found there.
People terroir?
I do a lot of treading. Miserable work. If it’s not really cold, it’s likely to involve a hidden yellowjacket or two. I stand in a bucket of proxycarb before climbing in the fermentors, but I really don’t have much concern about introducing microbes that aren’t among the small number suited to survive wine’s alc and acid.
Anybody recall the episode of MONK where he learns his favorite wine is made by foot crushing of the grapes?
Waders classic! That would be my go to if I ever needed to get in a fermentor that deep.
I use all T-bins now so we just pump the juice and rotate into the basket press.
No bucketing, shoveling, etc. Until its time to beak up the press cake.
Classic!