Washing the grapes???

WINE TALK
1

The son of the owner of renown Trentino Cantine Pojer & Sandri was just here presenting some wines and showed me pictures of a machine that they invented and built which soaks incoming grapes in water then agitates them with air bubbles to “remove all the environmental pollution” yet somehow leave 70% of the natural yeasts. The grapes are then dried with forced air on another proprietary machine before pressing.

Anyone ever heard of anyone else doing this?

2

No. It sounds like BS. If it really leaves all of that yeast on, then what “environmental pollution” could it possibly be removing?

3

Saturday Night Live ??? [wow.gif] [wow.gif]

4

Studies have shown that the common “fermentation yeast” (saccharomyces cerevisiae) is very rare in the vineyard. A lot of fermentation comes from resident winery yeast and any saccharomyces cerevisiae that comes in with the grapes would be in damaged berries that a wasp ate from. So with the yeast inside the berry it seems reasonable that the wash doesn’t get rid of all the yeast and even if it did an established winery has enough resident yeast anyway.

I have no idea how they would quantify 70% of the yeast though.

5

Agreed. I like the idea of washing the grapes. Don’t like the BS that they can wash them and leave the yeast. That’s only for marketing and only because people have jumped on some idea that there’s yeast in the vineyard that gets brought in with the grapes and that’s somehow more desirable than something else.

6

It’s common courtesy to wash the grapes before soaking the cork.

7

It’s just water. Yeast are designed to not be easily removed by rain. A water rinse removing 30% of the yeast sounds about right. My question is what is the “environmental pollution” they are trying to remove? Is it something incidental to their location? Something they introduce? Certainly some substances easily rinse off, while others not so much. Doesn’t that mean they have a specific problem that they have identified and addressed?

8

[rofl.gif] [rofl.gif]

9

Does this imply that there are wineries who DON’T wash their grapes? [shock.gif] I just assumed that this was commonly done the same we that we always wash our fruits at home before eating them.

This would cause me some concern, especially from wineries who spray their grapes with non-organic materials.

10

Ladybugs? Spiders?

11

Tran,
The only time I have ever seen grapes washed prior to fermentation is when they come in the winery with ants on them. Formic acid doesn’t go well in wine.
Best, Jim

12

Its extremely rare to wash the grapes.

13

I was assuming that was tongue in cheek.

14

Is a professional cork soaker better than an amateur cork soaker? :stuck_out_tongue:

15

Either one is better than no cork soaker.