The Wine Blokes

No more fruit is ready to pick. Sauvingon Blanc is sitting at around 20 Brix and table Chardonnay around the same. Good flavours are beginning to become apparent, but we will still be looking at around early to mid next week before we get too busy.

 Today we spent most of our time cleaning in the winery, and also loaded a tanker that is now on its way across the Nullabor Plain. All up it will travel around 4000km to its destination at a Sparkling Winery in Victoria.

It may sound extreme but really it’s done everyday over vintage in Australia.  Plenty of wineries purchase either fruit, juice or wine from Western Australia or vice versa, and truck it across the entire breadth of the country. Wine is no problem as it’s relatively stable by the time it’s loaded into the tanker and sent on its way. Grape juice however, is a different proposition.  

Grape juice is rather unstable in that it is highly susceptible to oxidation, bacterial spoilage, and wild yeast fermentation. For this reason, all the juice we send has been racked off gross lees (settled particles in the raw juice)  sulfur dioxide added, and chilled to between 0 and 2 Degrees Celsius.  If proper care is taken, the juice wil arrive at its destination in around 40 hours time in insulated tankers, and the temperature will only rise 1 or 2 degrees. There is no reason why the juice cannot arrive in such a condition as if it were picked in that wineries vineyard.  But care must be taken.  It’s not uncommon to hear of stories each vintage of a cellar hand not adequately loading the tanker, and the juice is almost wine by the time it arrives, i.e wild yeast fermentation has taken place in the tanker on the journey, certainly something not desired, and can result in the wine being unsaleable. 

We sent over 30,000 Litres of Sparkling Juice today, and valued at anywhere between $2 and $3 AUD per litre, we certainly hope it arrives safely.