From Vine to Wine -
Step one, confirm the grapes are ready to be harvested. We had a local expert aka the oldest person in our neighborhood come down to confirm our grapes were ripe, sweetened and ready for harvesting. It took an afternoon and the next day to pull the grapes from the vines.
Step two, one full day of stomping, yes I said stomping. DREAM COME TRUE, I was I Love Lucy grape stomping queen of the day! My feet were washed and wrapped in plastic wrap before I began my Lucy dance. By the end of the day we had two full barrels with our smashed sweet grape harvest.
Step three, two days post stomping we removed what is called 'mushti' aka grape juice with a slight kick, extremely smooth and DELICIOUS!! The mush starts rise above the liquid for just a few days it is so sweet, so it is all about timing to scoop this up.
Step four, smash the mush twice a day as the fermentation starts the liquid settles at the bottom and the mush floats to the top. Essentially to keep the yeast levels equal during this stage, it is necessary to 'smush the mush'. This process varies on temperatures and since we are a little cooler at night, we will ferment for a 10-12 days in the original barrels.
Step five, follow our blog as we will continue to document the next stages of wine and raki.