The moment has arrived, once again, to look critically at our winemaking. This time, it’s the way we handle the Glera when it is first picked. We are considering changing the way we transport the grapes from the vineyard where they are picked to the press. As you can imagine, our goal is to increase the quality of our Asolo Prosecco.<\/p>\n
Initially, we looked carefully at the loading of the press. Currently, we use a volumetric pump which allows us to eliminate that step and to avoid an breaking of the stems. Broken stems can result in unpleasant flavors in the wine. The alternative is to load the press directly using bins or crates.<\/p>\n
Working with bins could be a good alternative to transporting the grapes by towing them. It will be more labor-intensive and time-consuming but it will definitely lead to higher quality. Obviously, any change in our winemaking practices is going to cost money and in this case, we also need to figure out the logistics, which will be different from previous years.<\/p>\n
These are the steps we need to take:<\/p>\n
1 \u2013 purchase the bins, at least 30-35;
\n2 \u2013 purchase a trailer that can handle the bins; we are totally okay with buying a used trailer but because the distance from the vineyards is substantial, we will need a trailer that can accommodate at least 20 cases and that will allow us to manage our work in the vineyards as best as possible and without pauses;
\n3 \u2013 purchase a bin dumper;
\n4 \u2013 research and purchase a funnel that allows us to load the press directly from the door of the cellar.<\/p>\n
It’s an idea that initially seemed easy to manage (and not too expensive). But it turned out it’s very costly and very labor-intensive. We’re talking about roughly 25,000 euro (sigh).<\/p>\n
We’re planning to make the change one step at a time so as not to go over board with the cost. We’ll probably start with the bin dumper and probably the funnel. And then later we’ll look into getting a trailer and new bins.<\/p>\n
No one is getting any younger around here and we can’t continue manually dumping tons of grapes the way we do currently!<\/p>\n