Late Harvest Muscat, In a League of its Own!
One thing that keeps wine making from ever having a dull moment, is the diversity of the process and how it changes depending on the fruit and style of wine you are making. This week we picked our “Late Harvest” Muscat Canelli, which undergoes a process that is very unique to this wine.
A couple weeks back we harvested about half of our Muscat Canelli and left the other half of the fruit on the vines for raisining. What this does is allow the grapes to become very sweet and basically turn into varying forms of raisins (See photos below). Once the grapes have been picked we run them through the de-stemmer and crusher, which separates the berries from the stems and puts enough pressure on the berries to let some of the juice out of the skins. After being crushed and de-stemmed we let the berries soak overnight in bins to hydrate the raisins before pressing.
The next day we are left with a deliciously sweet mixture of berries and juice and an unmistakable aroma that can only be Muscat Canelli. These bins are then run through our press to squeeze out all of the syrup like juice, leaving behind only the pomace or skins and seeds. When we sent the raisin like grapes to the press they were at a sugar level of 36 °Brix and at the very end some of the juice even had a reading of 45 °Brix, which is very sweet! (And delicious)
As I’ve mentioned many a time, there is never a dull moment at the winery and there is always something new to learn or try. So next time you sip on a cold glass of Late Harvest Muscat Canelli (with your favorite desert), you can tell your friends how it was made!
Until Next Time,
Cheers,
Luke
