Harvest Week 2: Clarification Team

Week 2 at Villa Maria was a bit more eventful than Week 1, but still not many grapes coming in yet. Blenheim encountered a cooler and more overcast summer than usual, which has caused a slower ripening process out in the vineyards. That's another unusual part of the winemaking line of work - Mother Nature does what Mother Nature does, and you have to play by her rules!

I found out that I'll be on the Clarification Team, where our job is to clarify the freshly-pressed grape juice to prepare it for fermentation. We have a few fairly complex machines to help us out, but essentially we add a clay-like volcanic ash called Bentonite, along with Nitrogen, to clump all of the "solids" together that exist in the unclarified juice. From there, we're able to separate the clarified juice, send it to a tank, sprinkle in some yeast, and watch it become wine. That fermentation process (yeast + sugar = alcohol) only takes about 10-14 days. Separately, those unclarified "solids" get sent to a rotating vacuum, where even more juice is extracted and then sent to a tank. Fascinating stuff, really - especially to see it up close & personal! 

I'm also very happy with the team I landed on. There are 3 fellow interns who are from Spain, England, and the Czech Republic. The Spanish guy works for his family-owned winery in Catalonia, and the other two have previous harvest experience as well. Great group of guys to learn from and share ideas with. We all hungout at the pub Friday night, along with several other folks from Villa Maria and neighboring wineries - super fun!

The last fun work-related development is that I got certified to drive a forklift in New Zealand lol. All it took was a couple hour presentation, followed by an open-book test and a 5 minute driving exercise. Maybe slightly concerning that it's so relaxed, but they're quite fun to drive and move pallets around with. Hoping I can snag a photo on one soon.









Comments

  1. ShivMarch 12, 2025 at 5:40 PM

    Gonna have to explain the giant wrench at some point haha

    ReplyDelete

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