HARVEST Time at HART

Rise and shine, let's get out early to see the grape harvest at Hart Winery!  We were invited to observe and photograph the grape harvest process at our favorite winery in Temecula.  I decide this would be a great opportunity to share with my boy.  So we woke up early and headed out at about 6a.m. just in time to see the sun rising in the East.  We were delighted to see the hot air balloons dotting the warming summer sky.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the owner, Mr. Hart and his son, who is The Vintner extraordinaire.  Later, an assistant arrived with his dedicated pair of Whipets.

The grapes had been picked the night before while the air was cool.  They were sitting in huge gondolas hooked to tractors, ready to be weighed and processed.

The gondolas were hoisted up with a scale- we took advantage of the MATH opportunity. The TARE WEIGHT is the gross weight of the vessel which is 426lbs as shown here printed on side.  This is to be subtracted from the total weight to determine actual weight of grapes.

 The weight here shows 4520 less 426 = 4094lbs or 2.05 tons.  (Discussed the tonage and .05/100 decimal)

Before the actual grape processing could occur, they washed everything down with OZONE water.  The OZONE process is an organic sanitizing technology and is created naturally as a molecule consisting of 3 oxygen atoms: O₃  created by passing electric charge into water.   I love the clean smell it leaves!

 Here we see the fermentation tank being flushed with OZONE water, getting ready to be filled with CO2 before pressed grapes are added.  This ensures there is no O2 exposure.

                         

Next, it was time to dump the grapes into the de-stemmer. Once grapes are separated, they are sucked through hoses into the press.

 

The press has a bladder that expands and presses the grapes with pressure.  They added dry ice to the tank to cool the grapes as they were not only already warming up with the heat of the day but also, decomposition was creating heat.  Baron loved the dry ice process.  

Meanwhile, back inside the cool barn, heady with the heavenly aroma of fermenting grapes... we took a few pictures and learned about a machine or two.

 And of course, we walked the vineyard and picked grapes.  Even Zoey ate her fill.  What a great day, living and learning.