Wineries St. Helena California Page 5
Napa Valley, San Francisco North Bay, Ca. USA

Manual harvesting is the hand-picking of grape clusters from the grapevines. In the United States, grapes are traditionally picked into 30 pound boxes, and in many cases these boxes are consolidated into ½ ton bins or two-ton bins for transport to the winery. Manual harvesting has the advantage of using knowledgeable labor to not only pick the ripe clusters but also to leave behind the clusters that are not ripe or contain bunch rot or other defects. This can be an effective first line of defense to prevent inferior quality fruit from contaminating a lot or tank of wine.

Destemming

Destemming is the process of separating stems from the grapes. This is undertaken before crushing and it's purpose is to prevent the development of crude tannins and unpalatable vegetal flavors in the resulting wine.