Our assistant cellarmaster, Paul, dumps the very 1st bin into the Hopper. This has a corkscrew-like fitting in the center bottom of that bin that moves the grapes in a somewhat orderly line. You can see that corkscrew thing called an auger in the bottom right corner.
From the 1st hopper-auger it is funneled into the amazing machine called the Puleo destemmer, (sorry for this awful tilted picture) which somehow manages to separate the stems from the berries (too complicated to explain the machine, maybe video in another episode). It spits the stems out one side into an awaiting bin on the right in the last photo and drops the juice and whole berries into another auger. This final auger moves the juice through a gentle pump which pushes it into the bottom of a big jacketed tank set to 60 degrees. Later there will be more to the red wine process. I will share as I learn so check back. Today, it is more Chardonnay arriving. At least 3 loads!
