First Fruit - Vintage 2009 begins...

It all starts with some beautiful fruit. Ripe, clean, handharvested. A touch over 24 brix, acidity around 6.5 g/L and pH of 3.4

Weighed, then gently tipped into the conveyor.....

Up the Conveyor into the Destemmer, with the open-top fermenter in place below...

No pumping here. The destemmed berries fall directly into the fermenter.

Each fermenter holds around 1.5 tonnes of fruit.

A little sulphur for health and to hold off the wild yeasts for a few days while a pre-ferment maceration takes place (good for colour extraction).