In article ,
songbird wrote:

Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
Billy wrote:
...
For us workers, this season, with its slow ripening means that we aren't
being confronted with large amounts of grapes to process in a short
time, and the grapes are coming in at a leisurely pace, which has cut
into our overtime. All this could change with the arrival of storm
clouds, but so far there are none on the horizon. If rain does start to
come soon, everyone will try to save their harvest by picking everything
that they can, and we will return to our normal "bedlam".



feast or famine farming...
Wineries are having problems of not enough work for their pickers, and
cellar crews to keep them busy. They can't afford to let them go,
because they may lose them for when they need them.

flash freezing is out of the question? to take
care of too much too quickly times so they could
get by with a smaller regular crew to process...

liquid nitrogen bubble bath.


songbird

It is possible. Flash freezing has been done, most notably with grapes
from Chile to California, but those are fairly inexpensive grapes. Here
we are talking about grapes that already cost $2000 to $5000 per ton
(and up. Only marijuana growers make more money.). Where I'm working,
the winery is over staffed, the wine over scrutinized, and the wines
sell from $40 to $120 per bottle. I agree, it's crazy, but they have
people standing in line to buy it. To you, or to me, it is a beverage.
To other people, it is status symbol. I can't afford it, even with my
50% discount for being an employee.

Flash freezing has the additional benefit of breaking the cell walls in
the grape, and it gives more juice when pressed. The real problem is
lack of fermentation tanks to put your grapes into. Normally, for a
short term problem, we use dry ice and SO2 in the picking bins, or
tanker trucks with cooling units, but if everybody needs them, it
becomes impractical.

Presently, we are having a 3 day hot spell, in the 90s,
and the grapes are producing more sugar. Today was the first day that it
felt like the harvest to me. I had an 11.5 hr. day. Yee ha.

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or
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