AHLGREN VINEYARD TOUR Views from the winery work pad reach
south across Val's garden and "Greyhound Run
Vineyard." To the north, looking beyond the open top red wine fermentors, coast redwoods form a lush backdrop. (Photo below)
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Moondance Meadow |
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Grapes are now picked into small bins by vineyard crews and trucked to the winery by Dexter. There, the red grapes go directly to the crusher, and white grapes go to the press. Much equipment was updated in 2000.
This photo (right) from the archives shows Granddaughter Sarah Ahlgren Huntley dumping boxes of grapes with Dexter in 1999. Sarah continues assisting with wine analysis, tasting and marketing assignments in addition to her "real" work at the U.C. Davis Marine Biology Lab south of Carmel on the Pacific Coast. From the crusher/destemmer the red grapes, juice, skins and all, go into open- topped fermentors for primary fermentation where wine yeast turns the juice into wine. During the fermentation process, the yeast produces carbon dioxide that floats the skins to the surface of the fermentor. Three to four times a day, the mass of skins called the "cap," are punched down and stirred into the fermenting must to assure extraction of color and phenols and to prevent any drying out of the surface of the cap. |
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