What happens to all of the grape skins, seeds and stems leftover after processing?
The first step in making wine is running the grapes through the destemmer/crusher which separates the grapes from the stems. The second step is separating either the juice or wine from the skins and seeds in the press. Since we process about 60 tons of grapes at our winery during harvest, a lot of waste is generated. We take all this waste, along with horse manure from neighbors, out to our composting area and turn waste into fertilizer. If you are standing on the deck at the winery in the wintertime (when the leaves are off the trees), you may be able to see the composting area in the field behind the line of trees. There are several compost piles in various states of completeness going from young brown piles to old black piles. Once the piles are nice and black, we spread the completed compost on the dormant grapevines in November to add nutrients, organic matter, and beneficial microorganisms. The use of compost precludes the use of chemical fertilizers and is a large part of our go
