CAROL & THE BOYS

We had our first harvest and crush in 2005 (not for sale because prior to obtaining our bond). In this photo you see Carol, who is the owner, manager, laborer (you get the idea) and our two sons, Jack and Alex. We use the press (in the background) to remove the new wine from the grape skins.

ALL THE BOYS

Doug, Jack, Alex, and one of our four big guard dogs - Zak. We've all gotten older since this picture was taken!

THE REST OF THE GIRLS

Daughter Meghan and granddaughter Julia, living in upstate NY but here in spirit, shown in this July 2009 photo.

ON THE VINE

Here's one of our favorite sights - grapes on the vine just about ready for harvest. About the size of blueberries, everyone who helps us harvest is always surprised at their sweet flavor.

GRAPES, GRAPES, GRAPES

These are freshly harvested grapes, waiting to be placed into the crusher.

THE CRUSH

Here's Carol & Doug doing some of the hard work - feeding the grapes, still on the stems from harvest, into the crusher/de-stemmer. The stems go out one end, and the must (the juice with the crushed skins) is pumped out the other end.

MUST

Here's the must (juice still mixed in with the skins from the grapes) from the 2009 harvest. After grapes are harvested, they're crushed and pumped back into the fruit bin for the initial fermentation. After several days "on the skins" the must is pressed to separate the juice from the skins.

PUNCHING JOB

During the initial fermentation, the grape skins float to the top of the "must" and can cause fermentation to stop ("stuck" fermentation). So it has to be "punched down" 3-4 times a day. In this photo from our 2006 harvest, Jack and Alex get their start in the family business.

PREPARING THE PRESS

We have an old-fashioned hand-cranked press, in which we place the must to squeeze the juice from the skins. Here, Carol and Doug are cleaning the press prior to using it after the 2009 harvest.

FREE RUN

We transfer the must to the press using a sanitized bucket (hi-tech!). In this photo, there's juice freely pouring from the press even before the skins are pressed - this juice is called the "free run" and has different qualities than the juice that flows during actual pressing.