After the grapes were picked, I hauled them in 5-gallon plastic buckets to the cook shack for processing.
Our set up at the cook shack consists of a crusher, a bladder press and a concrete floor that drains easily and consequently can be cleaned easily
We then ready the crushed grapes for pressing. Some have been kept covered and cooled for several days to allow the color and taste from the must to get into the juice.
The must is then loaded into the press with an old pot (sterilized) in which my mother cooked string beans probably forty years ago. The crushed grapes might not look very enticing to some, but to me and other amateur wine makers it's beautiful. If it looks bad, just remember how good sausage tastes.
When the bladder is inflated, the juice is at last released from its confinement in the pulp and peel of the grape. For neophytes like me, it's a telling moment of truth and excitement. After months of pampering and nurturing the growing plants and fruit, the gold is released from the soil and now can be made ready for the next step that will make it all worth while ... or not.
Capture every last drop now and take it to Pam's fermentation room in the new barn where ordinary grape juice will become muscadine wine.
