Nick and the Grape Stemmer/Crusher

This past week I had the great good fortune to make a trip out to Oregon and visit my friends there. I spent most of my time with the Botner family. The grapes were ready to harvest, so I was able to help Nick pick the wine crop. The birds got some of the harvest, but we still were able to pick many tubs. Shown here is the machine Nick uses to de-stem the grape clusters. At the same time, two rotating drums at the bottom of the hopper, crush the grapes. I love this tool. It is a great time saver. In no time at all it will process many hundreds of pounds of grapes. After the grapes are crushed, yeast is added and so begins the conversion of sugars into alcohol.