Racking the Chardonnay

Winemaker Robert Paul, BVW202 Wine Production I lecturer, took the second years through the racking process transfering the wine off its lees into a vessel for fermentation.

Crushing, destemming and pressing

The 1st year students, under the watchful eye of Micah, crushed, destemmed and pressed the Chardonnay in preparation for the return of the 2nd years.

Under instruction from the 2nd years the wine was sent to be cold settled in the coolroom for 7 days. Tasting good already!

Picking

The 1st year students and the teaching staff ventured to Steve Pride's vineyard at Panton Hill, Victoria, for a morning of grape picking. In all, two bins totalling 580 kg of handpicked chardonnay were collected for the 2nd years to convert into (hopefully) award-winning wine. The speed of picking was furious, probably due to the tyrannical rule of crew-leader-for-the-day Frank 'Iron bar' Mollo.