The winery here in Maury, Department 66 (both the name of the French Department and the winery….very clever!), is absolutely state-of-the-art.  It is designed for only one thing, making the best possible wine.  Efficiency and ease of cleanliness are stressed in every aspect of design.  Grape reception is handled slowly and with the most gentle handling available.  Grapes are hand dumped onto a conveyer, then through a destemmer, no crushing.  Then they move through a machine that I have seen before in Europe, but not in the states.  Each berry is dropped onto a tray that further sorts for berries that are not “perfect” and also helps remove “jacks” (the little pieces of stems that can add to a green and/or stringent flavor…named for the game that we played as kids as the pieces of stem look like “jacks”).  I have been told by the most up to date wine guy I know David, that there is an addition to this unit that actually can determine grapes with botrytis by “seeing” the color variation.  Soon, we can make wine from our living room couch by remote control!

Harvested Grapes Wait In The Cold Room

Gentle Drop to Conveyor

Drop to Second Conveyor After Destemming

Through the Teeth

The Remaining "Perfect" Berries

Leftover "Jacks" and Other Garbage

Final Blow Though by "The Mistral"

Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness

Department 66