Vino In My Dino

Pomace Me

September 23, 2014 15:40

If I had the ability to provide scratch and sniff blog posts then I would bottle up the smell of fermenting grapes and share with the world. The pungency of these aromas is a large part of my love for harvest time and the late summer and fall in wine country. In many other areas the autumnal smell of mulch among the trees can be just as pungent after a first rain, but I am partial to the byproduct of young wine in the making. Another physical byproduct of winemaking is pomace, ahh the aromas that go back to my childhood…pungent, cloying, fruit-fly attracting. In case you didn’t know, it consists of the skins and seeds left over from the fermentation process. Upon completion, the hose is attached to the tank and drained into a wine press. The skins and seeds are separated at this time and conveyed into a truck that brings the spent skin/seed mixture to a hillside to ‘age’ or dry out. Once the pile has ‘taken the cure’ it will be used in our vineyards to provide fertilization. I remember we even used the dried pomace in the vegetable gardens, putting it around our zucchini and tomato plants to enrich the soil. All this talk of fermenting has me thirsty—I'm pouring a little vino in my Dino to toast another day.

Pomace

Tags: Pedroncelli, Harvest, sustainability
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