# Do winemakers wash their grapes?



## William Butrell (Sep 18, 2019)

I know of an Italian winemaker that washes their grapes according to a process, but wonder if that's the only winery that washes their red wine grapes?


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## Johnd (Sep 18, 2019)

William Butrell said:


> I know of an Italian winemaker that washes their grapes according to a process, but wonder if that's the only winery that washes their red wine grapes?



Washing grapes, unless you have some severe, grape threatening reason, isn’t part of the regimen.


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## William Butrell (Sep 18, 2019)

I have a red wine, and I know there's dirt in it, because I have containers with dirt on the bottom, plants, and I changed to having gravel in the dirt and a thin sand layer to block the black water, and the wine reminded me of when I didn't try to block the dirt in those containers, that is, there's very little dirt in the water in my drinking water containers because the black dirt was harsh.


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## Johnd (Sep 19, 2019)

Having dirt or mud all over your grapes would seem to be reason enough to wash them. Perhaps spray them down before you pick them, give em some time to dry.


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## William Butrell (Sep 19, 2019)

bump


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## jgmillr1 (Sep 21, 2019)

William Butrell said:


> I know of an Italian winemaker that washes their grapes according to a process, but wonder if that's the only winery that washes their red wine grapes?



Wineries do not generally wash the grapes. Think of rinsing the 4+ tons that can come in from each acre! You wouldn't want to water down the wine anyway with residual water on the grapes.

Therefore if the grapes are not washed, you will end up with dirt, spiders, bird nests, sprinklers, and bird droppings coming in on the grapes. These are part of the expected MOG (material other than grapes) that you get in the must especially with machine harvesters. Some wineries do sort out MOG as the grapes roll by on a conveyer. Otherwise, it just settles out or is left behind during pressing. Mmm, terroir.


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## buzi (Sep 22, 2019)

jgmillr1 said:


> Wineries do not generally wash the grapes. Think of rinsing the 4+ tons that can come in from each acre! You wouldn't want to water down the wine anyway with residual water on the grapes.
> 
> Therefore if the grapes are not washed, you will end up with dirt, spiders, bird nests, sprinklers, and bird droppings coming in on the grapes. These are part of the expected MOG (material other than grapes) that you get in the must especially with machine harvesters. Some wineries do sort out MOG as the grapes roll by on a conveyer. Otherwise, it just settles out or is left behind during pressing. Mmm, terroir.



I have seen some interesting MOG from the mechanical pickers ranging from grasshoppers, snakes and lots of mice. Hopefully they all get picked out!!

Hence most places will hand pick. The hand picking tends to be much more gentle on the berries too.


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## William Butrell (Sep 23, 2019)

The reason I was asking is because Pojer e Sandri washes their grapes like in a jacuzzi bubbler and then has a dryer. I looked online to purchase and they require 11 bottles to be purchased. How would somebody get just one bottle, ask the local liquor store if they can order a bottle? I was trying to get their pinot nero.


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## VictorV (Sep 24, 2019)

I had that same question when I started researching winemaking. I kept looking in videos to see how they washed
the grapes  I read a study that showed a greatly-reduced level of nasty chemicals in the wine when the grapes
are washed. The theory goes that you don't drink enough wine every day for the chemicals to add up to much.
There are machines that wash, dry and sort the grapes according to size if you want to splurge. Any solids will
probably be gone after a press so hopefully what's left is not a big issue. My goal during sort is to remove anything
I would not want to eat. Within reason....

Victor


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