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Rijk's Whole bunch pressing of Chardonnay grapes for our MCC Brut

We brought in our first crates of Chardonnay for our MCC on Friday morning, 25 January at 2am. We mainly harvest at night, as daytime temperatures in Tulbagh normally soar to about 35 - 40 degrees Celsius. It is firstly much better conditions for our harvesters to work under at night, when it is cooler. Once the workers get used to it, they actually prefer picking at night.

We press the Chardonnay in whole bunches, in order to get lower phenolics, which means lesser chance of 'bitterness' in the MCC
At least a glass of bubbles stored away in these gorgeous grapes!
Bastien adding sulphur to the grapes just before the press starts, to inhibit any bacterial or fungal growth
Bastien, one of our our helping hands, all the way from the Rhone Valley in France!
Grape juice is filtered to the silver bucket (on wheels) underneath the press and then pumped to a tank inside the cellar where it is cooled and the fermentation process start
Grapes after all the perfectly sweet juice has been pressed out of it. Wonderful compost remains which is driven away from the cellar for later use on the farm in the gardens
Helize, one of our cellar-hands, fresh out of Elsenburg College, doing her first harvest at Rijk's
On the left, Bastien is emptying the crates of Chardonnay bunches into the press. On the right, all bunches are sorted by hand to remove leaves and unsuitable bunches
Pierre delivering full crates of Chardonnay grapes to the press
The press working hard, gently extracting juice from the whole bunches. Here you can see the pipes connecting the press with the tank to which the grape juice is being pumped.
We press the Chardonnay in whole bunches, in order to get lower phenolics, which means lesser chance of 'bitterness' in our MCC
A very 'pregnant' press, filled with Chardonnay grapes to the brim, ready to press!