Grape Crushing at Shelter Rock Winery

A Crushing Experience

Habitat for Humanities’ Ed Grabover crushes grapes for his batch of wine as master wine maker Giovanni Petretta looks on at the Shelter Rock Winery and Wine Making Club, Connecticut’s first Urban Winery. This is the beginning of a joyous wine making process which starts with crushing the grapes and continues all year long climaxing with bottling and labeling. Says Petretta, “ Every step is a celebration...we celebrate with wine, music, and food.” . For more information on parties for community and nonprofit groups or personal celebrations, visit http://shelterrockwinery.com/

For more information: Contact Giovanni (203)744-9488- info@shelterrockwinery.com

The Wine Making Process

This is a season for wine making at Connecticut’s first urban winery, Shelter Rock Wine Making Club. Learning to make wine is a great way to socialize. During the wine making season, you will form great relationships with other members as you crush, press and bottle your wines, enjoying appetizers and wine-tasting during each gathering. In addition to making wine, members are invited to exclusive “members-only” events that are held through-out the season; Autumn Festival, Holiday Party, Spring Awakening, etc.
The grape crushing starts every fall, in the fall we receive fresh grapes from California. Once they arrive, we schedule our first get together for some hands-on wine-making. There are four steps into making wine that members come and take part of. First it’s the crushing of the grapes, where the grapes are dumped into the crusher. As the grapes are being crushed it is a perfect time for club members to socialize, eat, and drink some wine while they wait.
Secondly, comes the pressing of the grapes, Seven to ten days after the crushing, it’s time to press your grapes. Here you will take the fermented must and transfer it into the press. In the old days, we used a manual barrel press, but now we have an automatic bladder press, which makes the process a lot easier! Gentle pressing extracts the juice and now the liquid is ready for aging. Take a taste…and think of what will become.
Step three, In late January, you will come to the winery to rack your wine. Racking means that the wine is pumped out of the barrel and into a fermentation tub. We then clean the sediment out of the barrel and pump the wine back into the barrel. Racking aids in the stabilization and clarification of your wine.
Finally, In Early June to July, the wine has finished aging and you begin “the bottling process”. The wine from your barrel is fed into the bottling machine, then you hit it with the corker. Next you place a capsule on the top of the bottle and heat seal it. We have a variety of labels for you to choose from that will truly customize your wine and make it your own! For businesses, you can even have your bottle glass etched with your logo and company name.
Head winemaker, Giovanni Petretta, and also owner of Shelter Rock Winery, will guide you through the process using state-of-the-art equipment to create a wine to suit your individual taste.

For more information: Contact Giovanni (203)744-9488- info@shelterrockwinery.com

http://shelterrockwinery.com/