Indian Hills Winery

Indian Hills Winery has had a busy couple of days.  With the help of family and friends, the Cayuga and LaCrescent grapes have been harvested.  For those familiar with the vineyard, this represents the plot of grapes to the left of the road as you come up the hill.   Wednesday evening the group picked 1137 lbs of LaCrescent and 1837 lbs of Cayuga for a total pick of 1.49 tons for the evening.  The evening started hot and sweaty and ended with everyone swatting mosquitoes.  We called it a night around 8:45 when we could no longer see or deal with the biting insects.  We started again early Thursday morning (some earlier than others) to finish up the Cayuga, picking another 1490 lbs to add to the previous night’s pick.  Altogether, we harvested 3328 lbs of Cayuga which is an increase of about a ton from last year.  Martie, Tom Buttry and David Sifford worked in the fermentation room all day today pressing the juice so the yeast could be added this evening to start the wine making process.  The 1137 lbs of LaCrescent yielded about 70 gallons of juice whereas the 3328 lbs of Cayuga yielded about 260 gallons of juice.  Yeast and yeast nutrient have been added and the fermentation process has begun.  The next grapes to be harvested will be the Traminette which are the other white grapes that we have on the right hand side of the road as you come up the hill.  These will probably be ready to pick the week after homecoming.  The Chambourcin have started turning purple but won’t be ready to harvest until September.

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