One trend gaining popularity in high end red wine production is the use of whole berry fermentation. Completely eliminate the crusher wheels on the destemmer. The act of destemming and pumping the berries will crush them to a small extent anyway. One decision here was made at the inception of the winery, to eliminate the use of a must pump altogether. This was primarily a cost savings consideration. A must pump can be the single most expensive piece of equipment in the winery

When talking about weather in the Mid Atlantic wine industry, there's a common phrase that's laden with a little cynicism, humor, and sarcasm. Ask a vineyard manager or winemaker their thoughts on the growing season and they may answer "it was about normal, whatever that means." The beginning of September had me fearing the worst. While the overall growing season was wet, it was at least warm. Then the last week of August saw the daily high temperatures drop into the 70s. The