Chardonnay harvest

Beautiful fruit coming off the vine just before rain forecast the next day. I whole cluster press white grapes instead of sending it through the destemmer first. Bypass the setup, operation, and cleanup of the destemmer and enjoy larger press yields. The sacrifice is much lower throughput. However, you're likely at the winery all day anyway. I like to process immediately after harvest. The warmer juice settles better and absorbs less oxygen than from refrigerated fruit.