Mechanical grape sorting system for premium wines

Now that the harvest is over, it is time to share with you one of the most amazing machines that the winemakers have now available (at a pretty high cost) to sort grapes. This new grape sorting system is working in Fundação Eugénio de Almeida, one of the most prestigious and serious wineries in Alentejo, making the remarkable Pera Manca. My sister Cláudia and me visited our friend Pedro Baptista, the Head Winemaker, at the beginning of September, few days before we start collecting grapes in our vineyards.

Going through the video, you will see that the grapes come in aprox 180 kg boxes to the crushing and destemming machine. After the grapes are crashed and destemmed – and now comes the novelty – they are put on a rug that moves very fast making sure that berries is spaced. The machine will analyse all berries and if it identifies a berry that does not match the parameters defined by the winemaker, such as too green, already raisin, rot or anything else, the machine will blow a precise breath over the unaccepted berry and is taken off the of line. Impressive!

See you soon,