Careful friends will find that some wine labels will have the words "Vendange maunuelle" (Vendange maunuelle). Everyone knows that manual picking means more manpower is invested, which is expensive in labor. Western wine-producing countries mean higher production costs. Is this kind of wine synonymous with high-end wine?

In some wine-producing countries in the New World, such as Australia, which are vast and sparsely populated, "machine picking" "It's more common. In the past, machine picking meant that the picking process was rough. The vibration during the picking process might break some grape fruits and pick some green fruits and grape leaves. If the screening is too rough after picking, good grapes and bad grapes will be mixed with grape leaves and stems into the fermentation tank, and inferior tannins will be mixed in, resulting in a decrease in the taste of the wine.

In addition, during the machine picking process, a large number of grapes are temporarily stored in the storage tank of the picking machine. Under the action of gravity, the mutual squeeze will also cause more fruits to break prematurely.

The biggest advantage of manual picking is that the picking process is relatively delicate. Pickers can sift while picking and discard green and rotten fruits. In addition, the picking baskets for manual picking are also relatively small and easy to carry. The grapes are less pressed against each other and there is relatively less breakage.

In other words, manual picking of grapes has better quality, is not easy to break and ferment in advance, and can also use less sulfur dioxide (preservative). Under the same brewing process conditions, the possibility of bacterial contamination is relatively small. The wine produced in this way has richer aroma and excellent tannins.

But the wine produced by hand-picked grapes must be better than that produced by machine picking? In fact, if machine picking means low-quality grape raw materials, it is not reasonable for the low-grade wine. If the winery or winery strictly selects the grape raw materials after entering the factory, the quality of the raw materials can also be guaranteed. With the development of science and technology, the most advanced picking machines are closer to the level of manual picking, and are even better than manual picking in terms of efficiency. Pick a big piece.

The efficiency of manual picking is not as good as one-tenth of that of machine picking. If the weather changes suddenly during picking, the unpicked grapes will be exposed to the rain. Not only will the harvest be reduced, but there is also the possibility of mold. Machine picking can not be afraid of wind and rain, and can also take advantage of the low temperature at night to pick ripe grapes to avoid the high temperature after dawn.

Some hillside vineyards have steep terrain slopes, or the spacing between grape rows and plants is too small, making machine picking impossible, or the grape varieties are particularly easy to break, such as Pinot Noir. In these production areas, it will be stipulated that if the wine is marked with a legal production area, it must be manually harvested.

Of course, in order to promote the noble origin of their wines, some wine merchants will also use the name of "hand-picked" to sell cheap wines. Consumers of this kind of wine should be careful!

Wine has a saying of “30% brewing, 70% planting.” Picking is the end of the planting process, and another third depends on the brewing process. Therefore, even if you have good raw materials, the winemaker’s skills and equipment are also very important. , simply using manual picking as a synonym for high-end wine is incomplete and inaccurate!

The timing of grape picking is one of the keys to brewing a high-quality wine. Harvesting grapes too early will result in insufficient ripeness of the grapes, resulting in wine with too high acidity, low alcohol content, and more green fruit flavors and aromas.

Of course, grapes can be harvested by hand or mechanically. The advantage of mechanical harvesting is that it is fast, but it has certain requirements on the topography of the vineyard and requires relatively gentle and open conditions. In addition, mechanical harvesting cannot be used for grapes that require whole bunches.