SEQUIM –– Wind Rose Cellars has finished its 10th and final crush of the 2013 winemaking season, finishing off a 25-ton crush of Central Washington grapes that will yield 1,500 cases of wine.
“A lot of people just drink wine and don’t think much about where it comes from or how it’s made,” Wind Rose owner David Volmut said.
Friday’s crush was malbec grapes, a meaty, spicy variety grown at Lonesome Springs Ranch in the Yakima Valley.
Pitchfork-wielding volunteers dumped bunches of the grapes into a steel augur, which separated the fruit from its stems.
The grapes then sat in a frothy mix of juice that will ferment for a week before it is all crushed together, Volmut said.
Volmut said 600 of the grapes will become an individual bottle of wine that will be ready in the spring of 2015.
“It’s always amazing to me how this stuff goes from the fields through the machines and into a glass,” he said.
Most of the process, overseen by Volmut, was shepherded by volunteers.
Along the way, fans of Wind Rose wine help crush the grapes, stir the fermenting mix, manage its chemical composition and pour it into bottles to age.
“That’s the great thing about being in Sequim,” Volmut said. “We have a lot of very talented people that have free time and dedication to do things they love.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.