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Mass Produced Grapes
By using pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and unregulated usage of irrigated water - large scale vineyards will reach yields up to 12 tons to the acre. Great quantities of grapes are mechanically harvested into large gondolas and trucked into facilities that look like petroleum refineries. |
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Conventional Crusher/Destemmer
Up to 20 tons of grapes at a time are dumped into huge hoppers with screw augers that rapidly crush and over-macerate the grapes. They use piston-style pumps to move the "must" through long systems of industrial pipes from the crusher to massive stainless steel storage tanks. A 7.5 horsepower pump will move over 30 tons/hr. |
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Factory Fermentation
Large wineries will commonly use tanks that rotate around like cement trucks to speed up the fermentation and aging of the wine. Fermentation Farms have 20,000 gallon fermentation tanks that are 28 feet tall with refrigerated jackets; these vats are so massive that the "must" is pumped over through sprinkler systems. Many times these wineries will add acids, sugars, water, and wood chips instead of oak barrels to impart flavors. |
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Industrial Pressing Machines
Factory wineries will use bladder presses to squeeze every last drop out of the grapes and in the process pop grape seeds into the wine. The UC system has led the charge to take winemaking away from its traditional roots as an agricultural product and make it an applied science. Departments of Enology are changing the course of evolution with these "FrankenWines" - genetically engineering grapevine cells, injecting chemicals into soils to retard insects and other creatures, experimenting with changing the aging process of wine; the driving motive is reducing costs and increasing profits. |
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High Speed Bottling Lines
Big wineries produce millions of cases a year - over 22,000 bottles an hour whiz through the bottling lines at these mammoth facilities. Most of the winemaking process takes place without human intervention. As a result they often produce passionless, cold, mechanical, sterile, and scientific tasting wines. |
