#grapeporn

If you don't follow Jasmine Hirsch on social media, then you missed a pretty spectacular Instagram post. I'll let the caption and photos speak for themselves, but if you're just as fascinated by the winemaking process as I am, this will be quite a treat:

We all tend to post pictures of perfect clusters, as we're understandably proud of them. But that doesn't represent the full range of viticultural challenges facing grape farmers and winemakers, especially in a complex vintage like this one. Here are some examples of imperfect clusters. On the left, an underripe, rosy cluster. This will be thrown away. In the middle, a cluster that is starting to shrivel and turn into raisins. This may or may not make it past the sorting line. The last is a cluster that is shattered - bad weather in the spring resulted in only a few of the flowers pollinating and producing grapes. Shatter effects yields as well as winemaking decisions.