Once the bodega has had its first post-harvest clean we turn our attention to the cases that we use for collecting grapes. Like everything else in the cellar they are coated with a layer of sticky grape juice, which if allowed to dry, ends up like a coat of solid lacquer.
We subsequently spend about 4 days, with two pressure washers, cleaning each case individually (about 2,000 cases in total). Once dried they remain untouched for the next 51 weeks in our grape reception, awaiting the following harvest. Actually, when I stop and think about it, we actually have a lot of equipment that is only used once a year at harvest time. Not forgetting that there are also huge sections of the bodega itself that are used only once a year - the grape reception and pressing room, for example. Not exactly the most efficient use of our resources.
If only we could work out a way to share these facilities with our counterparts in the southern hemisphere, or perhaps have two harvests a year as I believe they do in some parts of India......
On second thoughts, no thanks, one harvest a year is more than enough!
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