It's Exhausting, It's Time Consuming, It's The Crush

If you're at all familiar with the process of winemaking, then you know it involves weeks of arduous labor and an exhaustive process. For California winemakers, the months of September to November are a busy winemaking period – it's called the crush. The crush is a fitting phrase because for a two-month period, the process of winemaking involves sixteen-hour days, seven days a week. From picking the grapes at precisely the right peak of ripeness to the process of crushing the grapes into wine and then aging the fermented juice in barrels, the crush is by far the busiest time for the operations of a winery. It's no wonder the process involves so much busy labor when the timing of days and even hours can affect the quality of the wine produced.