Making wine from grapes

I’m John, the winemaker for J&D Cellars. Dot said I need to have a blog but I don’t know what that is, so I’m going to just tell it like it is here at the winery. Some of our friends that are members of the Washington County Winemakers Society and Washington County Chapter of the American Wine Society wanted to make wine from fresh grapes. We have the right equipment here at J&D Cellars but it’s the wrong time of the year for grapes. As summer is approaching here in the states, it is fall in South America. The grapes in Chile would be great for us to use but they are a long way from Pennsylvania. Ron Casertano from Consumers Fresh Produce was able to arrange the transportation for us and the grapes arrived in Pittsburgh this weekend. Our order of 3600 pounds of Malbec, 900 pounds of Cab and 900 pounds of Merlot were shipped to us in 18 pound lugs that arrived in excellent condition. Follow my posts for the next couple of weeks and I will talk you through making wine from fresh grapes and try to give you the information about why I do what I do to make wine for our winery. Watch for pictures and videos of the process here at www.jndcellars.com.