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Black Grapes:
In August, the vintage is approaching. Black grapes turn colour. General upkeep, and the cleaning and preparation of the vats and casks to be used, keeps everyone busy.
September is the vintage month. In about the third week the grapes are ripe and picking begins. The cuvier where the wine will be made is scoured out and the fermenting vats filled with water to swell the wood.Harvesting grapes has traditionally been done by hand cutting the fruit from the vine. Because of the increasing cost of field labor, mechanical devices for shaking the fruit off the vines are being developed. While mechanical methods of harvesting may be satisfactory for wine or raisin grapes, damage to Table grapes may be too great. Table grapes may be picked directly into shipping boxes in the field or may be picked, moved to a packing shed, and packed there.
Juice. Grape juice in the United States is produced almost exclusively from Concord grapes. In Europe hybrids of V. vinifera and V. labrusca and wine grapes are often used for making juice. For white juice the grapes are crushed and the juice separated by processing. It is then stabilized, clarified, and bottled hot. Some sulfur dioxide is usually used. For red juice the crushed grapes are heated and then pressed and stabilized, clarified, and bottled as above. Some grape concentrate (produced under vacuum) is produced for commercial sale to be diluted by the con-
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