At the end of a growing season, the vines are trimmed, which helps prepare them for the next harvest. The vines are tied onto wires to help protect them from the cold. (This also occurs at |the end of the season.) 1. Trimming: 2. Tying: 3. Hilling: Dirt is piled up around the roots to help protect them from frost. 4. Conditioning: After the snow melts in the spring, dirt is leveled back from the roots. The vines are untied from the wires to allow them freedom to grow during the spring and summer months. The vines are sprayed in the spring to protect them from disease and insects. 5. Untying: 6. Chemical spraying: All of the grapes of both varieties are picked by hand to minimize damage. Batches of grapes are hand-loaded into a machine, which gently removes the stems and mildly crushes them. 7. Harvesting: 8. Stemming and crushing: 9. Pressing: 10. Filtering: After removal from the stemmer/crusher, the juice runs freely from the grapes. The grapes are crushed mechanically to render more juice from them. The riesling grape juice is placed in stainless steel tanks for fermentation. The chardonnay grape juice undergoes a two-stage fermentation process in oak barrels. The riesling wines are aged in the stainless steel tanks for approximately a year. The chardonnays are aged in the oak barrels for about two years. A machine bottles the wine and corks the bottles. 11. Fermentation: 12. Aging: 13. Bottling: 14. Labeling: Each bottle is manually labeled with the name of the vintner, vintage, and variety. The bottles are manually packed in 12-bottle cases. 15. |Рacking: 16. Case labeling: The cases are hand-stamped with the same information that the bottles received. The wine is shipped to wine distributors and retailers, mainly in central New York. Generally, about 100 cases are shipped at a time. 17. Shipping: 18. Maintenance on buildings: This is done during the slow winter months. 19. Maintenance on equipment: This is done when needed, and on a routine basis for preventive maintenance.