THE CHOICES
SORTING
The Choice
What is Sorting?
Sorting is the process of selecting the best grapes before they are made into wine. The journey begins in the vineyard, where grapes may be picked by hand into small crates or harvested by machine into larger bins. Once they arrive at the winery, the fruit is inspected and any unwanted material leaves, stems, damaged grapes or underripe berries is removed.
The cleaner the fruit entering the winery, the better the foundation for exceptional wine.
Its consequence
Why does it matter?
Not every grape ripens perfectly. Even in an excellent vineyard, there may be damaged, diseased or underripe grapes mixed with healthy fruit. Sorting allows the winemaker to remove anything that could reduce the quality of the wine.
The way the grapes are harvested and transported also matters. Gentle handling keeps the berries intact, while rough handling can cause grapes to split, releasing juice and increasing the risk of oxidation before fermentation even begins.
The range
What does it do to the wine?
Sorting has a direct influence on purity, quality and consistency.
Carefully sorted fruit
Produces cleaner, more precise wines.
Removing damaged grapes
Reduces unwanted flavours and bitterness.
Gentle handling
Preserves freshness and delicate aromas.
More selective sorting
Often results in smaller quantities of higher-quality wine.
For premium wines, every grape matters.
In practice
Common sorting choices
Sorting choices run from the moment of picking to the final berry-by-berry check, each one a different balance of speed, cost and selectivity.
Machine Harvesting
Machines shake the vines so the grapes fall into collection bins.
Fast, efficient and cost-effective, ideal for large vineyards where grapes need to be picked quickly. Modern harvesters are highly sophisticated, but generally less selective than hand harvesting.
Hand Harvesting into Bins
Grapes are picked by hand into larger harvesting bins.
Workers can remove obviously damaged bunches while picking. Common for many premium wines, offering a good balance between quality and efficiency.
Hand Harvesting into Small Crates
Grapes are placed into shallow crates to prevent crushing under their own weight.
One of the gentlest methods, often reserved for the highest-quality wines, where protecting every bunch is a priority.
Manual Sorting Tables
Workers inspect every bunch or berry by hand.
Leaves, stems and imperfect fruit are removed. The most selective method, allowing decisions that machines cannot always make.
Optical Sorting
Cameras and sensors inspect every berry as it passes through the line.
The system rejects grapes based on colour, size or shape with remarkable precision, providing fast and consistent sorting.
In the world of Aurenloch
Selecting what deserves to remain
Sorting is one of the Choices. After a year of responding to the Forces of nature, the winemaker decides what will continue the journey and what will be left behind.
It is a reminder that excellence is often achieved not by adding more, but by carefully selecting what deserves to remain.
Did you know?
Some of the world's finest wineries sort their grapes more than once. A bunch may first be inspected in the vineyard, then sorted by hand at the winery, and finally passed through an optical sorter that examines every individual berry before fermentation begins. This greatly increases the cost of production, but can dramatically improve the purity and consistency of the final wine.