Country Enterprise - Winemakers can process your grapes and return wine to the vineyard for sale.

<P> Most grapes grown in the open end up as wine.</P><P>You may wish to make the wine yourself or you may prefer to have it made for you. In our area there is one large producer who makes almost all the local wine. The grapes are harvested at the respective vineyards, transported, turned into wine and then returned to the vineyards where the wine is sold, directly and through retail outlets, as the produce of that vineyard. </P><P>The problem with this kind of manufacture seems to be that as most of the grapes are of the same variety and the method of production is similar, the only possible major factor influencing the flavour is the soil itself. Although this certainly does produce variations it would be nice to have some other differences due to different manufacturers. </P><P>Grapes do still grow under glass today. We have a vine, some eighteen foot wide and very aged. We did not plant it ourselves and so cannot say with truth if it ever had a bullock planted to nourish it. However, it does do its own thing pretty well and with only a little care, produced well over a hundred pounds of grapes last summer. </P><P>To construct the size of greenhouse this vine needs today would be uneconomical. It certainly is delightful to be able to pick great bunches of delicious dessert grapes. We pickled some of them in vinegar with mustard and sold them as an accompaniment to Christmas ham. </P><P>There is another slightly hidden crop from our grapevine. There are many more leaves produced than the vine needs. These make delicious dolmades, stuffed with rice, tomatoes, garlic and meat if you like. They also make a delicious addition to a salad or they can be cooked in a tomato-flavoured casserole with a large squeeze of lemon juice.</P> <P> <A HREF=orchard6.htm>winemakers process grapes</A></P>