From wine enthusiasts to wine makers

The crush probably won't even register in the 2013 harvest statistics, but that didn't deter a crowd of wine enthusiasts who gathered at a 'pop-up winery' on the weekend to help turn grapes into wine. Motorists on busy Musgrave Road were slowing down and doing a double take as a line of hands hefted buckets emptying nearly half a tonne of New England nebbiolo grapes into a crusher set up on the footpath outside Red Hill wine store, Craft.

The grapes had been freshly picked and transported by winery owner and grape grower Mark Kirkby and Symphony Hill winemaker Mike Hayes from New England for the event.

“It's a chance for Brisbane folk to see and feel the process from start to finish,” said Craft owner and wine writer Tony Harper.

“After this, the fermenting bin is going into the shop, so that people can come and watch and smell and taste it. When its fermented, we'll press, age it in an oak barrel for between 7 months and a year, then finally bottle the stuff.”

Volunteers will keep daily records of the alcohol levels of the wine as it ferments and the natural sugars turn to alcohol, he said.

Hayes, a supporter of natural wine making methods said the wine, which was not only hand crushed, and hand-pressed would also be made without any additives and from wild-caught yeast.

“We'll get about a hog's head worth from this lot; which is about 300 litres or 400 bottles,” he said.

The reward for the urban winemakers, many of whom who ended the afternoon with hands or clothes stained purple, will be a gift of a bottle of their own wine in a year's time.