🍷 Sorting table

A sorting table is a table or conveyor at a winery where unwanted material is removed by hand from harvested grapes. Workers pick out rotten and dried berries, leaves, stems and foreign objects. Only then do the grapes go on.

The table is placed before crushing, that is, before the berries become must. That keeps out anything that could spoil the wine. Such selection matters most after a damp season when the bunches carry rot. The table may be vibrating, and modern wineries may use an optical sorter that removes poor berries by colour.

Sorting is part of winemaking and one of its first steps at the winery. It needs people and time, so it is done for higher-level wines. The cleaner the grapes, the cleaner and clearer the taste of the wine. For whites bunches are often sorted, for reds berry by berry.