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Vintage in the Vale – Part 4

Richard Hemming MW headshot
Richard Hemming MW
Wednesday 5 March 2008

Years ago at school when reliable catchers were needed for cricket, I was constantly being asked. To stay well out of the way.

Years later at the winery, I am constantly being asked to transfer wine – to be settled, fermented, blended, racked, filtered; at every stage it moves to a different vessel. And, to my utter dismay, with every movement there comes a process called catching.
It runs as follows: after emptying your source tank, you are left with hoses full of wine. Say you have eighty metres of two-inch hose: rudimentary arithmetic tells you that equates to approximately...