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Fading
Traditions
Of
Kefalonian
Life
With the advancement of modern technology, many of the
“old ways” of Kefalonian life are fading out.
Three of the traditions concerning food products, which have faded out in the
past 15 years, are the old methods of making wine and olive
oil, two of the basic products still produced by many people
on the island, and the of collecting and processing sea
salt.
Kefalonian life, at the present, is caught between the
pre-1970’s life style, in which a son would follow in his
father’s footsteps as to job preference, and the
post-1980’s life style, in which a son would rather
further his education than stay home on the farm and take it
over from his father. In
general, for the past twenty years, sons have chosen a job
other than farming. Many
sons have taken a job, but also help to work the farm.
This generation has had a difficult time; for it is
tiring having to work for seven hours at a job and then, go
home, eat dinner and go out to the farm and work until sun
down during the week, and many hours on the weekend.
Most farms have a vineyard and an olive grove, which in
order to be fruitful, require a certain amount of care all
year. This
leaves little time for the son to be at home and to share
time with his family. Although
this is a traditional way of life, many sons think of
giving up the farm. However,
since this is the first generation that is breaking away
from farm life, for many, it is a difficult decision to
make; for each son knows how much and how hard his father
worked on the farm and how much the land and farm mean to
him. In most
cases the father says, “Son, don’t give up the farm,
especially the vineyard and the olive grove, they were my
whole life, and the vineyard and olive grove will give you
wine and oil each year.
Why spend money to buy products which are right in
your backyard?” How can a son refuse his elderly father’s wish?
No matter how tiring and difficult it is for the son
to hold down a full time job and tend to at least the
vineyard and the olive trees, most sons do it out of honor
for their father.
Perhaps in the next generation, this will begin to
change. There
is already evidence of this happening.
The Process of Making
Wine
The
Process of Making Wine
Part I
The Family Vineyard
Although, over the past twenty years the method of
making the wine has changed, the continuous work through out
the year in the vineyard has not. See Table 1 for The
Month-By-Month Care Of The Vineyard.
Table 1
Month-By-Month Care Of The Grape Vineyard
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Month |
Care
Required
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Reason
for care
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January
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Cut dead branches off grape vines
Cut remaining branches leaving 5 buds.
Spread manure or fertilizer
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To make the vines stronger
Have buds for new growth
Feed the vines
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February
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Continue the same
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March
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Plow the ground around the plants.
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To give air to the ground and remove weeds.
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April
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Spray and dust the leaves
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Leaves appear and grow quickly.
They must be kept free of disease and mold.
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May
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Plow the ground again Every 10 days spray and put
sulfur on leaves until June
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Keep weeds from growing
Keep leaves free of bugs and
disease.
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June
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Cut the top branches
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To make the grapes vines stronger, and allow
the grapes to absorb more water and plant fluids.
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July
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According to weather,
spraying
or dusting with sulfur powder
Clean the
wine barrels
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Keep bugs and disease off of the plants
Clean and repair barrels so they are ready for
fresh wine.
See Table 3 for process and reasons.
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August
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When the grapes are ripe, after 15th
August,
cut
the grapes.
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Between mid Aug. and end of Sept., depending or the
variety of grapes,
Cut the grapes and make the wine.
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September
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Cut the grapes, make the wine
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September
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Send sample of wine to chemist
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To see what it might need. To make good wine,
certain substances must be present in the juice.
Chemists state what to add, if anything is needed.
Wine is ready for drinking, approx. six weeks after
the juice is stored.
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October
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Nothing
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November
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Nothing
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December
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Nothing
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Part
II The
Process of Making Wine
Grape
Juice To Wine
The method of making wine has evolved from stamping
grapes with the feet (a tradition, which in general, faded
out in the late 70’s early 80’s, although some
traditionalist still carry it on), to crushing the grapes
with a tiller, to running them through a machine, which
crushes the grapes, extracts and filters the juice, and
pumps it into the prepared barrels in a very short period of
time. See Table
2: The Basic Methods Used To Produce Wine, for an explanation
of these methods.
Table 2
The Basic Methods Used To Produce Wine
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Method
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Foot
stamping
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Tiller
and stamping
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Automatic
wine press and pump
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The Pre-picking:
This information is basic to all of the systems.
When one enters the vineyard, it is impossible
not to cut a bunch of grapes and eat them !!!!!
When the vineyard owner believes that the
grapes are ripe, he goes into the vineyard and picks
about 12 to 16 clusters of grapes, each bunch from
different plants scattered throughout the
vineyard.
He then squashes the grapes in a colander, collecting the
juice in a bowl.
After transferring the juice to a bottle, he
measures its density. ( Instead of using 1.2, they say 12.) If the reading is below 12, they leave the grapes to ripen
for about 6-8 days.
By then the reading should be about 13, a
reading that means that there is enough sugar present
for fermentation to take place.
The Picking:
On the appointed day the grapes are picked and placed in
plastic boxes with holes in the sides and the bottom,
or in baskets.
When the picking is complete
the grapes are taken to the building where the wine
will be made.
Grapes are put into the room used
for crushing.
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In
the meantime:
In the past 15 years, many people
have replaced their old wooden barrels with plastic or
stainless steel barrels. It is noted that, before the grapes are
pressed, the barrels are cleaned
and replaced on their stand.
Barrels are always kept off of the floor so
that they remain dry.
The crates of grapes are stacked outside of the Katoi,
the room where the wine barrels are stored, leaving
room for the tractor and the pressing machine. The
presser must be close to the katoi, since the pressed
juice goes from the machine through a hose to the
barrels.
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Explanation:
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The
Crushing of the Grapes/ Obtaining the juice::
Each worker
washes his feet, jumps into the place used for
crushing the grapes, and stamps the grapes until all
are crushed.
Then, the remaining fragmented grapes are taken to the
press, which is turned by two men, to remove the
remaining juice.
Processing
of the Grape Juice:
For
Stamping and Tiller Method:
The grape juice flows from the floor
where the grapes are crushed, through a basket, which
acts as a filter and then down into a clean cement
trough. See
the basket receiving juice from the floor, and the
cement trough, down, left of the basket.
This juice is then tested for its sugar content with
the hydrometer.
After the reading is
taken, the juice is put into the barrels. Before 1990,
it was taken to the barrels in a metal container,
which held 10 liters.
After 1990 it was taken by a pumping system
with hose from the trough to the barrels.
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A combination of workers
stamping
grapes, and
a
tiller, are used to crush
the grapes.
The crushed grapes are then taken to the
press, which is turned by two men, to remove remaining
juice.
From
this point on, see column one for tiller method.
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A large machine on the
trailer of a tractor arrives where the grapes are
stacked and the barrels are stored.
Slowly, box by box the grapes are put into the
hopper of the machine.
Inside of the machine there is a large screw,
which pushes the grapes to the end of a tube where
they are pressed.
The
crushed grapes, stems and twigs are pushed out the
back of the machine and
disposed of. The thick sludge that contains the grape skins is passed
out of another opening and disposed of.
The filtered grape juice is pumped through a hose into the opening at
the top of
the barrel.
From here on the system is the same for all
methods of making wine:
After the barrel is full, the measurement of the
density of the juice is taken.
It must be 1.2 (12) or over, so that the juice
will not become vinegar due to lack of sugar.
To do this measurement, a bottle is used to
collect grape juice from the tap.
The first bottle collected is emptied, since
any water left in the tap after cleaning would dilute the juice.
The
juice collected a second time is then measured with a
hydrometer.
After
this test, the juice in the barrel is stirred with a
stick to make a homogenous mixture.
The test is done again; many times, the results
are a half a point higher.
After
the testing, a chemical, which kills fungus found on
the grape plants, is put into a sack and lowered into
the juice. It
dissolves, disperses and kills the fungi.
So
that gas can escape during fermentation, a cloth is
put over the small hole in the lid of the large
opening at the top of the barrel.
A small bottle, ½ liter, of the juice is then
collected, labeled
and taken for chemical analysis.
The result of the analysis is sent back to the
wine owner, telling him what he must add to the juice
in order for it to ferment and produce good wine.
Whatever is recommended is added to the juice
in the barrels, and the juice is left to ferment for
4-6 weeks. During this time, one can hear the bubbling
of the fermentation in the barrel.
Finally,
the Wine
At
the end of 6 weeks, when the bubbling is no longer
heard, the fermentation process is complete and the
barrels are full of clear, aromatic wine.
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Basic
cost
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Workers were paid by the day, to stamp
the grapes. Before 1980, these people were usually
given a Greek coffee during the stamping and a lunch
of meat and soup afterward.
Basically though, groups of people in the
village helped each other. They were “paid”, by
having the help of the others, when they made wine.
Many of the villagers were poor, so by helping
each other they all had wine and did not have to pay
anyone for the help.
Not every family in the village had
a room for stamping grapes.
The families who had the room would allow
villagers into the room for the purpose of stamping
their grapes. The
villagers, who had large vineyards, would leave 10
kilos of wine as payment. The villagers, who had very small vineyards, did not pay.
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The cost of the machine, gasoline and three
workers, if family members were available to help.
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Payment of the man who brings the machine
and for one or two workers.
However, there are usually family members, who
also drink the wine, to help with this job; so there
is usually no cost for helpers.
General idea of cost: Each of
these methods was used in a different economic period.
In general the automatic system is the most
efficient and economical.
The general cost is: 1.20 Euros per plastic
container of picked grapes.
If one had 70 boxes of grapes, the usual amount
for one picking, he would pay about 90 Euros.
From 70 boxes of grapes the wine owner would
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