Making wine might sound glamorous to you and me, but it’s a tough job. Here, former winemaker Ben Chan – now a member of our BBX team – recalls a typically non-stop day in the cellar.

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” It must be 5am; it feels like I only closed my eyes a few seconds ago, but here we go.

It’s a warm autumn morning in countryside Australia. After a quick breakfast I’m at the winery and catching up with Drew and Katerina, the night shift team.

They had a good shift, problem-free. The press has only 30 minutes left of its cycle and the next 10 bins of Chardonnay are weighed and ready to go. “Nice one. See you tonight.”

Jean arrives. He’s the vintage intern. His family have a vineyard in the South of France and he’s here to learn how we do things Down Under.

Alcoholic fermentation is underway in some of the tanks. I ask Jean to check the temperature and sugar level of each of them. Managing the fermentation is one of my primary concerns. These checks help me to follow how each tank is progressing and make any adjustments as necessary.

I go to the office to see the boss, who lets me know the vineyard team are machine-harvesting Merlot and hand-picking Pinot Noir.

The press cycle has finished, and Jean is back. I ask if he’d rather clean the press or start the pump-overs and punch-downs for the red wines. He chooses the reds, so it looks like I’m getting wet.

I empty the skins from the press, unplug it, then hop in and hose it out. Next, I jump on the forklift and fill the press with the rest of the Chardonnay. I connect this to the free-run tank, start the pressing cycle and collect a sample for laboratory analysis.

Back in the office we have a taste of the Chardonnay juice and take some measurements. After tasting, we decide it could do with a little more acidity for balance and freshness, so we’ll add some tartaric acid. It’s best to add it before fermentation as the result will be more harmonious.

Jean has laid out samples of all the tanks. They all taste great except for one, which is a bit stinky. During fermentation, yeast can sometimes get stressed and produce sulphides, which smell of rotten eggs. We check the chart; this one is still in the first half of fermentation, so we will give it some air by doing a rack, splash and return. The air will help blow off some of the sulphides and give the yeast a bit of a boost. Hopefully this will clean it up.

We inoculated a tank of Chardonnay yesterday, and we can see that the sugar level has dropped a bit. We’ll transfer this one into smaller oak barrels. Fermenting in barrel gives better oak integration with the fruit, but we want to make sure the fermentation is already going strong. Inoculating in barrel can be riskier as you have multiple vessels to manage.

It’s been a while, so I should check the press. Once I taste an increase in bitterness or a decrease in acidity, I’ll make the cut over to the pressings tank.

I’m hungry; must be lunch time.

The first truck from the vineyard arrives with the Merlot. Back on the forklift, I unload the picking bins and weigh them. Jean has set it up so that the grapes go from the sorting table, through the chiller and into a fermenter tank which holds about 10 tonnes. We’ll keep the must chilled around four degrees Celsius for a day or two before warming and inoculating it with yeast. This cold soak will allow greater extraction of colour, fruit aromas and flavours from the skins without adding too much astringency from the tannins.

Next up is the Pinot Noir. We’ve got just three tonnes of it, so we’ll use smaller open-top fermenters. Open fermenters allow us to use a portion of whole bunches as well as de-stemmed fruit. The whole-bunch element will enhance the bright red-fruit character of the Pinot Noir. These vessels also allow more precise control over smaller batches; we can gently work the cap by hand for lighter extraction.

Jean and I start to barrel down the Chardonnay and clean the processing equipment. Back in the office there are some grape samples from the vineyard: more Chardonnay and Merlot, and some Shiraz. We crush them up, do the chemical analysis and taste. The Chardonnay and Merlot are both ready to be picked, but the Shiraz is a little low in sugar and tastes a touch green, so we’ll leave that to ripen further.

The vineyard team have brought more fruit for processing, so I’m back on the forklift and unloading the truck. I’m probably not going to get to crush this lot, however, as the night shift have arrived. It must be 6pm.

As a member of our expert BBX team, Ben Chan helps our customers make the most of our fine wine exchange. Find out more about BBX here.