The Crush

The crush is on at Madisono's. We received some beautiful concord grapes from Michigan as well as some Sangiovese grapes from California. We do everything the old fashioned way at Madisono's, like making all of our base from scratch. We never buy a premade mix with extra "stuff" added in for "stability".

We did not crush these grapes by foot but chose to do it according to health code and state law, but I have to admit the idea of crushing grapes by foot sounds like fun. I snapped a few photos along the way. We started with the fresh grapes, cooked them down, processed in the batch freezer and then packed the pints by hand. We never use artificial food dyes in any of our gelato or sorbet. This color is all natural. Everything shown here is what nature provided. The concord grape sorbet smells like a fresh bunch of grapes just picked from the vine. I had these grapes in the cooler for a few days while we got ready to process them. The aroma was intoxicating.

The Sangiovese grapes gave up some very flavorful juice that was quite sweet. I use brix values to determine my final sorbet recipe with every fruit. If you know about wine making you know that the brix value of grapes can change due to growing conditions. The color and flavor of these grapes provided for a great sorbet. I will look into some more options for next year's harvest. I think that using these wine varieties will make some stellar sorbet. We have also made concord grape gelato using the juice from these grapes as well. Try it with some peanut butter on a brioche. You will not be disappointed. Thanks for supporting Madisono's

Matt
PS I can not get this picture to turn around. They are the Sangiovese grapes.