what the heck is mog?

here is an article about a super something - but what is it? what is mog and why are you separating it - or will that be obvious?

http://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=ge ... taid=67187

thanks in advance

Matter Other than Grapes = MOG

Matter Other than Grapes = MOG

It's also British slang for cat, so it's possible that a kitty ended up in the fermenter

Mark Lipton

Cat pee? Sauvignon Blanc?

MOG = bird nests, lizards, mice, bugs, worms of various sorts, bits of plastic (used sometimes to tie up vines) and the occasional o'possum. More often seen with mechanical pickers.

Mechanical pickers shake rows for many feet ahead warning of their approach and they make a terrible racket. Have to be a very lazy deaf lizard to get caught Or dead, I 'spose


Most MOG is twigs and leaves. Sorting tables with manual pickers gives the opportunity to remove green and rotten grapes.

It's a lousy job, your hands and clothes get covered wiith sticky juice, wasps are clustering around, and you're standing on your feet in the heat and the berries never stop coming at you....

MOG = bird nests, lizards, mice, bugs, worms of various sorts, bits of plastic (used sometimes to tie up vines) and the occasional o'possum. More often seen with mechanical pickers.

I have seen a live frog in a bin of grapes in Oz. They told us they get the occasional snake as well.

Yeah, I forgot about the frogs and snakes. Sorry.

My wife Beverly has recently found that she is allegic to cockroaches among other things. We don't have any in the house, so she doesn't know where she is coming in contact with them. I WILL NOT tell her that they are probably in the wine!

thanks all

I remember finding all sorts of things in totes...shirts, pruners, water bottles....and to top it off huge stones (10 pounders!!!) You should hear what a pair of pruners sounds like going through the stemmer crusher!!!

Michael

I did a stint as a winery dogsbody for a couple months. One day I was asked by the owner to bring a well dressed group of city slickers (from Toronto, IIRC) down to the crush pad to watch us while we crushed some grapes into fermenters (in this case, one-ton plastic lined bins). On a nice sunny day the bees and wasps were hanging around the top of the freshly crushed grapes in the fermenter; when the next load falls from the crusher/destemmer it always submerges a few. A particularly alarmed looking woman wanted to know how we got them out - and she had a priceless look when we told her that we didn't.

A particularly alarmed looking woman wanted to know how we got them out - and she had a priceless look when we told her that we didn't.

Did she taste any of your wine later?

A particularly alarmed looking woman wanted to know how we got them out - and she had a priceless look when we told her that we didn't.

Did she taste any of your wine later?

Uh, we were a bit too busy (and covered in grape muck) to follow them into the tasting room. To be fair, most of the others in the group didn't seem shocked and word got back to us that they enjoyed their visit.

I thought that was Warf's father!

To be fair, most of the others in the group didn't seem shocked and word got back to us that they enjoyed their visit.

So it sounds like the visit led to more education and a better understanding of wine, nice. I could see some people getting squeamish and turned off, but glad that didn't happen here.

I thought that was Warf's father!

Excellent TNG reference! (My first thought as well.)

I think MOG is elegant - for all the tripe on this planet that is not wine grapes.

Friends in Morris-dancing circles talk about making apple cider with a joint of meat thrown into the vat, or making "Cock Ale". These make deliberate use of the addition of a bit of protein (or, a good portion of protein) to the brew.

A recipe, from the 17th century bon vivant Sir Kenelme Digby:
To make Cock-Ale. Take eight gallons of Ale, take a Cock and boil him well; then take four pounds of Raisins of the Sun well stoned, two or three Nutmegs, three or four flakes of Mace, half a pound of Dates; beat these all in a Mortar, and put to them two quarts of the best Sack: and when the Ale hath done working, put these in, and stop it close six or seven days, and then bottle it, and a month after you may drink it.

Friends in Morris-dancing circles talk about making apple cider with a joint of meat thrown into the vat, or making "Cock Ale". These make deliberate use of the addition of a bit of protein (or, a good portion of protein) to the brew.

A recipe, from the 17th century bon vivant Sir Kenelme Digby:
To make Cock-Ale. Take eight gallons of Ale, take a Cock and boil him well; then take four pounds of Raisins of the Sun well stoned, two or three Nutmegs, three or four flakes of Mace, half a pound of Dates; beat these all in a Mortar, and put to them two quarts of the best Sack: and when the Ale hath done working, put these in, and stop it close six or seven days, and then bottle it, and a month after you may drink it.

When I lived in England they said the the ye olde cider process involved a roast beef, but when that wasn't available things like a dead rat might be used. No wonder why that traditional scrumpy has that funky taste!