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Destemmed, crushed, fermented and aged

Missouri is home to almost 400 vineyards that employ thousands of agricultural workers who pick, crush and nurture grapes like the Norton, the official state grape. Around $60 million worth of Missouri wine is sold each year. Today on Field Notes, we ask an expert to taste a little of that wine.

Then we tag along on the last harvest of the growing season for Les Bourgeois Winery, the third largest winery in the state. From the vineyard, it's a 20-minute drive to the winery where the grapes are brought to be destemmed, crushed, fermented and aged.

The take-away: There's an awful lot of work on the agriculture side that goes into a glass of wine.

Jessica is Harvest Public Media's connection to Central Missouri. She joined Harvest in July 2010. Jessica has spent time on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday and WNYC's Soundcheck, and reported and produced for WNIN-FM in Evansville, Ind. She grew up in the City of Chicago, studied at the University of Tulsa and has helped launch local food gardens in Oklahoma and Indiana.