Ningxia wineries mix high and low tech at harvest time

It's showtime at Changyu Moser XV, the Ningxia chateau operated by China's biggest wine producer. Production at corporate giant Changyu's other facilities across China is vast. Here, the scale is smaller, in a quest to make several wines of serious export quality.

The Delta Oscillys machine before us is enormous, a long metal monster that can suck more than 1,100 grapes a second into a narrow maw. As they fly through, camera sensors zero in on each one, instantly appraising the grape's size, color and density against a computer-programmed standard. Fruits that don't measure up are zapped like lightning by lasers from above, so they fall into a reject bin instead of shooting ahead to the presser.

The rejects won't be discarded or fed to pigs, the operators assure us. They will simply be diverted to more commercial-grade wines that the company produces. The "chosen" grapes for more select wines will be gently crushed - to break the skin and mash the fruit a bit. But the pressure cannot crush the seeds - that would impart too much bitterness as the initial fermentation begins.