Another type of harvest

As some of you know, Copia was a vast food, wine and art center here in the Napa Valley. Robert Mondavi was one of the leading investors in this project that was only open for 7 short years until it went bankrupt and is now closed to the public. There were massive gardens planted with any type of fruit or vegetable you could imagine along with a few acres of grape vines. After closing in February of 2008, the gardens have been allowed to run wild with no-one going in to water or keep up with plants. So as you see from the picture above, my roomate and I are doing what we think is right and harvesting the fruits and vegetables that are left. There are numerous orange and grapefruit trees that are yet to be ripe and countless rows of swiss chard and other greens. We are planning a huge pick before Thanksgiving to donate to a soup kitchen. Just wanted you to know what I have been up to on my day off :) Hope everyone is well and I am working on my introduction to winemaking as we speak so check back often, I am on the blog train again!

The moment of truth we have been waiting for...

I finally get to experience what I set out to do two short months ago! After begging and pleading, I got my wish to stomp grapes on the second to last day of harvest. One more pick next week and we are finite!!! Everyone is amazed that I have kept up with this blog as I usually only have time to shower,eat and sleep outside of work hours. Alas things will settle after this last pick and I will have more time to elaborate on my story of from vine to wine. Hope everyone has had a great week and the weather is back to normal. Been clear and sunny for the past few days, just windy! Good forecast for the next week, trying to get as much bike riding in as I can before it gets too cold! Lu~

The Mad Rush

Mother Nature is at it again, stirring up another low pressure threatening rain and very cold temps at night and the time is nigh! Last week we took in over 15 tons of grapes and this week we are harvesting the rest. There are 20 tons of Estate Cabernet fruit still hanging (one ton is approx. 2200lbs) that we will receive today and then 16 tons of Cabernet from other vineyards we will get on Wednesday and Thursday. You will never believe how much work goes into making wine until you come see it for yourself! Hope everyone is well, I will try to make time to post more about the process in the next few days but they threaten to be very long days... Lu~

From Vine to Wine: Introduction

As my internship has been extended I wanted to do a five part series and really explain the process of turning grapes into wine. Throughout the blog I have mentioned various procedures that I have been involved in as I learned them. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of what goes on behind the scenes, at least at Reynolds Family Winery. All wineries do things differently as I have learned from my two twin girlfriends working with me. They have worked three harvests for three different wineries, one in Argentina.

As we are getting more fruit in today, I may not be able to start until this weekend but check back often, I have more pictures to upload and lots more to say, just not much time to say it! Lu~

Along the Way

Rain rain go away!

So far, as I reported earlier, harvest had been a breeze and everyone seemed excited about this crop. Well, we had more rain yesterday to stress everyone who still has fruit hanging on the vine. Most of our Estate Cabernet is still out there and is quite plump by now if you can imagine. The watering system for these vines is called drip irrigation and that is literally how the grapes are watered. They receive such little water at one time that these two days of rain have really set us back. We may have to go ahead and pick some this week as fear of mold is now eminent. Hope all is well, I have some new pictures to post so stay tuned! Lu~

A long overdue post..

...is in order! I apologize to all who have been checking this frequently. Two weeks of 70+ hour weeks caught up with me really quick! This is what everyone was talking about who had ever worked harvest time for a winery. There were those few weeks where everything came together and it was crunch time. We now have about 75% of our grapes crushed and in either bins, tanks or barrels. It is mostly Cabernet grapes that we have left hanging on the vine as they usually take the longest to ripen. They have very thick skins, which is helpful when you have the biggest October storm since 1962 come barreling through the valley! Dumping 5+ inches of rain and with winds up to 40mph, those Cabernet grapes are the most resilient to withstand that type of water consumption without splitting. At least our estate Cabernet fared well, I can't speak for everyone.
The weather for the next week sounds promising with lots of sunshine to dry out the ground and get the grapes back to their previous brix readings before the storm. This may have pushed back our final harvesting dates but there is still plenty of optimism in the air. Overall, the vintage report for 2009 in the valley is being called the smoothest and "easiest" in decades. I will expound upon this topic after I do a little more research into the conditions of the Spring. Steve seems to think that this is going to be a phenomenal year for all of his wines and as I am learning quickly he is quite the optomistic person no matter what the situation. Must be why so many people like this guy and his wines. Of what I have tasted so far, and I have been lucky enough to try some back vintages of his cabernet and Pinot Noir, his wines are consistent from year to year. I had to work during the harvest party that is solely for wine club members and he has some loyal members (like a certain wine shop). They speak so highly of Steve and his wines, I am honored to still be working for the family.
Some of you may have heard already but if you haven't, I was offered a position to stay on with the Reynolds Family and help out with the rest of harvest. I accepted (!) and will be here through the middle of December! I am excited to be able to be a significant part of the 2009 vintage and will keep blogging for everyone to see how winemaking is evolving. I must go to work now but keep checking back frequently for updated pictures and posts, I am on the wagon again! Ciao for now

Random Notes

So, this is kind of for Sean. The day after he was asking about pictures of my bike and how that was the only thing missing from my blog I posted a picture of me and my bike. I don't think my bike likes the camera because that following week I had not one, not two but three flat tires! Twas the most frustrating experience so far. There are these thorns that grow out in the vineyards that are literally hard as rocks and will flatten a forklift tire as I have heard. Luckily Steve is so nice that he offered me a work truck to take home a few of those days and as you see above this was my chariot that got me to the party Friday night. Riding in style as always. And I had to have a picture with the 760lb pumpkin we have in our tasting room right now. Hope everyone is well and missing me :) Ciao~

Purple hands = Purple smiles

What a crazy week this has been, my time here is really starting to fly by! I have almost been here a month and am finally getting the swing of things. Been working in the tasting room on Saturdays, my real forte! It is fun to talk to people from all over the world, give them tours of the winery and show them what goes on behind the scenes. Everyone seems so fascinated by the process, I feel like a celebrity! One of the chosen few... but there is so much work and careful planning that goes into making wine. One wrong move and you could easily ruin a whole bin/barrel of wine. FYI you can get about 300 bottles of wine (give or take a few) out of a barrel of wine. This past week I also helped out Friday night for a private party that was held at the winery. It was a Taco's, Tequila and Cabernet party (crazy mix). But it was a success, everyone had a blast and the taco's came from the infamous California taco truck's that are everywhere. They were so good I am considering driving one home and setting up outside the wine store on the weekend. :)
As you can see in the pictures above, we are already putting some of our oak barrels into use this early in the game. This is a process called open barrel fermentation. We are crushing into the open barrels and fermenting them with their skins for 50-60 days (called extended maceration) before they will be pressed off and put back into the barrel until they are bottled. This allows for a softer, more plush wine with lots of age ability (due to the high tannins from the skins) and with more of an oak influence. This is the second year Steve and Arturo are doing this as they are very happy with how the 2008's are evolving.
My job this week consists of doing punchdowns and pumpovers of the grapes we have fermenting so far. There are 18 bins, 16 barrels and 5 stainless steel tanks filled with juice, and as I heard yesterday this is only 20% of the harvest! It has been quite a late one this year with more moderate temperatures allowing for a longer hang time on the vine. By the time I leave they will really be needing a second hand. Ciao for now, this one is getting long.

So I thought work had begun...

But I was very confused earlier. See all that was just leading up to and getting ready for when the real work began yesterday. This was my day:
* Arrived at 8:30 am and the guys were already pressing the 4 tons of Sauvignon Blanc we had received on Monday. I helped clean the crusher when it was finished and was almost attacked by a swarm of bees that were upset that I kept spraying them with the hose! They are all over the crusher when we are pressing.
* Set up the crusher/destemmer in the front of the winery for the 16 tons of Cab/Syrah/Pinot Noir we were receiving today. Steve Reynolds is going to experiment with open barrel fermentation this year for his special wine club member bottle and so we were crushing right into the barrel as you see above. They aren't sealed after that, just covered with the lid and saran wrap. You will get more of an oak presence in these wines as they are exposed during the first of the fermentation.
* Quick lunch at 12:30 then the party was on! We had to open up and pressure wash 16 oak barrels that we would be using today. Kind of a deconstructing cooperage job. Grapes started to arrive and didn't stop until around 3:30pm. Usually we like to get our grapes earlier in the day but as this heat kind of snuck up on us we had to react quickly to make sure the grape sugar levels didn't go crazy. So we were using dry ice all day as you see in the picture above. That was a bin of Pinot Noir we just crushed.
* I was all over the place yesterday, helping with the crushing, wrapping barrels in the cellar room and just an extra hand wherever they needed me. Don't know if I mentioned it but they have taught me how to operate a forklift and this is slowly becoming one of my favorite things to do at the winery. There will eventually be a post about my new found love for forklifts.
* When the day ended around 8pm we had filled 12 oak barrels, 6 bins and two stainless fermentation tanks of grapes. I was literally covered from head to toe in grape juice. I got home, took a shower and was asleep by 9:15! All in a day's work, and I LOVE IT. Ciao~

Spider Monkey

You must be quite confused with the title of this blog but I can explain. See, this was my job description on Thursday and Friday of this past week. Imagine that you are 30 feet in the air, climbing between oak barrels with a wine pump in one hand and sweeping away the cobwebs with the other. And the only light in the room comes from one skylight and the headlamp you have on. I wasn't imagining these things, I was doing just that. Every six weeks all of the barrels in the cellar room have to be topped off with wine. There are a few cups that evaporate out of the barrels during that time and it is best to keep them full with the least amount of air contact. At first I was excited about the challenge as climbing to great heights aren't one of my favorite pastimes. But as the day went on and I climbed higher and higher and the barrels started to wobble back and fro, the excitement wore off and I was just plain scared! But as time went on, I realized that I wasn't going to fall, that I was wedged in between the barrels and was safer than I first let myself believe. Nearing the end of my task, I honestly was sad that my days as a spider monkey were coming to an end. I ended up really liking the job and only pushed myself as far as my brain would let me. As you can see in the pictures, there was no way I was going to get on the very top barrels and fill those so I left those to the professional. P.S I didn't include any pictures of me climbing for fear that my mother would have a conniption. She really hates heights! Ciao~

Who needs a car

When you have perfectly good legs that can peddle your happy a** anywhere you want? Well that is what I tell myself every time I get on my bike to literally take my happy behind anywhere. I have grown a new appreciation for the convenience of having a car. But I must say that this area is very biker friendly :) There are bike lanes on almost every street and drivers are very aware of the biking scene around here. The ride is about six miles each way (downhill in the morning and then uphill the whole way home) and for the most part I really love it. Gives me a chance to enjoy the view of endless grape vines and mountains in the distance. And, as you see above, an occasional hot air balloon! It is a refreshing ride in the morning, usually quite cool. I start out wearing four layers of clothing to slowly peel off during the day as it has lately been warming up well into the 90's. If fact the next week it will get into the 100's and cool down to 55 at night. Just when the craziness begins...

Crushing 101

Yesterday (Tuesday) we crushed the Chardonnay that sat overnight in the cellar room. Crushing, like destemming, is done using gravity flow. The wine falls into the crusher and depending on the grape type, goes through a series of stages to release all the juice from the grapes. As most whites are only crushed once and the skins are then thrown away, they go through a longer process of crushing than reds. Red wines continue to sit on their skins and extract color and flavor while the whites are a one time deal. So the Chardonnay is fed into the crusher and whala, dirty wine as you will see in the pictures! You still get a few seeds and other debris that make it through the tiny holes in the crusher so there will be a series of rackings and filtration to make this dirty wine nice and clean. After almost two hours the crushing is finished and the grapes come out looking like smooshed raisins. They have almost no flavor or juice left at all, trust me I tried. The juice is pumped into a tank and left overnight again to settle. Racking is when you take the top layer of juice from the tank and pump it into another tank leaving most of the dirty part of the wine behind. That will be done for the Chardonnay tomorrow. Hope all is well this week, weather is still beautiful everyday. High of 85 and low of 55 most days and usually not a cloud in the sky. And the dog was spotted at a local coffee shop this weekend. His name is Tiger Woods of Napa and apparently has a website! Ciao~

The fun begins!

Grapes finally started arriving Monday morning; 1.5 tons of Chardonnay, 2 tons of Cabernet and 3 tons of Syrah. Since this would be the only day we were getting any grapes this week, time was on our side. We decided to hand sort the Chardonnay, which came in with alot of bird damage and noble rot. Steve likes to keep some of the "raisinated" grapes in the mix with the perfectly ripe grapes as they really intensify the flavors so our job was slightly easier. The Chardonnay was to sit overnight in the cellar room so we added an enzyme to start breaking down the skins to add more flavor when we crush then Tuesday. After that was finished, it was time to de-stem all of the reds. The destemmer works like this; grapes go into the auguer (the metal bin up high) and then all down into the destemmer. Most of the large stems are removed and as you can see in the pictures below, the other little stems are fished out as the grapes settle into the bins. You can either crush the grapes after they are destemmed or you can let them sit in the bins for a few days with another type of enzyme to extract color from the skins and some sulfur to keep them from oxidizing. Again, as we have the time, we are letting them sit for a few days. This batch of grapes came from an area of California that isn't known for growing grapes. In fact this is the first commercial vineyard in Walnut Creek and Steve Reynolds has decided to help make the wine for the guy who owns the vineyard. If you see any wine in the market from Kalkoven Vineyards, that's the wine I've been stompin! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I went into the city Sunday to see the Dodgers and Giants (Giants won 7-2) and to eat some Thai food. Ciao~

Yay it's Saturday

Hello all,

The weekend is here and I actually have Saturday and Sunday off! I think as the grapes start coming in more frequently that won't be the case. Thursday and Friday at the winery consisted of cleaning the 10 stainless steel fermentation tanks they use during crush as well as the grape press. As you see in the first picture, this is where the grapes go as soon as they get to the winery. Everything is crushed as soon as it arrives; the grapes will continue to ripen and the sugar level will change even after they are picked. Most grapes are picked either before 10am or after 6pm. That is when you will get an accurate reading of the brix(sugar levels) and ph(acidity) of the grape. That is generally what most winemakers rely on to determine when to pick their crop. As a side project, I also participated in the annual "painting of the barrels". A new batch of French Oak Barrels arrived on Thursday and RFW paints the barrels with old wine they have sent off and made into a special paint! Have a great weekend and look for more posts as the grapes start arriving!

Blending 101

So today I really got to get my feet wet (literally) and started to work with some of the equipment we will be using as soon as grapes start coming in, which will be Thursday of this week! Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc will be first and then probably some Syrah. We tested samples of Chardonnay, Syrah and Cabernet yesterday for their brix (sugar) levels and for the ph (acidity). Most wineries are pretty strict about brix levels and then more relaxed about acidity levels while Reynolds Family is just the opposite. Acidity is harder to balance, you can always add sugar or water if the brix level needs adjusting. I will be doing alot of those tests as the grapes start arriving, we have to have a reading on each batch. BTW, in case you didn't know, Chardonnay grapes don't really taste like Chardonnay just off the vine. To the most discerning palate, they could probably taste some flavors present but to most of us, they are just yummy! Ciao~

Work has begun!

Hello all,

Hope you had a great Labor Day this past weekend! I enjoyed a little more time with family before things started getting crazy around the winery. Went into SF again to check out an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art then ate at a fantastic tapas place called Samovar. Tea restaurants are a big thing out here and Samovar must have had 50 types of tea you could order. Monday was the first day I rode to the winery. Not a bad ride, hard to complain when the weather is always beautiful and you are enjoying the views I get to on the way there. There is a day coming when I complain about having to bike home after a long day! All worth it for the experience. Enjoy your day! Ciao~

A photo album to view

Here is a link to photo's I have taken so far. Haven't been able to figure out how to load multiple pictures on the blog so I figure using this website is easier. Today's work consisted of cleaning out multiple flowerbeds. At least it was a beautiful day, finally cooling off to average tempatures. Ciao~

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stompingrapes/

Meet and Greet Day!

Today was the first day at the Winery, fairly easy I must say. Took a tour of the place, met Steve Reynolds (owner/winemaker), Arturo (assistant winemaker) and the rest of the crew. No grapes coming in yet so everyone is prepping for next week. Going to start some heavy duty cleaning and orginizing tommorow, getting familiar with the equipment and learning how to operate a forklift an off road vehicle. Enjoy the weekend, I know the weather has been nice there! Hot and humid here.... but I love it already! Ciao~

The Arrival!

Hello to everyone! I am officially a California girl, arriving late Monday night safe and sound after a long day of travelling. Getting settled in, visiting relatives for a few days then it's off to work on Thursday. Grapes haven't starting arriving yet so there is much prep work to do, meet and greet everyone there and maybe get out in the vineyards to start tasting some grapes! Spent the day in San Francisco on Tuesday, walked about ten miles and saw about a quarter of the city. It is a beautiful place, lots to see and do and some very interesting characters! Hope everyone is well and enjoying the cooler weather! Ciao~

Welcome!!!

Hello to everyone who will be following my blog for the 2009 Harvest at Reynolds Family Winery. It is a pleasure to share this experience with my friends and family. Stay tuned for many pictures and updates to come! Ciao~