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~
* 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~
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