Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Day 49 - Quick Update From Robin

A quick Harvest update;

Jim , Juan, and I went out to the vineyard this morning to have a look at the remaining grapes. ~30 tons are still hanging. The Cab Franc will be hand picked on Wednesday. For now some of the Petit Verdot and Cab Sauv we are going to let hang.

The experimental whole bunch Syrah micro ferments went to barrels yesterday and will be kept as individual lots to be assessed in December before the first racking.

Most of the whites are dry or almost dry. With the exception of the Gewurtz which is mid ferment and the second lot of Riesling which is being held as juice. The Estate Reserve Chardonnay is getting its sur les treatment (barrel stirring) as it finishes the alcoholic fermentation and simultaneously starts the malo-lactic fermentation.

All of the Merlot lots are fermenting separately.

One lot of Cabernet Franc and one lot of Cabernet Sauvignon are fermenting away.

The Malbec and second Syrah lot are almost dry-very weird having those varieties finishing before the Merlot and Cabs. Normally they come in a 2-3 weeks or so after the Merlot!

It is a pump-over punch down marathon at the winery right now. As soon as we finish the morning round we start on the mid-day round and once we finish the mid day round start on the evening rounds! After an exhausted clean up the staff goes home, eats, sleeps, and returns a few hours later the next morning to do it all over again...oh yeah and fruit is still coming in, reds are being pressed off, barreled down, and whites need to be racked off ferment lees. WINE is definitely a four letter word at this time of year. Most of the cellar rats go looking for a beer after work.

I am off to the winery to taste through the ferments to make sure everything is chugging along and figure out where to put the last four lots of wine.

My hands are black and calloused, a very attractive look for a new bride.

Cheers,
Robin

1 comment:

  1. Change in picking, tomorrow will be the Cabernet Sauvignon for our port.

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