The last couple of days we didn't get any fruit in, so it's been a little slower and less physical. Kinda puts what harvest at "full throttle" will be like into perspective: nonstop busy. But, that doesn't mean that we've been idle.
With no grapes to crush, we had the chance to check out the O'brein vineyard, which is one of Clos LaChance's other vineyards that is not on the estate. It is a total of 85 acres of Cab, Syrah and Zin located on the Courduval golf resort, which is right next to CLC. After we checked out the vineyard, we headed back to the estate vineyard and took field samples of 5 different vineyard blocks... 1 Viogner, 2 different Merlot blocks (an upper an lower block that are right next to each other), a block of Malbec and 1 of Muscat Blanc. The whole idea behind field sampling is to take a COMPLETELY RANDOM sample of fruit of the vines to get an idea of how the grapes are coming along. I'll go into detail about how we do the field sampling a little later.
Once we get the samples back to the winery, we hand crush the grapes and take the juice to the lab, where we analyzed the Brix (sugar), PH and TA (tartaric acid). From there the wine making team will have a better idea of fruit maturity and harvest dates. I finished the day out with some good ol' barrel inventorying.
Today we actually inoculated (added the yeast to start fermenting the sugar into alcohol) the first juice of the year. We pumped two tanks of the "free run" Sauvingon Blanc juice (2800 gallons roughly) into one larger holding tank. From there we heated up the holding tank to 55 degrees from 45 (more temp, more energy) and added the yeast and some other goodies. Now we are really making wine. Today we did it under the direct supervision of the assistant winemaker, but as more and more grapes come in, and as Steve (the other intern)and I get more comfortable, we will be doing this on our own (under the direction of work orders, which are explicitly detailed). We wrapped the work day up inventorying new barrels, stamping them with their new barrel number, and stacking them in the barrel room with the forklift.
I finished my day off at the winery enjoying a glass of Chardonnay and some live music at the "Time for Wine" event, which is every Thursday, and will continue through October. If anyone is in the area and likes good music, wine and food (you can bring your own picnic if youd like!!!), you should check it out... good fun. http://www.closlachance.com/Visit-Us/What-To-Do.
We have another 4-5 tons of Sauv Blanc grapes coming in tomorrow, so it should be busy one!
(Viogner grapes)
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