ZAP @ Fort Mason

Today is the "Zinfandel in Paradise" festival at Ft. Mason in San Francisco. I will be pouring wines for Clos LaChance; Estate Zinfandel (100%zin), "Buff Bellied" Zinfandel (our entry level price point Zin, blended with roughly 16% Petite Sirah and 7% Alicante Bouschet), Late Harvest Zin (dessert wine) and our Zinfandel Port (fortified dessert wine). I think the dessert wines will help to help set us apart from the majority of the crowd.

This should be a fun and crazy event to work at. This particular gettogether at Ft. Mason has a reputation for being a "boozefest/shitshow", and I have even heard stories about people being carried out by mid afternoon. (drinking events @ Ft. Mason ALWAYS seem to get messy, and I know this from experience on both sides of the serving table). I guess that's what happens when there are some over-zealous zinfandel lovers consuming copious amounts of a beverage containing a 15-17% alcohol content. Should be fun, loud, crazy and annoying all at the same time.

Now, to put together the list of wineries that I will be visiting today; hmmmmm, Ridge, D-Cubed.... I'll make sure to follow up on this event with some of the standout wines and "incidents" of the day.

Its Getting Cold...

I'm referring to the 2009 white wines that are cold stabilizing, not the frigid outdoor temperatures that we have been getting in the Bay.

Cold stabilizing is the process of chilling the wine to near or below freezing temperature in order to get tartrate crystals to form in the wine so they may be removed. This is done as a step to help clarify the wine before it is bottled. It will also lower the acid levels in the wine, since it is the tartaric acid crystallizing. Here is a link for info regarding the cold stabilizing and clarification process with wines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_stabilization.

That's right, we are preparing to bottle our 2009 white wines next week! Well, not all of the white wines, only the ones that do not see oak. So, we will be bottling our Viogner, Sauvingon Blanc and Muscat Blanc. (some of the Viogner and Sauvingon Blanc did see neutral oak during the primary fermentation in order to help the mouthfeel of the wine). It is exciting to see the grapes that you helped turn into wine being bottled, and it is cool that it is such a short process for these wines. When talking to the head winemaker, he stated that for these particular wines it is best to bottle them early in order to capture the bright fruit and aromatics.

I cant wait to try some of the 09's!

Sanity

Well, it has been a long while since the last post... there are a few reasons for this, mostly being that late October through mid November was really the belly of the beast in the cellar. But now there are no excuses, so here we go...

The leaves on the grapevines are turning to beautiful different shades of fall colors, and things are quieting down in the cellar. with all of the final drain and presses done, all that is left to do with the reds are some splash racks and barreling down. I believe that the only red wines in tanks right now are Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvingon, which were the two last varietals to come in. Things seem really quiet, and the mood has changed... everyone finally can take a deep breath and relax.

We actually did our last drain and press last week, which was kind of hard to believe. For the longest time it felt as if things would never end. It is a bit bittersweet with the harvest ending. It was a lot of fun and a tremendous learning experience, but it is a position that doesn't last forever. Furthermore, it is in my opinion an unstainable one regarding the work itself, as it wears on the body and mind. Crush is a job that is worked full throttle, and it is hard to go at that speed for longer periods of time. Don't get me wrong, I love it and will do it again and again, but it gets crazy! So, I am sad that it is over (my last day in the cellar was last Wednesday), but I look forward to what the future holds.



shoveling out the grapes


preparing to enter the tank


This is the inside of the press... the white part on the right is the bladder that fills up with air. The purple is all of the grapes that we clean out when we get inside.

Work Makes Me Hungry!

Well, I just finished draining out 3 large tanks of fermented wines to make room for some Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet Sauvingon. This has been one of the biggest "dilemmas" lately... room for more grapes coming in.

Draining the tanks is quite a workout, and I typically end up shoveling about 2-3 tons per tank, sometimes more (this is what really gets the appetite going). It's fun to get in and shovel, and gives you a good chance to catch all of the new smells that the wine is putting off. Its really amazing how the smells and flavors change throughout fermentation. The grapes that we shovel go into the press, and the pressed juice goes into a tank... after a week or so it all goes to barrel.

Gotta run, lots more work to do in the cellar. Ill make sure to give a good update on the "home front Zinfandel" ASAP.

Friday Thoughts

The workweek is coming to an end...

Its been a bit of a crazy week between the weather, work and the wine at home.

Rain is not good for grapes at this time of the year do to a number of reasons: mold, botritis, breakage etc. Certain varietals are at more risk, in particular thin skinned and thick clusters, such as Zinfandel, Grenach and Pinot Noir. Cabernet Sauvingon is thick skinned with looser clusters, so it holds up well to the wet weather. We took in all the fruit that we could right before the weather came, and will be taking in much more as things dry up today and tomorrow.

On the homefront, things are also drying up... with the wine that is. I'll get some details up tomorrow. Work is calling, gotta run.
Also, this is my last day of the "late shift", so no more getting home at midnight!

I Love Making Wine

Its been a crazy last week. We have been taking in an where from 15-25 tons a day over the last week... with more and more grapes coming in, there are more and more punch downs, pump overs, inoculations and additions. We are also starting to press off the fermented red wines from the grapes (this means lots of cleaning and scrubbing!). So needless to say things have been non-stop in the winery (I still love it, and it makes time fly).

I have been working the PM shift for the last week, which begins at noon and goes until around 11pm. There is a lot more cleanup working this shift, but it is also a little more "relaxed", as I am not running around doing pump overs and punch downs non stop. We also get to crank the music because there is nobody around after 6pm.

The late shift worked perfectly for me last week, as it afforded me the time to pick up my grapes in Healdsburg, off of Lytton Spring Rd. (for those of you familiar with the Lytton Springs location of Ridge Vineyards). I picked up 800lbs of Zinfandel grapes, which came in at a low 23.1 brix. I split the must up into two batches in my fermentation vats, and pulled about 4 gallons of juice off of one of them (referred to as a Saignee in France). I did this to get more skin to juice contact (flavor, color, concentration), and also to make a rose with the juice I drained off. After sitting for a couple of days cold soaking in dry ice, I re-read the brix of the must, which was at 24. By the inoculation on Saturday I think the brix was probably around 24.5. So, I have about 90 gallons of Zinfandel fermenting in two different styles (I used different yeast on each one, one for black fruits in the Saignee, and the other for spiciness in the "regular"). I also racked off my rose juice after cold settling in the fridge for 4 days, and just inoculated it yesterday with two different yeast strains (one for white burgundy, one for red). I am very excited, busy and tired!

Color me Purple

As we are getting into crush I seem to have a knack for getting soaked with wine and water. With the grapes coming in like crazy (even though we are not at max capacity yet), we are already a few hours behind by the time we get into work between the pump overs, punch downs, inoculations and additions.

Steve and I are going to be working the "PM" shift for two weeks now, and got our first taste of the late shift on Saturday; definitely a lot more cleanup, which is hard to believe. However, there are some benefits to working the late one; we can crank the music, have a brew, get to clean up the leftover lunches, and sometimes we even get dinner, which is typically leftovers from an evening event or wedding. Last night after work we got treated to crab souffle, fillet Mignon with prawns, which we paired with some Estate Bordeaux blend, Cab and Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot.

I really love making wine. Being around all this fermenting fruit has been driving me crazy to make my own wine. So, I decided that I will. I am picking up a quarter ton of Dry Creek Zinfandel must(crushed grapes) early wednesday morning, and am very excited.