I've learned a lot about winemaking so far.  I've learned that cleaning the drains, and the sink, and the floors is part of winemaking.  Wearing galoshes, rubber gloves and suspender rain pants is also part of winemaking.  Getting pinched by an earwig, warding off yellow jackets, grabbing moldy grape clusters and fruit flies are all part of winemaking.  It also involves careful maneuvering of heavy equipment like barrels, barrel racks, wooden pallets, 30 foot ladders, grape fermenting tubs, pump hoses, pump valves and pumps.  A wine barrel is about 120 pounds when it's empty and new.  After it's used it gains weight from the seeped wine.  Full barrels weigh about 600 pounds, for real.  The theory of winemaking is so gloriously different than the practice of wine making because there are some things that just cannot be taught, let alone formatted into a course and graded with a test.

Details are everywhere and important to pay attention to and get right.  Which way should I stack the barrels so the labels are all facing the right way?  What kind of toast is this oak, where is it from, how many years?  Is the bung hole on the top at a 45 degree angle?  Is the barrel straight on the rack so stacked racks wont tumble over?  Did I put sulfer dioxide in that top left barrel?  Make sure to close that gas valve all the way.  When I'm moving a 5 stack of barrels with a pallet jack, are there little rocks that I could roll over and start a massive wobble?  Is this clean?  Is that clean?  Did I already clean this?  There are bacteria everywhere.  I need another bucket, with another scour pad and sponge.  Why are my hands so pruny and disgusting? Back to the details! How do I read this hydrometer?

Winemaking is as much planning and preparing as it is dealing with the unexpected.  There's no way that two vintages can be the same even if they both use grapes from the same location with the same process.  So many factors that add to the complexity and there's a whole range of results in almost every step in the recipe.  Growing the grapes is a whole different universe but up until the day they are picked we keep track of the temperature, note the rain and natural predators (birds, bugs, rodents) who wait for the same perfect timing to harvest.  Once the trigger is pulled, it starts a ticking countdown for nature to do it's work, winemaking is just harnessing and focusing that natural power.  The grapes are coming this weekend, no sleep till pressing.

Getting closer...

I’m finally getting that natural human feeling that winter is coming, and we have to start preparing for a long, dark hibernation period by harvesting the fruit and plentiful warmth.  For the 5 tons of grapes coming in tomorrow (tonight at midnight by way of refrigerated truck from Cali) we have followed the path that each grape will follow, scrubbing down each surface and tool with soda, citric acid, iodine and rinse.  From the truck to the scale, to the hydraulic lift into the sort line, dropping onto the grape ramp into the de-stemmer, falling into the 5 foot bins.  I’ll need to wear shorts tomorrow, cause we’re getting in.  How else do you think the grapes get crushed?  It’s all so jolly.

Full Moon on the First Day

It’s all the little things you forget about working a real ‘job’.  Things like bantering over what channel to listen to on the radio, trying to find the right size of work gloves, and filling out your time card.  Today I learned how to unload a 50 pound empty wine barrel from a trailer with an old tire, rolling the heavy barrel across the floor and lifting it up to my chest and onto another.  I also learned that old wine stains are grayish black and contain bacteria that can’t be sticking around on the barrel racks once the fruit comes in, and the only way to get it off is with soda (Oxyclean, pretty much) and elbow grease.  The only complaint that I had all day was that I forgot to pack a belt.  

I'm off!

I'm off to Oregon for the next two months to work the grape harvest!  I can't believe it's here, leaving tomorrow morning at 4 AM with my sister Clare to keep me company on the drive.  It's 11 hours to Boise, ID and another 8 to Portland.

Wish us and my car good luck!