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.