Saturday, September 6, 2008

"In from the Vineyards"

Crush is officially in full swing as we crushed about 10 tons of fruit both Chardonnay & Pinot. We didn't have to crush as much Pinot as we thought due to a last minute sale of most of the Pinot grapes to another winery. Yeah for us! It was 102 degrees yesterday and the Pinot came in late.

A common myth is that wineries only make wine with the fruit from their own vineyards. In fact, that is almost universally not the case. Wineries are both aquiring fruit and selling fruit to other wineries or more directly, to other winemakers. Winemakers are always looking to source fruit that adds to what they are doing, supplements varietals that are not grown on the estate, and you can make and sell more wine than what you grow alone. The is a constant year round background commodity trade going on among producers and winemakers. Last minute purchases are very common.

It was great to get the first full on day of crush out of the way. It's like anything you do.. Since we haven't crushed in a year, you are a bit rusty on some of the nuances of all the little details and tricks of hose hook up, etc.. but once you hit your groove it's all good.

Being sure to keep everyone on track & happy, meant keeping the ice chest full of cold drinks and beer. I especially want to keep the vineyard crew happy. As hot as it is for us on the crushpad, it's even hotter for those guys in the fields, on the tractors and filling the t-bins.

Today, we'll be crushing Syrah. a bit more work doing reds than whites which we'll talk about next time...

No comments: