"What do I know"....

"what do I know"
7:12 AM on Sep. 17, 2008
The last time I wrote, I was stoked because I thought crush was ready to rock... but... "what do I know".... as soon as we are ready for everything to get going, the temps cool off and we now are better served letting the fruit hang. This is pushing back crush, and we now are hung up between a group of fruit that has come in and is fermenting and now, a gap ( growing each day) between fermenting fruit and a entirely different batch of fruit coming in.
What does this mean you ask? well, if you are not doing this, it means little. But if you are producing wine, it creates a logistics and time management headaches. The good news is that letting the fruit hang longer is a good thing. It allows flavors to concentrate.
So right, now, the bulk of the time is spent making sure the fruit that is fermenting is going along well. I've been talking with other winemakers here in Livermore as well as in Napa and Sonoma, and they are going thru the same thing.. Basically we are all a bit bored right now! LOL!!
The break caused by the cooler weather has had a positive impact in that the days are warm but not hot, and the start of fall weather has begun! This is a very wonderful time of the year in Northern California. The best weather, by far. driving to the winery, seeing the vineyards turning color , I always realize why I do this and how lucky I am to be in this wonderful part of the world.
This past weekend was a blast as we had a "winemaker for a day" event at the winery. I try to open this up once a week to people that would like to try their hand at this and get a chance to see a bit of what goes on in making wine. The people that came by were a blast and had a great time! It's cool to see the look on people's faces when they get to try doing punchdowns. If you are interested in giving this a try, give me a shout out and we will schedule it.