No tidal waves Today

Today was fairly uneventful, a good thing after yesterdays tidal wave! This was our second to last day of getting fruit. After a break on Saturday we will get our last 10 tons on Monday. We did come up with a new way to drain a tank and it worked a lot better or at least with a lot less drama. We pushed an approximately 4" diameter and 8' tall cylinder screen down into the tank. A hose was then placed down into the tube and the wine was slowly pumped up through that. This was a lot more effective, although still quite slow as it took about 3 to 4 hours to drain a tank. I was also able to do more lab sample collecting (and wine testing!). It is nice to be able to sample wines in various stages of the fermentation process and seeing the difference in taste, sweetness, alcohol, etc.

Tomorrow we, as previously mentioned, won't get any grapes in, but will drain at least another tank, maybe 2. Plus we will barrel down some of the previously drained tanks. At least we are only starting at 7am so I get an extra hour of sleep. I sure need it.

A long day turns longer... And Wetter!

I knew when I awoke it would be a long day at the winery. I was hoping to get done early so I could catch the Huskers on Tv, with the game starting at 4:30pm out here I knew it would be a long shot. Anyway, today, along with our normal fun stuff we were going to do drain 2 tanks, press them, and get a third tank draining for tomorrow. After getting the first press done just prior to lunch we attempted to drain the second tank. Unfortunately it seemed to have some issues with the valve getting clogged with grapes so we had to resort to plan B, Slowly opening the manway door. This seemed to work for a while as juice started to flow into the press basket. We kept loosening the handle and letting more wine out. This continued for nearly 4 hours and the thought was it may be drained.

Finally the decision was made to open the manway door entirely...Bad move, REAL bad move. While standing on a ladder I pushed the door open and a tidal wave occurred with wine going everywhere - especially one me. I immediately jumped from the ladder but couldn't escape the wave of wine and became drenched from my waist down. Fortunately I had a change of clothes. You can see some of the action photos and my after look.

Hopefully tomorrow goes a little better. At least the Huskers won Big!

Daily Sampling & More

Today I did quite a few different tasks. Of course there were the daily punch downs. Today I did it the old fashioned way, by hand and someone else utilized the boom. Also on the daily task list: Inoculating a couple of tanks, taking care of a couple of tartrate additions, setting up a tank to drain for pressing tomorrow, and adding some yeast nutrients to some already fermenting tanks (this helps the yeasts do a better job).

But the fun part of the morning was doing the daily tank samples. No not me sampling the wine (although I did anyways!) but preparing bottles of each tank to send to the lab at the main building for analysis. You can see my line up of bottles in the picture. This was not quite all the tanks.

I have been lucky as they have kind of taken me away from the sorting line and are trusting me to do some more technical things. I must be doing something right!

The Grapes Keep Coming

By the end of last week we had processed a total 65 tons of grapes. This week the grapes keep rolling in - 10 tons yesterday and today with similar amounts to follow each day. With the usual harvest coming in around 130 tons we should have most if not all of the grapes in by the end of this week. That would be nice as it might reduce the hours a bit as we are still putting in 11 to 12 hours each day.

Beginning yesterday we started doing the majority of the punch downs with a hydraulic punch down device attached to the boom hoist (see pic) yep that's me on the hoist. The other pic is a close-up of the tank as it is being punched down.

Besides the punch downs I have also been lucky enough to continue to work with the harvest enologist in assisting with inoculations and additions to the developing wines.

The Weekend

The weekend began where the week left off... A long Saturday. We started off thinking it might be a slightly shorter day, but when the fruit failed to arrive early and only 6 of the 3o expected macro bins showed up at 9:30 we knew we were in for a long day and it turned into another nearly 12 hour day. Apparently only 1 crew was picking at this vineyard which was about 40 minutes away. As a result the last of our 10 tons only came in around 2:45 so the day stretched on.

After starting the morning with some grueling punch downs and then helping with the new incoming fruit, I was fortunate enough to spend a lot of the day working with the harvest enologist preparing yeasts for inoculations and some tartaric acid additions. This was great learning experience. Of course the day had to end with some more fun punch downs! Especially fun when you are at the 10+ hour mark and dead tired from a long long week.

Fortunately Sunday brings no new fruit and I only have to put in about 2 hours in the morning taking care of some punch downs.

Another double digit day in terms of hours worked and it was supposed to be an easy day as we only had 5 tons of fruit coming in. But there was plenty of other items to keep us busy including the twice daily punch downs, inoculation of 3 tanks with yeast and adding tartaric acid. Plus today we barreled down our first wine. You can note from the pics that the tank that had settled for 24 hours is placed on the elevator and the barrels are "gravity fed". It takes about 7 minutes to fill each barrel (approx 6o gals per barrel). We ended up with 13 barrels filled, so it takes some time. Tough to do near the end of the day when you are tired and your patience is running thin!

No rest for the weary as we get 10 tons in on Saturday morning. "Fortunately" since they won't be picked overnight we only have to be in a 7am.

15 Tons and What Do You Get

Today was a mega long day starting bright and early at 6am and finally getting over at 7:20pm - PHEW! As mentioned yesterday we got in 15 tons of grapes. I was in charge of forking the macro bins and getting them weighed. While the others finished up the 15 tons I assisted the winemaker in getting the tank from the 17th ready to press. It was hoisted back up on the lift. The remaining juice was drained into the press basket (see pic) and the manway door was opened and the hard must was shoveled out in the press basket. The press basket was then brought to the press and the press was done - the first pic shows the setup. After all was done the 5 tons of grapes generated about 84o gallons of wine. We even had our first taste of the harvest - a very good start. The day ended with a long, long clean up of the crush area, the press area and the tank we pressed from. What a day!