Made it thru the first week

Well Friday has come and gone and I made it thru the first week - well sort of since it was only 3 1/2 days of work. Friday we finished cleaning the barrels (YEAH!). I was also trained on moving the fermentation tanks - they are limited on space so they move them with an electric pallet jack, storing them outside. We also had a great company wide BBQ for lunch - an incredible feast of chicken and ribs. We ended the week by cleaning the floors of the barrel room.

Next week the plan is to clean, sanitize, and ready all tanks, the conveyor and the press as the grapes will be here late in the week and the real action will begin! It sounds like this will be the only weekend I will have sans working, so I will do some touring in the beautiful weather.

The Forklift Rodeo

Today was safety day. We went over going into and rescuing people from confined spaces (tanks in particular). As previously mentioned we also had forklift training and testing. You can see from the picture that we had to run through a macro bin obstacle course carrying a bin from one end to the other and then going back with no load. I successfully completed the course and now am a certified forklift operator for the winery! The final class and testing was on a boom lift. No obstacle course with this, instead we had to move the boom into position and raise it so as to get an object from an elevated position. Then for fun we extended up. The final picture was taken from the top. As you can see it was a gorgeous day - 75 degrees and sunny. Tomorrow it is back to washing barrels.

The real work begins

Today I reported at 7am and began working in the Pinot Noir facility for the day. After a brief overview I was thrown into the fire. My first mission was to clean 190 barrels. So I was given a hose, a brush, and a bucket with special cleaner and waited for one of the full timers to get barrels out of the "barn" so I could begin. What fun! It was a great 7 hour workout. The picture shows the setup.

My final hour was spent learning to drive a forklift. I had never driven one, but was up for a challenge. I spend the hour learning to drive, steer, and move things. I loaded up macro bins and barrel racks and moved them. After a nervous beginning it became kind of fun. Now tomorrow I have to go thru official training and take a test to hopefully get my forklift certification. It's just like being 16 again and taking my drivers test!

My first day was a blast and I even got an hour of overtime on my first day! The boss is already talking about 10 hour days next week.

After I got home I took an amazing bike ride thru vineyards and passed probably 8 wineries. It was something from a movie. I could get used to this.

Work Day 1 (Kind of)

Well today I made my first appearance at Sonoma Cutrer Vineyards (SCV). A short 15 minute drive from my base I showed up at 9am for some orientation -basically an overview of company policies, etc from the HR director. Then I got a tour of where I will be working. SCV does primarily Chardonnay (about 85 or 90% of their sales). The processing facility for the Chardonnay is in their modern beautiful winery. I will be working for the Pinot Noir winemaker. As I said I got a tour of that facility which is located in a different area of the estate grounds, in several "barns" While not as pristine, it was still really cool to see the place. It will be a lot more closer to the size of winery (although still producing quite a bit more in volume) that we will be doing. So it will be such a great learning experience.

I will be starting in earnest, bright and early at 7am tomorrow.

For the rest of the day I spent it grocery shopping and getting familiar with the area. It looks so beautiful in the daylight after coming in in the dark. Vineyards everywhere. What a sight!

Dr!iving - Day 2

A beautiful 50 degree Salt Lake City morning got my second day under way. I took in the Mormon Temple site - what a gorgeous church - and was on my way. In western Utah - there was salt everywhere - it looked like it had snowed, what a site. In Nevada it became apparent that they are lucky casinos were invented as the 3 or 4 "major" towns I passed along I-80 were basically all casinos! An amazing site crossing the Utah border and in the barren land up rises a 5 story casino. The mountains in Nevada were amazing, but all in all it was pretty barren - actually, aside from Salt Lake City, between Laramie, WY and Reno there was virtually no population. Fortunately I hit civilization and hit a Cabela's in Reno! Crossing into California, I stopped to get a map and my first site was a man sitting on a bench dressed in white spandex with a "buffalo" hat complete ,with horns - Welcome to California! Then I was introduced to California traffic - hitting the end of Labor Day weekend meeting all the "outdoors types" leaving Lake Tahoe and causing a 2 hour traffic delay. It was bumper to bumper stop and go traffic for 120 miles. Fortunately I had my personal on-star team Dwayne and my lovely wife available via the cell to get to my base camp for my time here - my sisters beautiful Healdsburg condo. After a few wrong turns driving up from Sonoma I made it at 9:15. Now on Tuesday my "job" begins.

The California Adventure Begins

Today I began my California Adventure by completing the first leg of a 2 day 24 hour drive. What is my California Adventure you ask?? After taking 4 distance learning enology courses from DMACC, I was fortunate enough to get a harvest postion in the Cellar at Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards in Windsor California (Sonoma Valley). It promises to be a 6 or so skills building experience of a lifetime.

Leaving at 7:50am my travels down I-80 took me thru Nebraska and into Wyoming where the wind was blowing almost as fast as the truck was driving. At about 7pm Mountain time I left Wyoming and entered Utah. It was quite a scenic drive to my first nights destination, Salt Lake City. The red rock, mountains, and streams were beautiful as I had never been this far on I-80 before. The drop to SLC was amazing. I got to my hotel at about 8:30. I tried to get a nice dinner, but many places were surprisingly closed at 9pm so Mickey D's it was, and now I will crash for the night. Tomorrow it is on to California!

Harvest Day 3

Today we harvested Frontenac (685 lbs) and Frontenac Gris (516lbs). It was a beautiful morning for a harvest. We had a great crew of family and friends for the harvest. Thanks to All we couldn't have done it without you! Tomorrow my journey to California begins.