Summer is Over Already???

It went from maybe two weeks of beautiful, clear sunny days in the 70s to dark, cloudy days of pouring rain in the 50s…oh yea, add wind to that, so the rain is sideways. Forget the cheapy collapsible umbrella in my trunk – it turned inside out while I was still trying to open it. I’m still wet from walking ½ a block and it’s after noon.

Whatever, guess it’s raining in LA too, but they’ll get back to the 70s in a matter of days.

I’ve eaten more grapes than you can imagine. I taste everything that comes in – cabernet sauvignon, syrah, chardonnay, pinot noir, viognier, and so forth. The fruit & seeds are usually small & intense. Very sweet.

My hands are still purple, and so are my teeth. I love that friends are tuning into our Crushcams – you know who you are – thank you for watching & chatting!!! For those of you who haven’t checked it out, we’re at http://www.crushpadwine.com/ccam. You can request control of the camera and move it around.

My rotation in the winery is extremely tiring work. Gotta hand it to the guys who do it every day, 6 days a week. Thanks to Andy Popinski who visited & worked 4 days in a row – at least one of my friends can appreciate and understand how & why I’m so exhausted. First time in my life… I heard Andy say “I’m tired”.

My grapes are now in the early stages of wine. In only 1 week, they went from a 1 ton bin doing their fermenting thing & being punched down every day to having all the liquid pressed out of them. The wine (yes, it has alcohol at this point) is now in a barrel with my name on it and the aging process has begun.

Every couple of days, I remove the bung (the stopper) and smell the liquid. It smells like wet oak and is making bubble noises, kind of like an open bottle of soda. My barrel is 3 rows up on a rack, so I climb up the rack like a monkey, cause it’s too narrow for a ladder to fit.

The benefits of this job? My arms are pumped and rock solid. I went golfing (no, I’m not a golfer) in Palm Springs over the weekend for a friend’s bday, and I drove the bar farther than I ever have before. And, my fairway shots were the longest I’ve had as well. I’ll have to figure out a way to keep it up after harvest is over, cause I’m loving this arm workout.

I’m in the winery 10/14-16 and 10/21 from 6a-6p, so tune in an watch & chat. If you can’t see me, post a question asking if I’m there and they’ll answer or get my attention.

Cheers - Linda

GRAPES ARE COMING IN!!!!

YAY - my grapes are arriving on Monday...

My cabernet sauvignon grapes from Rafael vineyard in Napa Valley will arrive and we'll sort them on Monday as well. The winemaking begins!!!!!!

This has been my first week of working my harvest rotation. Yes, that would be 6am-6pm, Mon-Sat. Doesn't sound that long, compared to some of those old Countrywide days, but it's all physical work, so I'm tired.

I've been doing alot of punchdowns - stirring grapes & juice in a 1 ton bin. Some are easy, and the ones that have started fermenting are harder because they have a thick "cap". We punch the cap down into the liquid below and stir it up. On Tuesday, I did 6am, 10am, noon, and 2pm punchdowns - WHEW!!!! The 6am ones take the longest because we do ALL of them, which usually takes about 3 hours. I counted over 60 bins on the floor today - and the # keeps growing.

Luckily we don't do them all every time, otherwise it would never end. The good thing is that my arms are solid as a rock!

I've also been sorting grapes....bye bye manicures, at least for now. They're on a conveyer belt and we pick out leaves, stems, rotten grapes, or whatever else looks funky that we don't want in wine.

At the end of the day, my clothes are good & sticky, I have grape juice splattered on me, my hands have a purple hue, I have grape skins under what remains of my nails, and I've eaten everything in sight. You think I eat alot normally, you should see me now...oink, oink.

Pics to come later....too tired to load them.

Your friend, the winemaker,

LInda

HARVEST IS HERE!!!!

Yes, grapes are starting to come in!!!!! We’ve had some Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, and Sauvignon Blanc. Don’t ask me from where…I can’t remember all the vineyards.

This is when the good & sticky fun starts. A half ton bin of grapes is hoisted into the air via forklift, then periodically raked out of the bin with a huge plastic rake, where clusters of luscious grapes fall onto a conveyer belt. About 6 people stand around the belt and remove leaves and rotten clusters. The grapes fall below into a press or into a machine that removes the stems, depending on the type of grape.

The lucky people on the conveyer belt get their hands and clothes very sticky from sorting, de-stemming, and picking through the grapes. If the grapes come too fast, we don’t shove them down our blouse like Lucy, we shove them back down the line with our arms….yes, grape juice all over your arms & hands.

It’s great fun!!! Anybody want to join in the madness??? Give me a shout – we’ll be doing this through end of Oct/early Nov. Friends were in town from Dallas and they got their hands nice & sticky in beautiful, tasty Pinot Noir grapes. Yes, we tasted them too – YUM!!!

As a lucky intern, I get to work 12 hours a day for 6 days straight, every 3^rd week. They wanted to give us the “full experience”. So, I need to select some shoes, pants & shirts that I don’t care about because they will probably get ruined.

I still love this job!!!!

Cheers - Linda