Are You Scared . . .

by the screaming of the lees? Apologies to Sir Tony. The chardonnay barrels are making quite a ruckus now as they go through barrel fermentation. Get of a few of these going and it's a carbon dioxide symphony. Yesterday morning when I opened the cave, the CO2 smell was overwhelming from the chard barrels and many T-Bins going through active fermentation. By the time I reached the center of the cave to turn on the exhaust fan I wasn't a happy camper. I should have just opened the cave doors and let it vent outside for a few minutes before I charged in. It's actually a situation to be taken seriously. A heavy dose of CO2 can ruin your day or worse.

Battonage!!

Voici une image de M. Ray Walker (mon interne semblable) démontrant la technique bourguignonne du battonage.

Well my French may be a little rusty so please excuse any errors but I am trying to say this is a picture of my fellow intern, Ray Walker, demonstrating the burgundian technique of "battonage." Battonage is the stirring of the lees in barrel. While we are fermenting the chardonnay in barrels, yeast sediments collect at the bottom. Battonage involves stirring up these lees with a stainless steel rod inserted through the barrel's bung hole. This stirring of the lees can add to the texture of the wine by adding a creamy or rich nutty note without affecting the wine's acidity. Stirring up the yeast lees also helps to protect the wine because they help to eliminate unwanted oxygen.

One for the Ladies . . .

Cue the Barry White music. Thought the ladies might like these pictures from some older Chardonnay vines at Keefer Ranch. The heel to the boot (if you will) was grafted onto the vine as a way to protect the vine from a nasty disease called phylloxera (sp?). The graft is phylloxera resistant which would hopefully prevent the disease from travelling down to the roots and killing the vine - at least I think that's how it goes. :-)

This Job is For the Dogs

Pugs, actually. Pebbles the Pug! Makes me miss my little guy back home.

Well after an extended two day cold soak (ha ha) the zin is fermenting. Sometimes, those native yeasties just can't wait and get real hungry. So, yes. We can now say that the zin has gone "wild". Much more later . . . Go RAVENS!!

This Job Is For The Birds

Actually, turkeys. Wild turkeys that is. We have been working into the night this week bringing in the remaining fruit for this year. Now, we have about 95% of the grapes in tank, T-bins, or in barrel. All the fermenters are full and we have about 34 T-bins working. It's due to rain today/tonight so all is well.

More info this weekend . . .

A Quickie

The zin is in. The cave. In a T-Bin in the cave is the zin.

Harvest Peaks Today

Today may be the high point of the 2008 harvest for us. We will process over 17 tons of fruit from five vineyards. This includes two different pinots, two different chards and the Buck Hill Zinfandel! We visited Buck Hill again over the weekend and the vines were beginning to shut down so it was time to make the picking decision. The fruit looked and tasted great - can't wait to bring it in this morning. This year I'll be making two barrels of the zin instead of one - around fifty cases!

The picture is from Monday tasting the Heintz Vineyard chard straight from the press. It may look weird now but it's going to be tremendous. This vintage has really turned around - a little schizo if you will. Well, got to go - more later with pics of the zin.