So...welcome to my first post, on my first blog, on my first crush! I have never done this before, so bare with me, I was however a journalism major so this social media stuff shouldn't be too complicated. It is my goal to share my winery adventures with you; hopefully we will both learn a thing or two!
As I said earlier, I have worked for the Thacher's for two years. It has, from my perspective, been a wonderful relationship. I love the Thachers and feel like I am part of the family...oh and Sherman makes great wine! I will tell you all about how I got swept into their "controlled chaos" on another post, but for now I think I better get you up to speed on what's been happening this week at Thacher Winery!
It has been a strange summer, overall relatively cool temperatures and about 40" of rain this year caused us to wonder what harvest season would look like. Sherman has been busy taking samples from the different local vineyards we source from and measuring the brix (a unit representative of the sugar content of an aqueous solution, measured in degrees) and the total pH. For the past two weeks I have been a little over excited, asking Sherman every two seconds when the grapes were going to come in...finally he said, "this week!"
So my duties began on Monday, power washing the picking bins, and a lesson on driving the forklift. Speaking of forklifts... I'm not sure if other people have the same desire to drive tractors as I do, but ever since I was introduced to my Grandpa's old Case, I can't get enough of them. I once painted "Bessie" (as I will now refer to her) on the side of his old grease ridden, yellow dinosaur. Most of the labels of what lever moves what, were rusted off so it was basically a craps shoot weather or not you'd accomplish what you set out to do on ol' Bessie... or even if she'd start, I used to say, "C'mon Bessie-B-Good!" Bessie and I spent a lot of time together, and a lot of time stationary, but when I did get her to start...wow...invigorating!
Sherman's forklift is super easy compared to Bessie, but equally liberating. When you are 5'3" like me, being able to reach the top picking bin on a stack of 8, feels amazing! However, there is one thing about the forklift... If you don't weigh enough, it doesn't recognize that there is someone in the driver's seat, and it automatically kicks into this awful screech beeping noise, worse than a big truck in reverse, and won't move. You have to then shift back into neutral, then back into gear, and it will stop beeping. It is only mildly annoying and it does make you feel thin...but my question is this... Mr. forklift designer man, why if I weigh too little for your machine, do my pants not fit? Ha! I wonder if there has ever been a discrimination case against a forklift company for not designing their machines for the vertically challenged? hmmm... Sherman said he is just going to put a sack of grain on the seat for me. Problem solved.
Once the bins were washed, Sherman took 8 of them to ChristopherJoyce vineyard. The vineyard is named after its owner, Joyce and her son Christopher. They have been in the tasting room a few times. Christopher is very charming and looks like a young Brad Pitt. He asked me to dinner once, but I was in the middle of moving. I told him he was welcome to come over for dinner instead, as we were going to bbq after we moved a few things. I will never forget the look on his face when he saw the two other guys who were also there for the bbq. So there I sat with the three gents trying to make small talk with each of them over bbq'ed tri-tip. You should have seen the armoires, dressers, and California king size bed I had those guys move. Anyway, I haven't seen him since...poor guy, I'm sure he was sore the next day.
So the 8 bins hold aprox 1,000 lbs of fruit each, so we received 4 tons of Zinfandel from ChristopherJoyce on Tuesday morning around 11am. It is a really interesting process of desteming the grapes, which I will explain in detail in my next post. I will be filming the process, so look for some of My First Crush videos soon!
As for now, I have to put my crush clothes on and get ready because we have 4 tons of Zinfandel coming in from Bailey Ranch Vineyard, another westside vineyard (I have not attempted to date anyone from this vineyard).
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