Mastering the art of picking stems....

Hi Steve! 

Thanks for being the only one to follow My First Crush!  I know that I have many loyal friends and fans out there that are reading my every word, but Steve is the only one who is brave enough to vouch for me! PS - Steve is the coolest guy, he has a really beautiful and funny wife who is always quick to cut up with me in the tasting room and trade earrings... you know usual tasting room stuff!  So thanks for your support...

(friends...this is your cue to make our friendship public...go on...)

Crush is moving right along!  Since my last post, we have processed 8 more tons of Zinfandel!  On Thursday we had 4 tons from Bailey Ranch and yesterday 4 tons from Wills Hills.  These are two awesome Westside vineyards (by Westside, I mean West of Paso Robles) (Here in wine country, we pay attention to what side of the tracks the fruit comes from.  You know, a little Westside Eastside business goin on... We don't have any gang signs yet, but I'm sure it's not far off... lets just say you wouldn't want to catch an Eastsider on the Westside after dark...) (Now on my third parenthesis, please excuse the punctuation err, but I was just kidding, Eastsiders and Westsiders comingle quite pleasantly, for the record). 

The topography is very vast in our region, and many microclimates exist, this is one reason why fruit varies so much.  For example, the Bailey Ranch fruit was rather large in berry size and not as raisinated as the Will's Hills Zinfandel.  Variance in fruit can be for many reasons other than just vineyard location, topography, climate, weather, farming technique, but also dependent upon varietal clones.  The big berries of the Bailey Ranch Zin seemed to pop inside of the destemer whereas the smaller berries of the Will's Hills popped right through, with little run of juice.  Due to the crazy weather this year (113 degrees last Monday, and 54 degrees and pouring rain tonight) there certainly has been a flux in fruit.  The Will's Hills was pretty raisinated, meaning many of the berries were shriveled up like raisins.  These berries look and taste like raisins, but will hopefully rehydrate during fermentation.  

Our fruit is handpicked and placed in large plastic "picking bins" which hold aprox 1,000lbs each.  Once it arrives at the winery, it is weighed to get a total tonnage amount.  It is then placed in the barrel room where it can be kept cool.  Bin by bin, Sherman brings each out and lifts it with his sheer strength (forklift) into the destemer.  This process is the most time consuming.  The clusters move through an auger which pushes them into a giant stainless tube with lots of nickel sized holes, running through the tube is set of paddles that spiral similar to a DNA strand.  The paddles pop the berries off of the stem which is discarded meanwhile the berries bounce onto a vibrating sorting table.  This is where I come in! I am the master of the sorting table! I stand on one side and make sure the berries move evenly across the table to allow for seeds to fall through, and I also pick any stems that have managed to escape the wrath of the destemer.  The berries bounce their way down the table to a clean picking bin, and eventually into a large bin called a "fermenter ."  

I am working on a short video of all of this...please look for it soon!

Tomorrow, if the rain lets up we will have 4 more tons, this time Syrah!

Cheers,

Katie