Harvest is in full swing

Goldeneye bins waiting for the morning Pinot pick

 I was talking with a friend/mentor the other day and asked him how harvest was going. He replied "harvest is an exercise of survival, and we are surviving".

If you've ever worked a harvest it's easy to relate to that. We are just getting started with harvest here at WineWorks. We've already had a couple marathon days and tomorrow will be another one. We are surviving and we  are having fun. We are having a lot of fun!

We've been walking vineyards tasting grapes. Talking to growers and tasting grapes.. Tasting grapes and talking with consultants. Driving around northern California dropping off bins and tasting grapes. Our first fruit is in, we've got our first ferments ticking away and each new days greetings are met with conversations about how sore we are from the previous days efforts. Each day of harvest produces a new bruise, bump, ache or pain. It's all part of harvest, and it's all fun.

Colin and Andy from Tasot sorting Pinot from Keller Estate

Whole berry Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir with dry ice, ready for cold soak.

6 year old Benji shows Eric how its done

 We couldn't be happier with all of our equipment. It's been fun tweaking the speed on the sorting table, elevator and destemmer getting everything just right.

Richard, Jerry, Sam and Benji sorting Pinot

 Kate and Brad sorting clone 777 Pinot from Keller Estate

 And then there is Mother Nature with how she keeps us guessing. There is rain in the forecast with low temperatures for the next few days. With it decisions on whether or not to pick fruit that is ready or close to ready. We go through all of the scenarios, trust me there are a lot of them, and then factor in logistics of harvest crew availability, truck rental availability and what ever else we already have scheduled.

 Anderson Valley is hands down my favorite location for growing Pinot Noir and Anderson Creek is a magical vineyard just outside of Boonville.

 We pick the 2011 vintage Anderson Creek Pinot tomorrow!

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

No there is not going to be a wedding in the winery, at least not yet, it's more a description of a few new toys we have recently acquired...

Something old (it's a fork lift rotater for those of you who are wondering)

 My new harvest boots, quite a fashion statement I know

 New punch down tool waiting for the first fruit of the season

 OK so I don't really have anything borrowed but here is our new scale which is...

Blue

Here's a little teaser shot of the new floor in the tasting room and our 10 foot long super comfy couches, prefect for sipping a little vino on after a grape sorting or punch down session.

The construction phase of our first year is getting close to being finished, the new restrooms are being constructed this week (just out of the frame to the left of the above picture). Stay tuned for more pictures of the front of house soon. 

We're busily readying the winery for our first fruit of the year which looks like it could be just over a week away. Windsor Oaks Pinot is in the lead for the first pick of 2011. We still have a little fruit available from a few of our vineyards and there is still time to get in on making wine this year if you are up for all of the fun to be had. We just added an organically farmed Sangiovese vineyard to our line up for the inaugural vintage. It's a fantastic vineyard planted on a steep terraced hillside in Dry Creek. We're only sourcing a small amount of the fruit from this site so if making your own California super Tuscan sounds fun give us a call.