Harvest is a crazy time of the year. I've heard people describe it as "controlled chaos", a "love hate relationship", and my favorite, "a time of year when I can drink as much beer as I want and not gain any weight". Harvest is also a hard time of the year with many long days spent in the winery. The significant others of winemakers and cellar staff call themselves harvest widows at this time of the year as not much QT gets spent with the family. My kids also get confused because I come home in a different big truck every couple of days ready to be in a vineyard in the early hours of the next day for a pick. My daughter asked me the other day if her car seat would fit so I could drive her to school in it. In the winery we spend time checking weather reports in the various areas of California where we have grapes contracted while tending to brix and temp measurements and looking after all of the various fermentations. There is a lot of manual labor involved in the winery, bodies take strain and the cleaning never stops. We spend a lot of time on the road grabbing grape samples making sure we pick the fruit at it's optimal level of ripeness. We drink a lot of coffee and beer never tastes as good as it does at this time of the year. Here is a quick photo tour of urban winemaking at WineWorks...
Unloading precious grapes from one of our rent a wreck trucks (it's actually pretty fun to drive).
Happy grape sorters digging into the days first fruit to pass over the sorting table.
Fermenting grapes being inoculated with yeast. Every wine lover should smell this at some stage of their life.
Pouring the must into the basket press is always a Kodak moment. Yes we do spill a little bit every now and again.
Beautiful Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir draining from the press and ready to be pumped into barrel.
Eric making sure to smile for the camera while not letting the wine over flow from the barrel.
Everyone gets to be hands on in the winemaking process at WineWorks, even grand kids get put to work. Young Benji helps slide the press into action...
and poses for a picture with his grandad.
This is another activity that any serious wine geek should try to experience at some stage of their life. There is nothing as aromatically pleasing as the smell of freshly pressed wine being transferred into an oak barrel.
Pinot Noir seen through the site glass.
Ya'll come back now ya hear!?
Thanks to Linda for the photos!
