First Party

We held our first party this past Saturday. It was a great chance to meet a few of the people making wine with us this year and show off some of the new equipment and the work we have done in the winery. 

Our neighborhood butcher Olivier (http://www.oliviersbutchery.com/index.html) prepared some phenomenal treats for us right on our back dock and we tasted wines produced from a few of the vineyards we are sourcing fruit from this year. 

 David and Aran from Carlotta Wines tell their story.

 It was a great first event. We're looking forward to hosting more in the near future and being able to pour wines we've produced on site.

Thanks to everyone who came out to show their support, and thank you HM for the loan of your cooler at the last minute ;-)

Christmas in August?

Most of our equipment was delivered today. It was a hair raising experience unloading all of this shiny new winery equipment but a very exciting day for us.

The truck full of new toys arrives

 Kevin giving the basket press a little kiss to say hello

 Trying not to think about how much the press weighs much less how much it cost

 Sorting Table and Basket Press safely in the winery

Whose grapes will be the first to pass through the new destemmer?

White Hawk Visit

My daughter Kate joined me for a quick visit to White Hawk vineyard this past weekend to check in on our Syrah. The crews just finished removing laterals and it looked like some leaves had been pulled as well. Kevin Merrill the vineyard manager said they were planing on hedging this week. As we've heard from other growers Kevin says it's going to be a light crop "but should make great wine".   

The sandy soil at White Hawk is amazing. It reminds me more of Lanikai beach than a vineyard.

Vineyard Visit

 Last week I drove up to check in on a few of our vineyards and chat with the growers about the season so far to see how things are shaping up for 2011. Despite hearing stories of 25-50% loss or shatter damage, both the Keller Estate and Windsor Oaks properties have experienced minimal damage and yields are looking only slightly lower than last year. 

We're still a good few weeks away from veraison, but in general it looks like we are running about 3 weeks behind "normal" this year.

Last week our barrel racks were delivered so we finally got the chance to do some winery work. I've never been so happy to smell sulfur before. All of our barrels are now resting on their racks, with a sulfur "sous" in them waiting to be cleaned out and filled with wine in the upcoming months. 

It was also fun to finally put our newly rented forklift to work, after all driving a forklift is really the reason we all get into this business in the first place, right?    

Until next time...

First Post

Website. Check. Facebook page. Check. Twitter account. Check. Blog. Really?

These are just a few of the things that have nothing to do with making wine yet have a lot to do with opening a winery. The things Kevin and I have learned since launching Dogpatch WineWorks just a few months ago are pretty varied and almost always interesting, almost. If you think it's all about grapes, fermentation science, chemistry, barrels and really expensive equipment your wrong, well you'd be right about the equipment.

Here's a list of a few things that we've been learning about since signing the lease here on 3rd St.

Lights (high bay energy efficient)

Water (2 1/5 inch copper pipe is cool)

Power ("Are you going to make it all 220?" "Yeah 220... 221, whatever it takes")

Load bearing walls vs. non load bearing (tearing them down is fun)

Protective concrete systems (landlords like stuff like this)

Trench drains and general plumbing (do you know why a plumber looks up at the ceiling when you are talking about installing a drain in the floor?)    

Add to that Google analytics, Go Daddy's, Urban Daddy's, Mailchimps and the SEO for dummies book collecting dust on my desk and you're pretty much caught up with what's been happening here at the winery. 

Starting this business has been a very exciting, sometimes stressful but fun undertaking. With everything that has been going on so far, and everything we still have ahead of us before we actually start making wine I am not sure how often this blog will be updated but I'm going to make an effort to document all of the weird and wonderful activities that are involved in opening and running an urban winery.

Stay tuned for updates on weather conditions, grower and vineyard profiles, equipment maintenance, harvest activities, traffic jams, ramblings of sleep deprived winemakers and useless trivia that we will somehow link to wine, all in a fun way.

Cheers,

DG