Busy week

This week has been pretty busy. I returned from Chicago on Sunday, and drove up to Lompoc on Monday.

Wednesday we went to the winery and did the 2005 pre-bottling work, which entailed racking 35 barrels of Pinot Noir to a 2000 gallon steel tank, and racking 3 barrels of Pinot Noir to a 300 gallon steel tank. After the wine was racked to the tanks, we pumped it though a gentle filter and into another set of tanks. This, plus all of the sanitation and barrel cleaning, made Wednesday a very busy day for all four of us.

Friday we went back to the winery to monitor the bottling. Bottling lines are very expensive and for a small winery it doesn't make sense to own the line - so we outsource it. We also pulled a small quantity of wine before bottling to put into 1/2 and double size bottles by hand. It turned in to a very long day.

This morning (Saturday) I got up relatively early and went into the vineyard for a morning of hoeing. Hoeing is simply using a hoe to pull weeds out from under the vines. Very simple, and very strenuous.

In between all of this I have been working on other software stuff, reading, mountain biking, and fishing. It's fun, but I'm tired.

The "fruits" of our labor

Things are going well in sunny Lompoc. Since my last post there hasn't been that much work; which should be interpreted as the "calm before the storm." On Friday I walked through the vineyards to observe the ripening. There is quite a bit of purple out there now, and the berries are starting to get a bit sweet.

Saturday the 12th was the second of two allocation BBQs, and it went without a hitch. Morten and friend Nadia (from Switzerland) flew up Saturday in Morten's plane for the event, and departed on Sunday. About an hour after I dropped them off at the Lompoc airport my friend Dmitriy came up with his girlfriend for some Santa Barbara county wine tasting. We hit a number of the local wineries, enjoyed a lot of good bread and cheese, and took in the countryside views. After a dinner at the Hitching Post, they returned to LA and I returned to taking it easy.

Monday and Tuesday have so far been pretty quiet. Yesterday I did some admin work and cleaned up the trailer a bit, and then we took a trip to the winery to top barrels. Today I'm spending time in the vineyards doing cluster counts for yield estimates. It's a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I'm off to Chicago for the rest of this week to see a Cubs game, eat, and enjoy a few tasty beverages. I'll be back on Monday. Cheers!

"Twas a woman who drove me to drink. I never had the courtesy to thank her." - W.C. Fields

BBQ/Wrestling the Sea Monster

Saturday was the first of two annual "Allocation BBQs", meaning a large event at the main house featuring both of the current releases (Pinot Noir & Chardonnay) as well as a lot of library wines, and wines from other producers using Clos Pepe fruit. After working at the gate greeting guests for a couple of hours I joined the party, and 5 of my friends, for some wine and fun... a lot of wine and a lot of fun. To sum it up, the 6 of us drank a guesstimated 12 bottles of wine, enjoyed a wonderful steak dinner at the Hitching Post - which is highly recommended - and then continued the evening until closing time and beyond at a local cowboy bar called "Mavericks." John finally recovered from his hangover about 5 PM on Sunday.

After 3 tiring and stressful days of packing and moving the contents of my home to storage (Monday - Wednesday), I'm back in Lompoc and adjusting back to a life of serenity and agriculture. Today we went to the winery to cold stabilize Chardonnay. This involves pumping 6 barrels of wine from barrels to a single stainless steel tank, and then chilling the wine in the tank for a few weeks prior to bottling. The process of pumping wine out of a barrel and into another vessel is known in the industry as "racking." A major purpose of racking is to leave the yeasty sludge and sediment that accumulates in the bottom of the barrel behind, transferring only the clear wine to the clean tank. On paper, this operation is not that difficult, but everything that comes in contact with wine has to be rinsed, sanitized, rinsed again, sanitized again, and finally, rinsed... again. Imagine washing your car - twice - with a 1 1/2 inch inside diameter hose (and a pump to drive the fluids) while obtaining a sanitation level akin to washing dishes for an important dinner guest and you should get the picture. Chanda, assistant winemaker and Wes' wife, aptly described the process of draining the fluids out of said hose as "Wrestling the Sea Monster." That pretty much describes it.

The weather here is, as always, perfect. Foggy and upper 50's at night, clear and upper 70's during the day.

Cheers!

“I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.” - Johnny Carson

More pictures...?

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Adding pictures...?

Working in the winery

First off - I have no idea what is going on with uploading photos to this site. I'll keep trying to post pics but they may not make sense in the context of the post they are included in. My apologies, but hey, I'm not hosting this thing...

Today (Tuesday) was spent in the winery. Five of us - myself, the winemaker, assistant winemaker, vineyard owner, and another intern - were tasked with what seemed like the impossible: choose the three best barrels of Pinot Noir from the '05 vintage, 38 barrels of wine in all. It took about three hours, but it was worth the effort. The best three blended into a truly wonderful reserve selection. It will be a lot of fun to see how the "big blend" comes together - this is a blend of the remaining 35 barrels. I definitely learned a lot about Pinot Noir, and gained even more appreciation for those with well developed palates and their abilities to detect subtle differences between wines.

After the barrel tasting, blending, and a great/big lunch, it was back to the cellar to add SO2 (sulfur dioxide - a preservative used in almost ALL wine) and top the barrels. Climbing on the racks seems odd at first but quickly becomes routine. I certainly learned a lot about wine chemistry and winery sanitation today, and I had a lot of fun in the process.

Back in the vineyard, everything is beautiful as it always is. I'm still adjusting to an agricultural lifestyle, but I am really enjoying it and am not missing the city life at all, at least not yet.

“Now don't say you can't swear off drinking; it's easy. I've done it a thousand times.” - W.C. Fields