Expect The Unexpected
A Rite of Passage for a Wino
A Rite of Passage for a Wino
September
Week 4
Week 4
Tuesday
September 20th 2016
When it rains it pours, or so they say.
This week has definitely been one of those weeks! Sunday my little winery car decided it no longer wanted to join me on my travels. The solution to my problem...either opt for a risky used car or get a motorcycle or scooter (you must have a motorcycle licences for this) also keep in mind I only plan on staying in America through the harvest and a little while after to spend the holidays with family so getting something new and expensive may not be the best choice. I ended up getting a little 150cc scooter and figured it was a wise choice because of price, and being that California is extremely dry and doesn't rain often, so a scooter should be great....and pretty safe right? Wrong! The 2nd day of having the scooter it rained! What are the odds of that? A little rain shouldn't be so bad right? Wrong! the wind that came with the rain made riding this scooter unbearable and dangerous.
The scooter is pretty fun and exciting driving around town and wine country, it's just when you get on roads that get up to 45-50 mph where the fun ends and riding this thing becomes dangerous.
Wednesday
September 21st 2016
Pulling juice from our freshly crushed Grenache for the rosé sparking.
This 300 gallon tank holds about 1,554 bottles, that's not much bubbly at all!
What yeast looks like
Jenga with Barrels
Peter truly is the master at moving around these barrels!
Me: Peter! it's like Jenga, but with wine barrels!
Peter: It is....unfortunately.
There is an extreme amount of responsibility that comes with moving these barrels around, many of them are full with maturing wines; one little mistake and the barrels come toppling down along with all the hard work from many past harvests.
Thursday
September 22nd 2016
Crushing the last of the Tempranillo
Like I said in the beginning of the week, expect the unexpected! Crushing is going smoothly and then bam! this thing in the picture below was somehow in the picking bin, dropped into the destemmer and came flying back out almost hitting Peter in the face.
Our Tempranillo was machine harvested today, and this thing that ended up in the picking bins must have fell out from the machine. Unfortunately this type of thing happens from time to time; one must always be awake and aware of what is going on when working in a winery/cellar, mistakes and laziness can get you killed
Friday
September 23rd 2016
Today was one of those days, the ones in the harvest intern job description where they warn you that you'll work well over 10 hours, but its crunch time! or crush time to be exact. The remainder of our fruit is starting to come it, so the calm before the storm is over and we are in full storm mode.
After punch downs, taking the daily readings on all the fermenting wines brix and temperature, there is a bit of time to do work orders until the fruit arrives.
Adding fermentation nutrients to the newly fermenting reds, think of this as a multi vitamin, but for yeast.
Crushing Graciano
I was extremely excited when this variety came in, last week was my first time tasting it...or a bit of it, it's used as a blending partner in our Corsecha V111
Production: 191 Cases
Oak Aging: 18 Months in 29% New American Oak
Winemakers: Luciana & Christopher Turkovich
Blend: 44% Graciano, 43% Grenache, 13% Tempranillo
Vineyard: Button & Turkovich Vineyard, Bokisch Vineyards
*Wine Club Only*
Graciano found in Rioja Spain among other places, is the wife to the husband Tempranillo...or vice versa, but for me Graciano is the much more perfumed, run through a field of violets and stomp on some mulberries while you're at it smelling type of red.
Often grown near Tempranillo, Graciano is used as a blending partner to help bring more balance to Tempranillo.
"Graciano's homeland the Northern Spanish Ebro Valley and Navarra is grown in the Jerez region under the name Tintilla de Rota.
Graciano is used in France under the name Morrastel. But the Spanish use the variety called Mourvedre (or Mataro in Australia) under the name Morrastel.
To add to the confusion the Portuguese variety Tinta Miuda is now known to be to be the same variety.
Not to be outdone the Californians grow Graciano under the name Xeres" ~www.vinodiversity.com
Our Graciano is sourced from Bokisch's vineyards in Lodi and they have quite the cult following!
Crushing Petit Verdot
Color, tannin, and hypnotic aromas of fresh herbs and flowers; as petite as this variety may seem, it packs a serious flavor and texture punch, which is why this variety is often desired as a blending grape.
Crushing our Malbec
It's has been a long wait, but the Malbec that's in today is from our vineyard; it takes an average of 3 years for a new vine to grow and start producing quality fruit.
Pulling juice out of our freshly crushed wines for yeast inoculation.
Once the grapes make their way through the destemmer/crusher they come into the cellar and need to start their transition from grape juice to wine.
What I am doing here is siphoning juice from the varieties that were just crushed, and slowly feeding that juice to the yeast. After about 50 or 60 minutes of gradually feeding the yeast more and more juice, I put the yeast into the bin or tank and it's buffet/party time for the next week....for the yeast....party time for me has to wait until harvest is over.
Saturday
September 24th 2016
Malbec from Yolo vineyards is being crushed today.
When I think Malbec, I think black fruits, cocoa powder, rugged leather, and if you're lucky(I say lucky, because I'm forever on this search for reds that embody the aromas of violets)...floral/violet notes in Argentina, or a more peppery/spiced version of the grape in Cahors France.
Luciana Turkovich is originally from Argentina, and her father is a famed winemaker there...I think I smell some magic, or more like taste some magic in the bottle!
What you might find in a glass of Malbec
Fruit Flavors: Juicy black cherry, plum, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, dried berries, jujube.
Other Delightful Aromas: Cocoa, milk chocolate, coffee bean, leather, black pepper, green notes (stems, leafy notes) gravel, stones, pipe tobacco.
Oak Ageing Aromas: Vanilla, dill(often picked up from Hungiarian oak), coconut.
Acidity: Medium to Medium + (watch out for bulk production Malbec, I often find the acidity is way out of balance!)
Tannin: Medium
September 20th 2016
When it rains it pours, or so they say.
This week has definitely been one of those weeks! Sunday my little winery car decided it no longer wanted to join me on my travels. The solution to my problem...either opt for a risky used car or get a motorcycle or scooter (you must have a motorcycle licences for this) also keep in mind I only plan on staying in America through the harvest and a little while after to spend the holidays with family so getting something new and expensive may not be the best choice. I ended up getting a little 150cc scooter and figured it was a wise choice because of price, and being that California is extremely dry and doesn't rain often, so a scooter should be great....and pretty safe right? Wrong! The 2nd day of having the scooter it rained! What are the odds of that? A little rain shouldn't be so bad right? Wrong! the wind that came with the rain made riding this scooter unbearable and dangerous.
The scooter is pretty fun and exciting driving around town and wine country, it's just when you get on roads that get up to 45-50 mph where the fun ends and riding this thing becomes dangerous.
Destemming/Crushing Grenache Bokish Vineyards
This week is full of surprises!
Being that Grenache is a difficult variety to crush due to its tight bunches, this did not fare well for the crusher; the stems just didn't seem to want to expel from the machine. The machine kept getting stopped up which delayed the crushing.
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| Fruit has arrived! time to get to work. |
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| Fruit is making its way up top and into the machine |
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| It's important to control the amount of fruit going into the destemmer/crusher, if too much is put in at once the machine can get clogged. |
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| Grape bunches make their way into the destemmer, paddles remove the stems from the berries. |
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| Half of the whole berries drop here and make their way through the pump which feeds into a tank. |
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| The other half of the berries are crushed, separating the juice from the skins. Both juice and skins make their way to the pump at the bottom of the machine and are pumped into a fermenting bin or tank. |
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| Out comes crushed berries |
September 21st 2016
Pulling juice from our freshly crushed Grenache for the rosé sparking.
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| Luciana and Peter, my amazing teachers! |
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| Sweet concentrated Grenache juice. The winemaker is pulling the juice from its skins extra early for this rosé because she does not want too much color/ and tannins in the finished product. |
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| Not to worry...no wine went to waste! the pink stuff on the ground is actually lees from a recently racked rosé; racking sure can be messy! So if you want to be a harvest/winemaking intern be prepared to rack and clean! |
What yeast looks like
 |
| Someone asked me what yeast looks likes....here you go...they look like pebbles, eggs. What do you think they look like? |
Jenga with Barrels
Peter truly is the master at moving around these barrels!
Me: Peter! it's like Jenga, but with wine barrels!
Peter: It is....unfortunately.
There is an extreme amount of responsibility that comes with moving these barrels around, many of them are full with maturing wines; one little mistake and the barrels come toppling down along with all the hard work from many past harvests.
 |
| Up they go |
Thursday
September 22nd 2016
Crushing the last of the Tempranillo
Like I said in the beginning of the week, expect the unexpected! Crushing is going smoothly and then bam! this thing in the picture below was somehow in the picking bin, dropped into the destemmer and came flying back out almost hitting Peter in the face.
Our Tempranillo was machine harvested today, and this thing that ended up in the picking bins must have fell out from the machine. Unfortunately this type of thing happens from time to time; one must always be awake and aware of what is going on when working in a winery/cellar, mistakes and laziness can get you killed
 |
| All the Tempranillo today is making its way into the 2,500 gallon tank. Today we harvested just shy of 10 tons. |
 |
| Juice and berries will make their way through the destemmer/crusher, and will be pumped into this tank. |
 |
| Poor Peter! he had an extreme arm workout putting the berries into the crusher. |
Friday
September 23rd 2016
Today was one of those days, the ones in the harvest intern job description where they warn you that you'll work well over 10 hours, but its crunch time! or crush time to be exact. The remainder of our fruit is starting to come it, so the calm before the storm is over and we are in full storm mode.
After punch downs, taking the daily readings on all the fermenting wines brix and temperature, there is a bit of time to do work orders until the fruit arrives.
Adding fermentation nutrients to the newly fermenting reds, think of this as a multi vitamin, but for yeast.
Crushing Graciano
I was extremely excited when this variety came in, last week was my first time tasting it...or a bit of it, it's used as a blending partner in our Corsecha V111
Production: 191 Cases
Oak Aging: 18 Months in 29% New American Oak
Winemakers: Luciana & Christopher Turkovich
Blend: 44% Graciano, 43% Grenache, 13% Tempranillo
Vineyard: Button & Turkovich Vineyard, Bokisch Vineyards
*Wine Club Only*
Graciano found in Rioja Spain among other places, is the wife to the husband Tempranillo...or vice versa, but for me Graciano is the much more perfumed, run through a field of violets and stomp on some mulberries while you're at it smelling type of red.
Often grown near Tempranillo, Graciano is used as a blending partner to help bring more balance to Tempranillo.
"Graciano's homeland the Northern Spanish Ebro Valley and Navarra is grown in the Jerez region under the name Tintilla de Rota.
Graciano is used in France under the name Morrastel. But the Spanish use the variety called Mourvedre (or Mataro in Australia) under the name Morrastel.
To add to the confusion the Portuguese variety Tinta Miuda is now known to be to be the same variety.
Not to be outdone the Californians grow Graciano under the name Xeres" ~www.vinodiversity.com
Our Graciano is sourced from Bokisch's vineyards in Lodi and they have quite the cult following!
 |
| Graciano |
 |
| New tanks have arrived! these are open wooden top. |
 |
| As Peter put it, "this one comes with all the bells and whistles." |
Crushing Petit Verdot
Color, tannin, and hypnotic aromas of fresh herbs and flowers; as petite as this variety may seem, it packs a serious flavor and texture punch, which is why this variety is often desired as a blending grape.
 |
| Check out Wine Folly's guide to Petit Verdot |
Crushing our Malbec
It's has been a long wait, but the Malbec that's in today is from our vineyard; it takes an average of 3 years for a new vine to grow and start producing quality fruit.
 |
| There's lots of juice already in the picking bin since this variety was machine harvested today. |
 |
| This was the only bunch I could find while I was destemming. |
Pulling juice out of our freshly crushed wines for yeast inoculation.
Once the grapes make their way through the destemmer/crusher they come into the cellar and need to start their transition from grape juice to wine.
What I am doing here is siphoning juice from the varieties that were just crushed, and slowly feeding that juice to the yeast. After about 50 or 60 minutes of gradually feeding the yeast more and more juice, I put the yeast into the bin or tank and it's buffet/party time for the next week....for the yeast....party time for me has to wait until harvest is over.
 |
| It has taken me awhile to get semi good at this |
 |
| I was an insanely long day! When the boss offers everyone a beer at the end of the day, you know it has been a long one! I wouldn't mind a glass of cold, crisp Albarino, but this beer was dam good at the end of the day! |
Saturday
September 24th 2016
Malbec from Yolo vineyards is being crushed today.
When I think Malbec, I think black fruits, cocoa powder, rugged leather, and if you're lucky(I say lucky, because I'm forever on this search for reds that embody the aromas of violets)...floral/violet notes in Argentina, or a more peppery/spiced version of the grape in Cahors France.
Luciana Turkovich is originally from Argentina, and her father is a famed winemaker there...I think I smell some magic, or more like taste some magic in the bottle!
What you might find in a glass of Malbec
Fruit Flavors: Juicy black cherry, plum, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, dried berries, jujube.
Other Delightful Aromas: Cocoa, milk chocolate, coffee bean, leather, black pepper, green notes (stems, leafy notes) gravel, stones, pipe tobacco.
Oak Ageing Aromas: Vanilla, dill(often picked up from Hungiarian oak), coconut.
Acidity: Medium to Medium + (watch out for bulk production Malbec, I often find the acidity is way out of balance!)
Tannin: Medium
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| The view from up top, it's destemming time! |
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| The more reds there are to crush, the more there are fermenting, the more there are to punch down! |
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