The Cellar Swallowed Me

As many experience during vintage, I have no life outside the cellar. Up and down I climb the 3-4 story catwalks that sprawl in all directions. Checking a pump here, adding yeast there, and stumbling over my own particular blend of Spanish and Portuguese. While I'll be posting more details, it may be documented a bit more in pictures this time around.

Adega

I promise a vintage update soon, but until then here's a bit of the view.

Vendemmia Alentejo, Portugal 2009

My walk to work. Pretty nice. Amid 75+ hour weeks, Alentejo offers some excellent scenery.
Big sky, vineyards and olive groves forever.

Carneros Fog

The Carneros region is famous for the fog that comes off the San Pablo Bay and hangs in the vineyards, giving the vines much-needed moisture. The wind machines are used to help circulate the air and prevent frost.

Barreling Down

After taking a break for the holidays, a rather dry Napa winter is in full swing. One by one the tanks have been emptied and sanitized with the wine now living in these excellent French oak barrels. Now the main focus in the cellar is topping the barrels and adding sulfur dioxide to keep the wine stable. Aging wine from past vintages is also pumped out of their barrels and mixed
in-tank to stir the sediment.

Season Change

Like clockwork the rain started as soon a the last fruit arrived. It makes working a bit less pleasant, but a rather impressive show of textbook maritime climate.

Wine Hands

The last of the cabernet arrived last week and marked the end of the harvest season here in Northern California. One by one the tanks are being emptied of their extended maceration inhabitants and my hands are stained purple. I think it's permanent. We are still performing many punch down and pump-over techniques like the one above referred to as a delestage (del-ess-TAHJ). This benefits the wine by exposing it to oxygen and separating seeds, ultimately resulting in smoother tannins.