In the Cali Sun

These tanks hold fermenting wines in our outside cellar. The grapes go from the selection table into one of these, and if it's a red, it generally goes into cold-soak for a couple days before warming to inoculate with yeast. The cold-soak process involves maintaining a low temperature by keeping dry ice in the tank 24 hours a day. It also keeps the fruit covered in a layer of CO2 which preserves its quality to extract color from the skins.
Cold inside the tank, but pretty pleasant working outside with the sun shining.

Chard Fest

Most of our Chardonnay came in last week. The fruit arrives on trucks of all sizes carrying these half-ton micro-bins. The vineyard name and block is specified on the sign, and it goes to the selection table or directly to the hopper, depending on the quality. The selection table is used for the more expensive fruit to insure the leaves and detritus is removed, whereas the lower quality fruit is used to make bulk wine for blending.

Young Love

I found a little bit of my vim hiding in these tanks of fermenting wine. Spending my days gazing into tanks has become a fascinating introduction to some intriguing young hopefuls. Watching them develop day after day has taken on some form of relationship--it's like I'm dating. There's a tempranillo in tank 310 that's peaking my interest, and the merlots with their sensual aromas are quickly becoming my favorites. Everyday I notice something new on the nose or find their colors becoming richer. I find myself wondering if I'll like some next week as much as I do now, and imagining the day I'll say 'goodbye' when they go off for barrel aging.
Perhaps the long hours and lack of sleep is finally showing.

Tank Cleaning

About half of the work in the cellar is some form of cleaning. Tanks, hoses, pumps, and every piece that connects them must be fully sanitized between uses. Most is done manually, and looks like this. My good friend Oso above is scrubbing out a 1,000 gallon tank, which is pretty tight quarters.

Hoser

Maybe it's the middle of the week, maybe it's just exhaustion, but I'm lacking inspiration for the vino today. Maybe a good article on dry farming could perk me up, but sometimes the reality of wine-making is a back ache. Perhaps a little touring is an order. I'll report back.

Dreaming In the Lab

This wine cellar is overflowing with macho men. Not for the faint of heart, this is a world full of the coarse and grimy. When I leave at the end of the day, my hands are stained purple and I'm covered in a sticky mess. Being one of two women currently working in a group nearing thirty is not all it's cracked up to be. When passing by the laboratory, where all are female, I gaze longingly. Soothing music plays overhead with intelligent conversation, and I think, 'What am I doing out here?'. So to bring a bit of balance to my life, when I finished in the cellar today I went to the lab, where they were looking particularly overwhelmed. Fruit samples piled high on every surface, they wasted no time showing me some basic procedures to lighten the load. Testing for brix (sugar levels) and running pH analysis with the machine pictured above were my first lessons, and I was thrilled to finally see all their cool gadgets. Seriously, the lab has the best gadgets. A few hours later I felt human again, reassured that I could battle my way through another day of machismo. Oh, and one of the perks to not being cooped in the lab is a better view.

Venture a Venturi

Another technique to expose fermenting wine to oxygen is with the above process and device. A Venturi tube, in a wine cellar, serves the purpose of suctioning air into a line to expose the traveling wine to oxygen. After draining a tank of its juice, this Venturi tube is connected to a hose at the bottom. The juice is then fed back to the top where a sprinkler distributes it over the fruit. A very interesting relationship wine has with oxygen. Dependent on it for its young life, but in bottle or barrel it needs very little. Then at the time of consumption, it relies on the exchange again.

Enough about technique. This is hard work! My biceps are growing by the minute, and I'm constantly amazed at how much there is to do in what's considered a medium-sized facility. Even on a slow day we can put in nine hours, and the evening crew still needs to repeat every action from the day.
I'm ready to do some tasting.