Today, Jason and I with a little help from Dave Moore, pressed the first Merlot that we crushed a couple of weeks ago. This was the first time using the new press with the new hopper or “the funnel” as i like to call it. Things went pretty smoothly for the first time minus a small hick up were we blew a small fuse on the press controls and it took us a while and a couple of calls to figure it out and fix.

After the small fuse issue, things went much more smoothly and the press is great. We were able to get a much higher quality pressing that should really add to the quality of the wines. Clean up was also much easier and quicker then in the past. I’d say well worth the money spent..

Since there was just a few of us, I was only able to snap a couple of pictures and movies with my cell phone. Enjoy…

– Bob

Cleaning the Hopper

Starting the Dump into the Press

Dumping into the Press

Press Running through a cycle

Jason returned this afternoon with 1 ton of Malbec from Snipes Canyon Vinyards. The grapes were sweet and big and juicy. should make a great wine and really look forward to tasting.

So far this was the smoothest crushes of the year. We adjusted our must pump setup and got a much better flow then last week’s crush which definitely helped the crusher as it did not bogg down at all. I think we’ve now got the setup tuned and will be ready for the crushes coming up.

thanks to Dave for his help yet again and Elise for the yummy dinner. Also great baby sitting Shea!

– Bob

Jason and Jim, our friend from winery, returned yesterday with 2 tons (4 bins) of Merlot from Chandlers Reach Vineyards. This morning we started early on the crush trying out our new setup. We had to rush to try to beat the first fall storm as well as get done so we could all get ready for Elise’s big 40th party. Things started out ok but we did run into some problems along the way.

The day before, the fork lift company came by with our new longer forks so we could safely use the dumper on the bins. This morning, Jason and I positioned the crusher, adjusted “the funnel” and setup the pump for our new crush configuration. With everything ready to go, Jason got the first bin and positioned it for dumping.

Things were going well for the first bin, but we seemed to be getting a few too many skins coming out with the stems and the crusher was bogging down occasionally. We made a few starts and stops and many adjustments along with a gas station stop for more Propane, but finally got it going. I think in the end I was not running the must pump quite right and the must coming out of the crusher was backing up. We now thinking we’ll have to adjust our must pump setup and maybe go with our two long tubes instead of using the short one to the crusher. All in all, things worked out okay and we will continue to refine the setup, but are probably close.

Thanks to Jim and Lisa for their help today as well as The Haavik.

– Bob

Again here are a couple of photos and a movie taken by Robin… semi official photographer:

Bob and Jason Discussing the setup

Dave Waiting for More Grapes

Ready to Dump the Grapes

Jim Getting the Last of the Grapes

The New Setup

A Little Video…