This weekend marked the end official end of crush and the start of the “pressing season”. On Saturday we crushed the last of our grapes for 2008, 2 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon from Lewis Family Vinyards. On Sunday we pressed the first of the Syrah and the first of the Cabernet Franc. Also we moved the first Merlot to barrel.
All in all a very busy weekend for the crew.
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
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
Today marks the beginning of crush 08. Our friends Dave and Bill went over to eastern Washington and picked up a ton and half of Alder Ridge Merlot. With their help we kicked off the 08 crush. We had a couple of early kinks to work out but for the most part we had good weather and a successfully start to crush.
– Bob
Here are a couple of photos taken by Robin… semi official photographer:
Bob, Dave and Jason crushing…
the crushed grapes going into the fermentor
I am stealing Bob’s line with that. The “It” is work and “It” actually never really ends in the wine business. The latest exciting news… we have scheduled a bottling truck for the 27th of Sept. On that day we will bottle our 2006 red wines (le Monstre, le Flirt, and Red Table which we are trying to come up with a new name for but for now Red Table Wine just keeps sticking) and our 2007 Riesling. As always we are looking for volunteers so if you are interested drop us an email. There is quite a bit of excitement around here as this will mean that our first commercial release will be coming out soon. If you have signed up for our mailing list expect to get a notice about the wines going on sale just before Thanksgiving.
As for the other excitement the 2008 harvest is right around the corner. We have some new vineyards to add to the mix this year and say good bye to one of our favorites in Snypes River Canyon. I would be remiss to not say thanks to Keith for all of the help he has given us in the past and to wish him the best of luck with his future plans. One vineyard we have added is Chandlers Reach. Chandlers Reach is located directly west of Benton City and looks across the valley at Red Mountain. We are getting Merlot and think this site will add backbone to our Merlot blends and enhance the fruit character of our Cabernet blends. We are finalizing our contract with one other vineyard that while small is very exciting. More on that in the next post.
What we have been doing since the last post. Well for a while we just got rest, I hung out with the family so they remembered what I looked like. Bob has been working on home projects and Dave, Marco, Christina, Jimmy, Chris, Dick, Jill, Robin, and Jim have been working on seeing if they can get the purple stains off their fingers :). Once rested I did the usual cellar work of racking, topping, cleaning and prep for the next year. I also spent some time in Europe this summer and I have to say one of my top experiences was sipping a beautiful rose on the beach in Barcelona with my good friend Antoine. Barcelona on one of those places that should be on your must visit if you have not been there.
What is new. We have quite a bit of new equipment in the winery or on its way. We have 3 new tanks, 2 500 gallon and 1 225 gallon Pasco Polly tanks that we will use for blending, racking, and short term storage if needed. I picked them up last weekend and now I am trying to find the right place in the winery. We also purchased a new horizontal membrane press. It is a beauty! I will be picking it up down in Oregon this Friday. This press will allow us to be much more efficient while still being incredibly gentle. Finally we have a new, or at least new to us forklift. Yes no more worrying about lift gates and how we will move the heavy objects around the winery. I am very excited about all of these new toys.
Picking up the new tanks
Waiting for the ferry
On the ferry, yea I got some funny looks and one of the staff actually gave me his address in case I had any “extra wine” 
Finally 2008 harvest updates. As anyone who has been to the NW this year knows it has been much colder than the summer of 2007. From a heat standpoint I can’t remember this many cool days in the Valley. That being said a cool day in the Valley is much different than a cool day in most places, after all it is a desert so the vineyards and fruit have not been in any risk. 
Many of our vineyards have now done their final green harvest (cutting off any fruit clusters that have not fully changed color) and have been very selective in their leaf thinning. At this point we are anywhere from 10 days to 2 weeks behind 2003,2005 and 2007 and are a little bit behind 2004, and 2006. We expect to pick our first Merlot the next to last or last week in September and will probably see Cabernet the end of October. I personally like the extra hang time so expect this to be another great year.
I will be taking a trip to the vineyards this Friday morning and will report back with updates.
Oh and one other note, Thanks to Bob and Robin for keeping the blog post up last year. I have promised Jill I will post twice a week so expect to read more from me this harvest.
