As Robin said Friday night I drove out to Alder Ridge and picked up 1 ton of merlot (enough for about 50 cases.) Thursday Bob, Jill, Robin and I crushed. Thank goodness there were 4 of us here as there were a few hiccups with the new setup but that is to be expected and now the must is quietly waiting for us to pitch yeast in the morning. Everything looks and tastes great. The Snipes Merlot will probably be ready next week following by Cab Franc not to long after that. The cool weather is giving us some extra hang time for all of the fruit still in the vineyard which is great.

Getting Ready for the crush

Loading the Grapes

The Crush going to the Fermenter

Clean Up!

Just a quick update that Jason is picking the first bins of Merlot today. We’ll be starting the 2007 crush tomorrow morning bright and early. It feels like autumn has truly arrived! The skies are grey. The air is crisp. Ripe scents abound.

More on the crush coming soon…

-Robin

Sunday Sept 9th Baker and I took a load of bins over to Snipes and then stopped by the vineyards. With the warm days and nights we have been experiencing it looks like the Merlot harvest will begin soon. Luckily I have been in contact with the Vineyard Managers so was not shocked with how sweet the fruit was at Snipes, we are about 2 weeks ahead of last year. Alder was very close as well. If the weather continues to hold like this we might end up picking next week. Cab Sav, Cab Franc, Petite and Riesling are all looking like Oct. harvests. For those interested in numbers here are some for Merlot. (Brix, PH, TA)

Snipes 24.2, 3.72, .51,
Alder Ridge 24.4, 3.28, .62

- Jason