CRUSH!

Harvest started last Saturday for us. It has been fairly (for harvest...) easy here in the winery because our harvester kept breaking down. Now that we have this problem fixed the work will be non-stop and the hours will be getting longer. The Friday before we kicked things off I was so excited I had to get some of that anxious energy out in order to sleep so I wrote this, and promptly fell asleep on the couch with my laptop in my lap. 

"I am not sure how to explain it. Tomorrow is my first Saturday to mark the true beginning of crush! And I am, for the lack of a better word, STOKED! The logic in me keeps saying, 'it's just twice the amount of stress and work!' But the romantic side screams 'THIS IS THE MAGIC!' It is an intense surge of physical, mental, emotional and sensory activities. Every load of grapes is the dream of a beautiful wine. Every addition, every movement, every analysis recorded; is the action of that dream. Every morning is a sunrise and every night is a sunset. You end every day covered in sticky juice, smelly yeast, and coated in a fine dust of yeast nutrients" 

I am sure if my eyes would have stayed open for longer the end of this love letter to harvest would have made more sense and been beautiful. The honest truth is I cannot talk about harvest without sounding like a starry eyed literary arts major. This harvest is so early this vintage that the days may not be sunrise to sunset yet but I'm sure there will be a few of them.  Although that is different this vintage everything else is on par. The air is electric with anxiety and excitement. It smells of the crisp change of the seasons, the ripe fruit, dirt from the tractors and the yeast of fermentation. Every morning starts with pump-overs and punch downs which rewards your morning with all the fruit aromas that will eventually present in the glass. Throughout the day the sounds of the tractors delivering fruit, forklift dumping fruit, the rhythm of the the crusher/destemmer timed with the must pump, the funny sigh of the press when it releases air. The beautiful pink hues of the red juice in my sample jars, the amazing fuchsia of the red fermenting juice when it is punched down/pumped over. The energy exerted to drag hoses, move pumps, climb ladders and dig tanks. All in all harvest is total sensory overload. It is amazing.  

 

If you want more about harvest follow me on twitter, @tiffanybritton8 and for all the awesome pictures follow my instagram Winegeekette. The fast pace of harvest is much better suited for quick pics and 140 character comments.  

A little bit 'bout harvest prep

As the sugars in the grapes rise to harvest levels so does the excitement of the pending season. Along with excitement comes the stress of the time crunch. Last week the first grapes were harvested from Washington state. This put everyone into a mild panic. We still have tons of bottling to get done and our bottling line broke down last Thursday. The part should be in today or at least that's the dream.

As soon as we broke down I ran out to the vineyards (from this point on I will ONLY be running) and gathered samples from all of our early ripening blocks. When I got back to the winery I smushed the samples and ran my pre-harvest analysis on the juice. The news was great! My numbers indicated that we still have a week and a half at the least.

Smushing the grapes in a colander to collect the juice.

What's the process of the maturity samples you might ask.  Well I normally grab the Rhino (its like a cross between a golf cart and a 4-wheeler) and a bucket for every sample. Then I drive through the different blocks collecting random but representative samples of 24 clusters per block, tasting berries as I go. I mash them up in a colander back at the winery and collect the juice. 

The juice after settling for a bit. In the front is my handy refractometer.

I let the juice settle, then I run three basic laboratory tests for acid and sugar. Sugar is measured in Brix with a refractometer. A drop of juice is placed on the measuring prism and the small cover plate is closed over the drop, then the prism is held up to the light, I look through the eyepiece and there is the reading. pH is measured with a pH meter (I just stick a probe in the juice and it gives me a reading). The final measurement is T.A. which is titratable acidity, often confused with total acidity although they are not the same. Titrating the T.A. a little more complex and boring to explain (if you are interested let me know and I will go into more detail). We use these numbers to decide when to harvest as well as to tell us how balanced the juice or wine is during the process. BUT, the final decision is always a sensory one. Swirl, sniff, taste! Taste, taste, taste! Then taste again!

  

Signs of change

Veraison. The official definition is the point at which the grapes change color. This is a beautiful time in the canopy of the grape vines! There is more to it than that of course, especially since not all grapes actually change color. This is a sign to the growers and winemakers that harvest preparation needs to start immediately if it is not almost done.

Grapes grow in what is termed a 'double sigmoid growth curve'. This means they initially grow in size (cell replication and expansion, the curve rises) then growth pauses for a bit, this pause is called the lag phase. Then at veraison the grapes start to ripen (the curve rises again) or accumulate sugars. During this time the acidity decreases because Malic acid is degraded, leaving tartaric acid as the main acid in the grapes. The top of this second curve indicates full ripeness, once completely ripe the plant no longer puts any effort into the berries and they start to die.

Although the plant is no longer producing more sugars for the berries does not always mean the grapes will be picked at that point. Once the plant stops caring about reproduction (fruit production) the berries of the grape clusters start to lose water retention due to the thinning of the outer waxy cuticle on the berry skin. This causes a higher sugar to water ratio, as well as an oxidation of some of the flavor/aroma compounds that can be highly coveted. The practice of leaving the grapes on the plant after they are ripe to get these effects is call 'hang time'

Fire season

As you can imagine fire season gets pretty serious in eastern Washington. Its dry and its windy! Currently a state of emergency has been declared in 20 Washington state counties. The number of fires and accumulated acreage burned grows too fast for me to keep up from the vineyard. But at 6:30 this morning this was the sky. At 6:20 the sun was still behind such thick smoke that you couldn't even tell where it was at all.

Vineyard Inferno

The vineyard is a very dry place.

The last couple of weeks have proven to be both beautiful and cruel. Working out in the vineyards is calming and peaceful. It is also dry, dirty, sweaty and sneezy! Oh, did I not mention HOTT! Ya spelled hot with two Ts, 'cause thats how hot it is. With exception to one day, it has been between 90-109 degrees Fahrenheit. This means starting at 6a.m. in hopes of getting more field work done. Normally 6 to 10 is a wonderful time, the sun has a soft light and the air is almost cool (lowest temperature in the A.M. has been 68F). Then there are days like last Thursday, when it hit 90 by 8:30 but didn't get hot enough to go inside until 12:30. I am pretty sure I got next to nothing done but sweating that day.

Me, when its not super hot yet.

Throwback Thursday

Leaf stripping at Paradisos del Sol Vineyards four years ago. Crazy, that is the same thing I was doing today!

Head in the vines

For the most part my head is not in the vines this much but its gettin real hot out!

Morning in the vineyard

One of many to come!

Robin eggs in the Chardonnay

Empty nests, nests full of eggs and chicks. I found many surprises in the Chardonnay today!

It's in my blood

Why did I get involved in the wine industry? This is a question that I am asked constantly. My answer has been the same since my interest was peaked in my first wine class, Welcome to Washington Wines, at Yakima Valley Community College. It was meant to be a one credit class to fill my credit obligation, it turned into a life changing experience. My professor, Tania Krastanova, was so passionate and somewhat forceful about wine that I fell in love with the industry before I had ever tasted wine that I didn’t actively dislike. Tradition and technology, culture and science, farming and fancy people; this industry has everything! Then I was introduced to the wines at Paradisos del Sol in Zillah, Washington. I realized that you can make wines that you like. The winegrower Paul Vandenberg told me “I make wines I like, that way if they don’t sell I can drink it myself”.

None of that part of my story has changed. But just now as I let my mind wander I put some more pieces of the puzzle together. I come from farmers and loggers, on both sides. I never even entertained the thought that my interest may be in my genes. BUT, my grandfather and great grandfather were bootleggers in the olden days. The same grandfather let me help made hard cider from our homesteader orchard when I was very little. My father still has several stills in an old chicken coop at the old homestead. My grandma on the other side of my family was raised in a New England household were her mother made homemade wine from everything she could get her hands on, including the infamous dandelion wine. Both of my aunts have always made homemade schnapps from local berries and fruits. So I have come to the realization that booze, like farming is just in my blood!

A little vid about Washington wine

I am extremely proud of the Washington wine industry and my involvement in it. I think this video is a beautiful look into the heart of our community.

http://vimeo.com/95538746

International Sales!

We just received an order for three pallets of wine to ship to India! This is obviously exciting! EXCEPT, that every single bottle that we ship to India has to have a secondary sticker with some information from the Indian government. 

 

Yesterday my cellar guy, Mac and I started the process of stickering 2,160 bottles of wine. Keep in mind that this wine has already been put in cases and taped up. So the process; cut open box, remove bottles, sticker them, put them back, re-tape then put them on a new pallet is very slow. 

When we started we called the farm manager to see if we could borrow a couple members of his crew. They were busy so we trudged forward alone. Turns out we are rock stars, so of course we finished around 10am today. Now the trick is to find something else to do to keep us busy for the rest of the day. It is a little wet outside and here in eastern Washington we will straight up melt if we get rained on, so inside jobs only! :)

Sauv Blanc kinda Mornin'

We have recently received some showers so I am out checking for powdery mildew. So far so good.

White Bluffs Sangiovese Vineyard

Big things ahappening at the winery!

At Claar Cellars, the winery I work for, we are almost exclusively estate vineyards. Which means that all of our fruit comes from the vineyards surrounding our winery. Since we are growing every year we are in need of more fruit. So in February the last orchard on the property was removed and most of May was consumed with planting of new vines. This means I will no longer be able to steal an apple on my way to take maturity samples from the vineyards but more money for the company can't be too bad for me!
Our social media director put this facebook album together to illustrate the process. By the way, the only help I was to this process was as photographer.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152157656025108.1073741831.115225545107&type=1&l=961e8894a8