It's crush season. And harvest season. And pressing time.
The temperature is dropping, the days are getting shorter but the work hours just keep growing. This is the exciting time! This is so much work and so much fun all wrapped up into a ball of energy and exhaustion. I'm turning into this work-zombie where I just don't stop moving, even though I'm so tired. Between the park CSA wrapping up, the meat share getting in full swing, planting for the winter garden shares, and trying to get a chicken plucker working before the ducks are ready for the table, it's almost as if that's enough to totally fill my plate before even starting to think about the excitement of first crush, moving into the new production building, and harvesting the grapes and apples for the 2010 season.
Harvest round one came down last weekend. Started at 7am and with two different crews on two different days, we pulled down about 5 tons of grapes! The problem with harvesting wine grapes is that it's not just done when you pluck them from the vines. Within 24 hours they must be crushed and destemmed right away. The whites must then be pressed out into juice and the fermentation process begins.
The new production room is full of fresh wine smell and yeast blurps from the airlock on top of the Frontenac Gris tank. The Frontenac needs tended to several times a day and I'm trying to get together a crew to take off the netting, and harvest two days again and press on Saturday. Geez! I am completely going to make a bed in the rice hull loft at the winery.
The wine from last year has been tended by the wine doctor and turned into this smooth, amazingly beautiful finished product that's ready to be bottled any day now. Ohhhh man, it's good. I can't believe it came from our super acidic Frontenac grapes! I'd take it over a good Merlot any day. I hope that we have the same success with the batch of grapes from this year's hot, dry season. Only time will tell.
This whole thing seems like such a huge endeavor that I'm excited and scared at the same time. It's always something new and I am really looking forward to opening up the tasting room in a few months and letting you all try what we've made. What a feat of work has gone into it up until now and soon, you all will get to drink the fruits of our labor.
Cheers!
