Harvest 2016 was a HUGE success for us!! We picked 162 tons this year, it's the most yet!!
We brought in a lot of grapes early on, some as early as August for our sparkling wine. We pressed off Russian River Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to make the base of our sparkling wine. That juice is getting ready to go into bottle and age on the lees for the next 18+ month.
Over the last few weeks we brought in 15-20 tons a day and hand sorted all of the red berries before they were gently pressed and transported to tank.
Block 21 Cabernet Sauvignon was the last block to be picked, coming into the winery on Thursday, September 29th. It's been a quick, fun harvest for us and now onto the hard part: making the wine!
Some of the grapes & juice are still fermenting in open-top fermentation tanks, while others have been drained and transferred into barrels. Once the juice is drained from the tank, the "cake" (that's the pulp and grape skins) is dug out by hand- Alec has been working on some tanks this week! Someone jumps down into the tank and using a shovel, pushes the grapes out the small window on the side of the tank, while someone else, standing on the other side guides the grapes into a bin that is then transferred into the basket press for the final pressing. This ensure that all of the juice is extracted.
Stop in, try our new wines, and see some of the action.
Cheers!
