Chardonnay et al. in the Tank!



Aaron stomping stems

Wednesday was the official start of crush 2011 as Aaron and I spent a full 18 hours on the crushpad destemming and pressing all of our chardonnay, two-thirds of our pinot gris and 1.4 tons of some delicious Sauvignon Blanc. The day started with a destemming of pinot gris from Scout and Blind Creek Vineyards into bins for a 10 hour soak on the skins. Up next was the sauvignon blanc gently pressed and now settling into a 1000 litre tank. (Where will that end up???). Then we moved onto the tasty chardonnay. We are very excited about this crop as it is equal to the excellent (sold-out) 2010 chardonnay. That juice is destined to be split between tank and barrel ferments again. Updates on chosen yeasts to come. Finally we moved back to the Pinot Gris and ran it into the press. I have a pump to move must but prefer to treat it gently so the destemmer was rigged to act as a sieve. Tricky and nerveracking but at 1am were were ready to try anything. It worked out great and we got the juice to go where it was supposed too.

by the light of a full moon

Very few decisions need to be made on the crush pad when pressing whites. My old press does a great job squeezing the good stuff and it is also my check if I want to squeeze too hard to increase quantity. It just won't let me. That 30 year-old press is very slow but we love it and speak only kind words to it.
The juice now settles for a couple of days, then we rack it off of the settled solids into a clean tank and innoculate with yeast.

The early report on the grapes is that the flavours are intense and delicious but with some unusual numbers. We are finding that the sugars are lower than normal AND the acid is lower too. Usually we have low sugars correspond to high acid but this year the acids have dropped early. ( All of the sun in August and September?) The result is some phenolically ripe grapes that will make lower alcohol, balanced ripe wines. IDEAL! 

Gamay and Pinot Noir up next!