punching down Ciel

This past Saturday we were coming to the end of fermentation for our Ciel du Cheval Merlot. The sugar that was left in the juice was being converted to alcohol and our twice a day "punch downs" had done a great job of mixing the cap and juice with a bit of oxygen. The "cap" is a mixture of grape solids, the skin, pulp and seeds that is pushed up to the top of the fermenter by the action of fermentation. When fermentation is going strong the cap can become so firm that you can almost stand on it. Punching down the cap helps to break up the solid mass of the cap, it makes sure that all of the grapes are being introduced to the fermenting juice and it also may free up any seeds so they can float to the bottom of the fermenter. Seeds can contribute hard green tannins to the wine so we are very careful not to crush them while we are punching down, or pressing.

Here is a little clip that Ross took of me punching down one of the fermenters. 

this is late in the fermentation so the cap has become much less firm and it is easier to punch down. 

first day out

So I am going to go back to the beginning of this wine adventure. My first day began at 4:30AM
when we drove our bins over to Red Mountain in anticipation of our first grapes being picked.
Going over Snoqualmie Pass took a bit of time hauling 5000 extra pounds. After we stopped for coffee in Cle Elum the day started looking up. We had a great sunrise greet us as we descended into the the Columbia River Gorge.



We arrived at Ciel du Cheval Vineyard at 9 and proceeded to unload out bins.
bins are what grapes are transported over the mountains in. Plastic bins that will hold around 800 pounds of fruit or so. Here are some of our bins in front of the Crusher/Destemmer

The date was September 2nd and the red grapes were just going through verasion, which is when
the grapes turn colors from green to red. We tasted through our Merlot acreage and some Syrah
and Cabernet Sauvignon. It all needed a bit of time, the acid made our mouths pucker and the flavors were not there. I did get some great shots of some ripening Merlot.Red Mountain looks like this with the sun just over the ridge.
We made a stop at Olsen vineyard and Boushey just to chat and see how things looked. With the cool weather and how pretty August had been, it sure seems like we are going into a really nice harvest.

Vineyards and winery

Here is a link to a few of the vineyards we are working with and the location of the winery

Vineyards

just a short little 3 hour ride in the wee hours of the morning to get to Ciel du Cheval.

2008, not so great

This past week the wine world lost a leading figure when Didier Dagueneau's plane went down
in Cognac. Joe Dressner expressed this loss perfectly here so I will not try to say anymore about him. I was fortunate enough to visit Didier's winery and this is one of my favorite photo's I have taken. RIP Didier.

The start of this adventure

I better mention what this blog is all about. After 11 years in the retail wine trade
it became time for me to explore all the other facets of wine. So starting this past September 1, I
started working with the Ross Andrew winery . My function at the
winery is cellar rat duty, basically do what needs to be done, more importantly try not to spill.
I am excited to experience hands on what so many in wine trade have never done and that is to be a part of the winemaking process. So I hope you enjoy reading about my exploits over the next couple months we will see where this takes me.

Harvest vineyard trip

We left at 4:30 and reached the vineyards at 7:45, We saw a great sunrise on the way just past Vantage picked Cab Sauv at Klipsun first and
it looks as if we need another 7 to 10 days for the flavors to pick up. Merlot at
Ciel is good to go, skins and pulp are tasting good, acid is nice and the tannins seem in check.
Looks like racking then crushing tomorrow. going to be a fun first day of Crush.