Bad weather is rolling in tomorrow, so we picked ahead of the cold and the rain. Last night we had 50 mph winds over the hilltops. Broken tree limbs all over the place. No fires, though-- a real concern at this time of year. Of course everybody in the valley saw the same weather forecast, so today was frenetic. Our vineyard manager runs crews all over the valley. Many started at daybreak yesterday and shut down around 9:00 PM. They started up again at 2:00 in the morning (with lights of course) and will probably go to sunset. Tomorrow will be wet and quiet.
While the pick is on, the vineyard is full of chatter. Spanish from the pickers while the winemakers talk about brix and anthrocyanins. The pace is rapid-- a crew will do a few acres-- and several tons-- in an hour. In the Napa Valley, it's still largely hand work. Drop the cluster, fill the bin, dump it in the box-- these guys work hard.
The fall colors, the smells, the noise, it's all in the rhythm of the
vineyard. From the vineyard the fruit goes to the winery. It's
weighed, goes through the crusher-destemmer, and then just soaks-- to
extract the best of the color and flavors. After a few -- or several-- days, the winemaker innoculates the juice with his chosen yeast, and fermentation begins. Our 2011 crop surpasses expectations-- our yield was up about 20% from 2010. This is remarkable given the very strange growing season. Our fruit looks really good. We look forward to enjoying the wine.
