Fun With Wine: Barreled Down

Well, Harvest 2009 is long over and I have been remiss to write a wrap up post. So, at last I will finish the story of my time in Oregon.

The last couple of weeks were spent pressing the red wine and digging out tanks. All of the juice goes straight to a juice pan, but there is plenty left in the tank. Someone has to jump in the man-door and scoop out with a food grade shovel all the skins and seeds. Oh, and you're being timed. You have to wear a harness with a rope attached in case you pass out from CO2 overexposure, they can pull you out. But, it shouldn't ever get to that point, as you are wearing a CO2 monitor on your chest and the top is being ventilated by a fan, pulling the carbon dioxide out of the tank. I jumped in and scooped out one of the juiciest tanks there were- lucky me. See me up to my knees in grapes below!

Once everything in the tank has been pressed, a hose is hooked up to a pump, which is in turn hooked up to the barrel filler. Armed with a flashlight and a keen eye for precision, each barrel is filled to the maximum capacity, allowing a little room for stirring. Each barrel gets a thorough scrubbing with hot water (or cold if it is a brand new barrel) using the pressure washer hooked up to a handy-dandy barrel cleaner attachment. They have tools for everything! Once the barrel is sparkling clean and dry, they are rolled over to be facing exactly upright and exactly in line. Once, stacked 12, 14, 20 high, the stack will lean if this is not spot on. It would take me an hour just to do a few rows. Tedious, yes. Fun, no.

Callista moves on to the next barrel with the barrel filler, while Chris tops each one off

Chris fills the barrels with Pinot Blanc

Callista sits atop a barrel to get a better vantage point

Now that everything had been barreled down there was little to nothing left for us interns to do. So, the number dwindled down to three. My dear friends Callista, AC, and Kim. They cleaned up, organized, and stored everything away for next year's cellar rats. And I heard from a reliable source, Kim, that First Class 2008 was bottled just a few weeks ago. Can't wait to taste that out of the bottle- it was phenomenal in the barrel!

I will send out a post when 2009 is released so you can purchase some of my hard work! It was a great year for Willamette Valley and knowing the people I worked with, it will be one stellar wine.

Fun With Wine: Week 2

In my last post I failed to mention my commute. Since the winery is situated in the Willamette Valley, I see the sunrise silhouetting the Cascades every morning on my way to work. If I'm lucky and get off work before dark, I see the sunset behind the Coast Range on the way home. It makes the drive so much more pleasant to be able to examine the varying shades of tangerine and dusky blue in the sky. The fog here is pretty incredible too. It rolls, rises, and settles, whispering around bends. Just a couple of days ago the fog rested over the entire vineyard. You could only see but the first couple of rows. The leaves on the vines have already changed to vivid yellows and browns, so they were an outstanding contrast to the soft grey of the fog. Working in the winery, I watch the changes in the vineyard throughout the day. The fog and rain hover over the property in the morning, but then the sun comes out and burns off

any sign of precipitation, and produce a beautiful fall sunset.

Me in punch down land

Our winemaker Chris filling barrels

Speaking of work, I have been pulling some insane hours the last couple of weeks. On average, my days last 12-14 hours. And during those days, I am involved in intense manual labour. We harvested the entire 140 acre vineyard in under two weeks, making for very close quarters in the cellar. Absolutely all the tanks and large pots of juice are fermenting at once. All of it requires constant care. We have three sessions a day of punch downs and Pulse Airs. Punch downs are a gentle way of pushing the cap (made of grape skins and seeds) down under the juice, keeping the cap moist and homogenizing anything added to the wine, i.e. tannins, yeast. Pulse Airs are used on the tanks to achieve the same results as punch downs. We use a wand that is injected into the racking valves of the tanks to push air up through the juice and over the cap. We've also started filling barrels of pressed pinot noir, which means we also have to clean barrels. Cleaning and filling barrels is an all day process that we've been working on all of this week. Each day we press more tanks and pots of wine that is ready for aging. In the next few weeks, everything will be out of the cellar and in barrels, awaiting the perfect time to be released.

Fermenting juice does not like to be stirred. This is what happens when you make a tank angry

But for now, it is a true work out ensuring that all the wine work is completed each day. I now have a voracious appetite, eating breakfast, two lunches, and sometimes two dinners daily. I haven't eaten like this since I was in high school athletics. Great to be able to eat anything and everything without gaining an ounce again! The hard part will be when I have to return to my normal diet once I am back home.

And home is now only a month away. I am officially half way through my internship. The long hours have pushed me to the brink, and I can see how why this is only a seasonal job. I can already feel myself burning out, and will be ready for some down time when I return to Dallas.

French Wines

We all know France is king when it comes to wine. They have more land under vine than any other country, they started the modern model for wine laws and regulations, and tout some of the biggest names in the business. Before the Easter break, we covered French wines in class- everything from Champagne to Bordeaux. Here are several that we tasted and I liked:

• 2003 Chateau Trianon Bordeaux- from St. Emilion, and a Grand Cru. This wine has heavy notes of leather, cedar, and lead on the nose. Upon tasting, you will get a well balanced fruit, cocoa with a medium acidity. This wine is predominately Merlot with a little Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Carbonere thrown in. 
• 2003 St. Estephe Bordeaux- Wow! This wine was amazing. Also a Grand Cru, it is oaked with a floral and slightly smokey aroma. On the palate, it is earthy with soft tannins and an incredibly long finish. 68% Cab Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 2% Cab Franc. Unfortunately, I won't be purchasing this wine anytime soon, it's worth over $200! It was great to have a taste though. 
• 2005 Chateau Doisy Däene Sauternes- From Barsac, this wine was surprisingly very complex. Definite notes of botrytis (a disease that sucks the water out of the grape, leaving the sugar highly concentrated- in this case, a good thing). Tangerine, fig, agave, pineapple, pear, brown sugar, honeysuckle- the list goes on. The layers and complexity were endless! A lot of people turn their nose up at sweet wine, but wines like this one can be very good- especially if paired with the right thing. This would be excellent with foie gras. 
• 1998 Cantemerle Pinot Noir- from the Haute Medoc region. The brettanomyces was definitely noticeable with the aroma of band-aid or animal. Some people like this, others don't. I'm not crazy about it, but it's ok in small doses. Hints of tobacco were also evident. This wine had sediment, and a little cloudy- probably due to age- but still very good. I would say drink this now, it's probably on the way down after this year.
• 2005 Amiot Guy et Fils Alligote- another sweet wine, although, this one is from Burgundy. A musty, aged aroma, with notes of coffee, fig, and raisin. It has a sweet, birthday cake finish with notably high acid. 
• George D'Boeuf  Moulin-A-Vent Gamay Beaujolais- Most people think of the light and fruity, inexpensive, picnic wines of Beaujolais, but this one is quite different. It is purple in color, with a spicy nose. It has soft tannins with notes of black pepper; a medium bodied wine. I was glad to discover a higher end Beaujolais that breaks common perceptions.
• 2006 George D'Boeuf Pouilly Fuisse- from Macon in Burgundy, made out of the chardonnay grape. Light oak with a touch of vanilla on the nose. I love, love, love me some Pouilly Fuisse, and this one is no exception! 
• 2003 Clos des Vignes Franches Pinot Noir- A Premier Cru from Beaune. Garnet color with a mushroom, cherry, and carmelized nose. Complex, soft and spicy- notes of dried fruit, and light tannins on the palate. 
• 2005 Joseph Drouhin Chablis-Sechers- We'll finish up with this Premier Cru from Cote D'Beaune. There is banana, apricot and a floral aroma on the nose. Maybe a little hint of oak, but it was definitely not aged in new oak barrels. Sweeter, but not overbearing. A high acid wine that would be paired nicely with oysters. 

Go ahead, set up a little cafe table, pretend you're on the streets of Paris, dine on some fromage and pate, and enjoy a nice, French wine! Give yourself a little mini-vacay, even if you can't afford that flight to Paris.