The Viognier has taken off with it's fermentation, so a task we have to deal with is keeping it cold while it is fermenting. Normally during this period the temperatures creeps up to 90-95 F, but we want to keep it at 60F or so. This ensures those beautiful aromatics that Viognier is known for having. Since we are not really equipped to make white wine, we have to keep the tanks cold by our own devices. I was at Pagano's in Alameda and I saw these large over the door hanging hamper bags and thought we could hang them on the outside of the tanks and keep filling them with ice. Then, Jack thought we should use some insulated foam to wrap it up and keep the cold in. It is working pretty good, but they look like debutantes with formal gowns on. What do you think?
We started the week off with pressing Saralee's Pinot Noir 777 clone along with Las Brisas Pinot Noir Swan clone. We loaded 3 bins into the press each time and ran the 20 minute program with no glitches. We let the wines rest in the tanks until Thursday and then we put the wines into the appropriate barrels (50% new and 50% old and we match the particular barrels with the wines).
Saturday, we had our last bit of Pinot Noir come in from the Widdoes Vineyard. We gathered a couple volunteers to help out with our expected 7tons, but only 2.5 tons came!!! With all of the help, we were done in no time! Thanks volunteers for helping us sort through the grapes. They came in cold, looked beautiful and tasted great. The sugar was an average of 26 brix.
Sunday, we were back at it, pressing Morelli Lane Pinot Noir. Now, it will stay in the tanks for several days. We will barrel it this week and wait to hear from the growers about how our Syrah grapes are coming along. And so it goes on.....
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