Harvest week Oct 15- 21, 2007

Earlier this week, we prepared for the "Uniqueness of Syrah" Seminar. This involved shopping at K&L wine shop in SF to find wines that we wanted to be represented in the presentation. We bought a Syrah from Northern Rhone, Southern Australia, Chile, and Lodi region. Then, the research began...we had to sample all of these wines, along with our 2 Syrahs and take tasting notes. The event was on Saturday from 3-5pm and 32 people attended. It was a hit! On Thursday night, Jack and I poured at the Taste event sponsered by East Bay Express at the Swarm gallery in Oakland. It was a nice event. Check out this weeks copy of the East Bay Express, there is an insert that has the local wineries (Dashe, JC, Periscope and Rosenblum) map along with a bottle shot.

On Friday we pressed the first Syrah, the Alegria vineyard, and barreled Widdoes, the last Pinot Noir. Sunday, we were back in the cellar putting in a full day of pressing Trenton Station, which was 12 tons, and barreling the Alegria. The Syrah grapes seemed to be juicier this year, because we calculated how much juice we thought we would have from the press and we seemed to have more. When we checked the back tank, we were right to the rim!!!! We monitored closer for filling the next tank! Randy and I were trying to move a hose to the other tank with the use of the pump and we failed to shut off the valve so we both got lots of wine if the face. Oh, the joys of winemaking...guess we got our yearly wine shower!! We are just one press and 2 barrelings away from being done.