Last Box of the 2006 Harvest Season



Hurray! We had our last crush today. This is a photo of the last box of the 2006 Harvest/Crush season. Yes, the very last one. Many of the surrounding wineries are also winding down their crush season. I thought we were done this season with the Cabernet Sauvignon. But, we got a small load of Lemberger from Kiona. These will become the "Lola Red" house wine for Tom Douglas's Lola Restaurant in Seattle. Shhhhh! Don't tell Cab Sauv, but I think I have a mad crush on Lemberger. When I first encountered this wine. I admit I turned my nose up at it. The name. The unfortunate, un-sexy name. It just didn't do anything for me. Lucky for me, this red grape varietal from Germany-Austria flourishes in Washington and Oregon and there are a number of great expressions of this wine. Kiona is where I first fell in love. Kiona Wines describe their Lemberger Red as, " rich red wine aromas, nuances of Cabernet or Merlot are present, but with a spicy intriguing background not easy to identify at first tasting. Wonderful and well-defined aromas of blackberries and cloves emerge with more experience. This mildly tannic wine sports great structure, with a velvet mouth feel. American and French oak is evident in the long smooth finish." Indeed! As an eating grape, it is delicious and sweet. What I like about Lemberger is its deep color and earthy fruitfulness. Kay makes a gorgeous Lemberger Dry Rose which expresses the very thing I love. I had a fun time following that grape to wine. Here I am yeasting the Lemberger grapes for the Lola Red.
Thurston Wolfe also makes a nice Lemberger which sells out very quickly. Although Lemberger is not widely planted with only about a 100 acres planted in the state, it was the favored grape of Dr. Walter Clore "Father of Washington Wine." Kiona Vineyard was the first to plant it commercially in 1976 and release the first commercial vintage(1980) in 1983. But don't feel bad if you've never heard of it. Lemberger is also known by other names: Blaufrankisch in Austria, Franconia in Friuli and Kekfrankos in Hungary. Some wineries are marketing the wine as Blau Franc, Blue Frank or Blue Burgunder. These sound promising. Every wine has it's day. When that day comes, I'm sure that Dr. Walt will be smiling down at us. What a long way Washington Wines have come since the early days of the WSU Experimental Station in Prosser, WA.

"Mog, Mog...Who's there?"



"Materials Other than Grapes," that's who....
"Mog" or Materials Other than Grape as it's called is exactly that: all the stuff except the grapes. This includes leaves, canes, stems. petioles and yes, the occasional spider or two. Anyway, this is what our box of MOG looked like today. All of our grapes here are hand-picked so there is much less MOG than there would be in grapes that are machine harvested. Of course, this photo was taken after we swept and cleaned up. Between sorting, the floor looks like a tornado has come through with leaves and stems strewn all over. First, the person picking up the lug boxes dumps about 30 pounds of grapes at the start of the sorting table conveyor belt. While the grape clusters are traveling down the belt, our hands fly everywhere as we hand sort and pick out stems, leaves, spiders, and substandard clusters. A lot of large scale wineries do not do this step of hand sorting which is another differentiator for small-scale versus large-scale. There's a cost associated with taking this step. But for K & C, this is what sets them apart. Their wines are hand-crafted all the way through. Today we went through 180 boxes (that's 5,540 lbs or about 2.4 tons). During the short break between pallets of grapes, we swept up the mess on the floor and dumped those into bins along with the pressed pomace. One cool thing I've discovered is that many production wineries take this stuff and basically compost it. Here at Chinook, we spread it out over the edge of the vineyard and Mother Nature takes care of the rest. It becomes a wonderful ground cover and puts nutrients back into the soil as it breaks down. Circle of life!

Crushing Cabernet Sauvignon


I finally meet you! It has been with sweet anticipation I have been waiting for this day. Ever since I walked the denHoed Vineyard and saw his "extreme" trellising and listened to Bill tell me all about Biodynamics, I've been waiting to follow this grape to wine. On Halloween, C delivered over 2.5 tons of the smallest cab sauv berries I've seen. They looked like little blueberries. Tasting the grape, the flavor was intense and concentrated. Already, I know this will be a good ride. We crushed them on Wednesday and tonight we threw the yeast. K and I gave them a little cheer as we always do. "Be good, make great wine..." The color extraction over the last 24 hours was not as intense as I expected. But K did tell me this is normal. The smell was clean with no off whiffs. In the next few days, the aromas will intensify and so will the color. This is what I experienced with the cab franc and then the merlot. The first punchdown was easy with a white foam, then as the cap thickens, the punchdown will become harder to breakthrough and the foam will become a rich reddish pink with intensely dark red juice. The juice tastes slightly different every day as you follow the grape into wine. My flavor is 22Brix. Oh how I wish I could bottle that juice. So perfect, so effervescent, so sublime....then as the sugars turn to alcohol the flavor changes from sweet to wine. And the CO2 dances on your tongue.

The Cabernet Sauvignon is one of Washington State's two major grape plantings. The other being Merlot. As evidenced today as we crushed another late batch of Cab Sauv in the wet, cold, freezing rain, the grape's late ripening makes waiting this long for the crush/harvest season to be over somewhat intolerant for a California girl like me. But I waited and I'm glad I waited. This will be my last crush for the season before I say goodbye to this beautiful and fertile place.

CellarGirl Averts Snow Closure
I'm thanking my lucky stars. Sunday when I was driving back from Seattle on Snoqualmie Pass, I was just ahead of a snowstorm that closed I-90 for four hours. The Washington State Dept of Transportation closed the pass around 3pm and didn't reopen until 7pm. I was driving on the pass around 1pm just as the snow was falling. I have video of the road conditions where I point my camera out on the green trees and then the next minute the trees are covered in snow. Yikes! That would have sucked! Especially with Prensa in the car with me. My poor Chihuahua would not like that.

Oyster Frenzy at Flying Fish Restaurant
Yours truly poured for thirsty Sauvignon Blanc fans at the Oyster Frenzy at Flying Fish Restaurant this weekend. For those not familliar, Flying Fish is in Seattle's Belltown area. Here I am posing with the Oyster Lady. I had so much fun working this event. I even had time to taste a dozen or so oysters. I really love the Hama Hama and West Vancouver oysters. Blowing kisses to Jeff for the continuous stream of oysters! This is a very popular annual event (4th year in a row!) and indeed there was a line around the block before the doors even opened. I think at it's peak there were a few hundred rabid oyster fans filling the event rooms. I met a lot of Chinook wine fans and I think made a few new ones. We talked about wine and oysters, oysters and wine. Is there anything better in the world? Thank goodness I had a wingman, my friend Jeannine. She worked the event with me which was a godsend especially when things got very busy. She also had a chance to sample all the delicious array of oysters. I had a few nice surprises. I had a few long time friends show up at the event and we had some time to catch up afterwards. My friend S works for NOAA and vouched for the ocean's water quality and a great season to eat oysters. Nice to know someone with the inside scoop. I will definitely be back for this event whether to work or be one of the frenzied fans.

I watched the sunrise this morning over the Horse Heaven Hills. 37F outside. I stood on my porch with a cup of steaming hot coffee in hand. It was an early morning gray sky dotted with small high clouds streaked with brilliant orange red hues melting into them. I could hear the train chugging across the tracks in the distance. However, once the train passed, there was stillness so precious. It was broken only by the flutterings of birds taking flight from the vineyard. It was beautiful to watch the first rays of light tenderly caress each cloud and warm the dawn. I needed time to reflect on my experiences in the last few weeks. My time here is coming to an end and it will be met with as much anxiety as I had begun. I'm thankful for my incredible experience, especially all the hands-on winemaking and mentorship that K graciously shared with me. But leaving my new friends and adopted family here pulls on my heartstrings. I am leaving here with many rich and multilayered memories. It's been a time of transition in so many ways and the change of season from late fall to early winter is fitting. This sunrise was a beautiful reminder to me of what new and brilliant experiences await me. That light and beauty is just beyond cold and dark.

Washington Wine Facts

Washington State is ranked second nationally in wine production - more than doubled in the last 10 years.
"Yeah! We're number two! We're number two!"
Wine grape growers - more than 300
Number of state wineries - more than 260
Impact of state economy - more than 2.4 Billion annually
Employs over 11,000 people.
Production is growing with current figures at 4.9 million cases or 579.9 million retail value
Red to White wine grape ration is 57% Red to 43% White
Leading Reds: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese
Leading Whites: Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Viognier
Washington was honored as "Wine Region of the Year" by Wine Enthusiast Magazine in 2001.

(courtesy of Washington Wine Commission

Boy, that really tickles the nose, doesn't it?

I had a little excitement and danger yesterday. I almost fell into the fermenting tote. You see, things are really cranking at the crushpad. We have about 8 totes of fermenting reds (Merlot and Cab Franc). All of them need daily punchdowns and testing. As usual, I was using the step ladder to maneuver around the totes for punchdown. I can do this without the step ladder, but not having the upper body strength of "Muscles" it's easier to leverage the strength I have from a higher vantage point. After punching down three in a row, I was slightly out of breath and teetering on top of the ladder. This was my first clue to take a break. But I'm all about efficiency(mixed in with a healthy dose of stubbornness). Looking around and seeing how many more I had to punchdown, I thought I could shortcut and punchdown the far side from where I was without moving my step ladder. As expected, I overreached, but then plunged the punchdown right into the middle.....luckily, I caught myself on the "pogo" but my face sort of hovered over the top of the must and I found myself staring at beautiful red grape juice and skins just inches from my face. Well, the CO2 coming off these babies shot right up my nose made me pop upright. Whoa Nelly! If you've had sushi you may be familliar with the sensation. It feels like taking a bite of sushi loaded with super strength wasabi. Eyes watering, sinus clearing shot right up your nose. It's a tickle hurt. Painful tickle? Not pleasant, is what I'm trying to say here. The CO2 is actually something you do have to be careful about. We call them "hot" tanks and fermentations. We don't ever have to go into a closed container, but when you are working around these things, you have to be careful. There are OSHA rules for working with closed containers because you can literally knock out and die if you fall into one where CO2 has pooled. C told me about a few tragic cautionary tales that happened back in the 80s. Sad stories of workers who went into a stainless steel tank to clean it out but were knocked out by invisible CO2 gases and were killed instantly. In some cases, another worker would go in after the first one and they would both die. Not something to take lightly. This is why there are all kinds of rules about working around closed containers. Here, I don't ever have to worry about that since we do not ever need to go into a closed container.

Some photos from my recent trek to Walla Walla area wineries






Sunbreak
There's a charming local lore I heard from K. She told me about a local winegrape grower (who shall remain nameless) drinks very cheap tequila and does a naked dance in the moonlight to make the rain go away. I wonder if he did that yesterday. Maybe it was my own rant or chant? Whatever happened, the clouds parted and the blues skies and sunshine smiled down at us today. It was a beautiful crush day. Just as we were crushing the last pallet of Merlot grapes, the sun which was teasing us all morning with bits of sunbreak, finally came out full strength and drenched us in a warm sunny bath. It almost feels like summer again. Warm weather makes all the wet work of cleaning and rinsing everything down more tolerable. dare I say, fun? No grumpies today. Since I have a few more hours of sunny daylight left, I'm going to venture out and visit some of the neighbors.

Rain, rain go away!

I knew it wouldn't last. Summer's last reach tried desparately to hang on, but lost it's battle to the Fall's rain. We've had a few days of miserable rain which makes for "not so much fun" crush days. But we drive on and keep going. The rain has delayed some of the merlot. Luckily we're through the cab franc. Today was spent racking juice off lees to barrels to ready the tanks for more juice. The estate cab franc is coming along nicely and we'll be ready to press off and rack to tanks tomorrow.

I shouldn't complain too much about the weather. There have been a few sunny spots. But unlike last month, the sunny days are not accompanied by the warmth of the summer sun. Rather, it's been cold and windy. Well, must get back to work....

Finally, here come the Reds

Hurray! We're halfway there. Now, that most of the whites have come in and have been pressed off. We're starting to see the reds. These are the totes of Merlot we crushed last week. Anyone who thinks they are going to retire and own a winery (are you crazy?) better make sure they hire some strong, young, fit people to work for them. Winemaking is a physical job. The advantage for reds is the crush day is shorter. We sort, crush and destem. There's no press action that day. That means there's less equipment to clean. Yeah! But wait, here's the catch: You think to yourself that it's going to be easier, but actually, you trade off for another job. That job is "punch down." Every day, we punch down the reds once or twice a day. For the Merlot, we've been punching down once a day. The first day is a killer. Thank God Colin aka "the muscle" got first round. If I didn't mention it before, Colin, the nephew and young college grad is doing most of the heavy lifting around here. It's fitting since he's the one in his early 20s and has all the energy. Punching down involves using this apparatus that is like a stainless steel pogo stick, except there's a flat disk at the end. You put this on top of the cap which can be a few feet thick of the wine berries floating on top of the juice. Being a petite person, I have my challenges. But it's nothing that a step ladder couldn't fix. So, imagine little me holding this apparatus over the cap and pushing down with all my might. I'm sure it's kinda funny when you're the one watching. I say, "really, I'm pushing down with everything I've got!" So, I bounce up and down until I get the momentum to breakthrough this thick cap. I could probably stand on it. Snow shoes would be more effective. The first punch down is always the hardest. Once you breakthrough the cap, it gets easier to punch down the rest. You want to push down all the berries, grapeskins down so it mixes with the rest of the juice. You end up with a frothy, aromatic mix. It's quite a workout on your arms and shoulders. K & I say a little cheer and throw the yeast and mix it in. We punch down for 5-7 days taking temperature readings and measuring the brix. I carefully record everything on note cards taped to the side of the totes. I take note of the brix levels going down as the sugar gets converted into alcohol. Once, you're down to 10 brix or less, it's time to press off and rack into the tank. Today, we pressed off this wonderful juice and racked into the tank. It's a good thing too because we need to make room for the estate grown Cabernet Franc we picked over the weekend. That's another story.....

Cheers,
CellarGirl

Harvest is in Full Swing

What can I say? It's harvest time! My apologies for not having posted in more than a few days. Well meaning intentions to post have been superceded by my need to eat then sleep. Seems I barely have time to brush my teeth and rinse off the grape juice from my hair before collapsing in my bed. But that's a little more than you needed to know, right? Well, this is the life of a wine apprentice. You learn to live with some stickygoo in your hair and you stop inspecting your hands and fingernails which are often stained purple from punching down reds. You learn to live in your rubber work boots and you don't mind getting splashed or soaked with hot or cold water depending on what you're rinsing and cleaning. What do I mean by "long days"......most days start at 8am to clean, rinse and prepare the equipment before sorting, crushing, destemming and then pressing. We work non-stop until all the grapes have been handsorted which usually means we work through lunch until about 1:30pm. By then, Kay has prepared a delicious fresh lunch for us of freshly baked bread, tomato salad and various artisanal cheeses. We might spend a few minutes playing with the dogs or catching up on the local paper before turning back to the work at hand. The pressing cycle can take a few hours depending on how many totes of grape must we have to press. While that's going on, we clean, rinse and repeat each piece of equipment which means we end our days past 8pm at night. If we're not too tired or sick of each other, we might go out to eat or grill up some chicken or fish on the BBQ. The nice thing is we are all getting into a nice routine with each other and getting a sense of how we all like to work. It doesn't really feel like work. I feel like I'm part of a "family" who enjoys what they do and takes pride in the quality of what is produced. There are no shortcuts here and we're obsessively clean with our environment. Working in a winery, you are very aware of smells, off-smells and the things that cause them. We're talking microbiology, bacteria and such. Being obsessively clean, minimizes exposure and keeps the "fruities" or fruit flies away. I have a lot of respect for the way K & C keep things clean here. I've gone to a few wineries in the valley that have lesser standards. It's not a pretty sight.



More later,
CellarGirl

WineGrape Grower Relations

Monday and Tuesday were spent shadowing K & C while they sampled grapes. I met them at the first of three vineyards we will be sampling off of Alexander Road. Sampling is an important part of the process as a winemaker. It is often times a partnership between you, the winemaker, and the viticulturalist or vineyard manager on how the grape growing is managed and also determining when to pick fruit. Having a good relationship with your grape grower is important because there are many ways to farm the grapes and various methods affect the quality and concentration of the grapes. C has a method to his sampling which is picking grapes from different parts of the cluster. K and I leave him alone while he does his thing which frees us up to talk and taste grapes haphazardly. I'm getting a good sense of when the grapes are reaching readiness to pick. When you eat the grape, you want to chew on the skin and spit out the seeds. If you see the green on the seed, it's still not ready and determining WHEN depends a lot of the weather. Sun/Heat can cause the grapes to ripen faster. K showed me what to look for in sunburned red grapes. It's hard to tell since the berries are so dark, but after she pointed it out, I had a better sense of what to look for. The merlot and Cab Sauv are still a ways. The Semillion was definitely ready so K & C made their calls to the growers. Meanwhile, I had a grand time interviewing Bill DenHoed at the DenHoed Vineyards off Alexander Road about viticulture practices. He's a fun character and very knowledgeable. It's obvious he is passionate about the quality of his grapes and obsessive about keeping winemakers like K satisfied with what the vineyards are producing. It was an interesting perspective. A lot of his stuff goes south to Bonny Doon. He also showed me some 'radical' and 'experimental' trellising and canopy management. Whatever that means. It was amazing to me how one row of grapes could have the same characteristics, yet two rows over the grapes have been framed differently and the grape can taste different. One thing I have truly enjoyed since coming out here are the Horse Heaven Hills to the south of many of the vineyards. The hills are spectacular at sunset. I wish I could, but I don't do the hills justice with my little point and shoot camera. I'll have to look for a professional shot on Flickr and try to post a link here.

Wednesday was spent preparing the tasting room for the new artist who will be dispalying her artwork. Terri Clark will be featured at the Yakima Art Festival at which yours truly will be pouring for Chinook. I can't wait to meet her and see her work. In the afternoon, I racked about 400 gallons of the 2005 Cab Franc into oak barrels. We need to make room for the Semillon coming in tomorrow.. Yep, we are crushing tomorrow. That means another looong day. But fun day. I love crush days because that means the whole crew is working as a team. Sometimes we get some volunteers and new faces to chat up. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Well, I'm bone tired and ready for some rest. Catch up later.

Cheers!
CellarGirl

What an amazing weekend! J and J visited me at the right time. They crewed on Saturday morning's 6 ton crush of Sauv Blanc. It was great to have some extra hands because we clipped through that load much faster than we did the last and we did twice as much. It's always a nice to see crush through a new person's eyes and enthusiasm. Grown men turn into big kids when they get to be part of something fun and special. Also, being on the sorting table gives you plenty of time to chat and catch up with one another. It also makes the time go much faster. Saturday evening, J and J went over to the "night glow" which was part of the Prosser Balloon Rally and entered the drawing for a hot air balloon ride. They won! Isn't that exciting? Out of hundreds of people, those lucky ducks won. The problem was: it was a ride for one person. So brother and sister flipped a coin for who got to go. Big sister J, pulled rank so she got to go up. Bright and early on Sunday morning, we drove down to the Prosser airfield to claim the ride. It was a beautiful, crisp pre-dawn morning. Even though, there was barely any light out, the airfield was busy with activity. Balloon pilots and their crews were laying out their hot air balloon gear in neat rows. One by one, the balloons got filled with big fans and then as they filled up, the hot gas was next to fill the balloon and gracefully as a cloud, the balloons lifted up in the air ever so quietly. It was a true delight to see and experience this. J was excited about taking her first hot air balloon ride. I've taken one so I know the feeling of trepidation and wonder as you lift off the ground. It was fun to see the expression on her face since I could imagine what she was feeling. Her smiling face became smaller and smaller as she lifted high into the sky. Brother J and I stood waving from the ground, but we were quickly distracted by the 50th anniversary Mickey Mouse balloon. You could hear little children yelling, "it's Mickey MOOUSE!!! MOM! It's Mickey, it's Mickey!" After taking a whole bunch of pictures. We jumped in the car and chased J's balloon from the roads and followed to the landing site. And that was all before 8am! The rest of the day was spent wine tasting in Yakima Valley and Red Mountain. We especially enjoyed our time at Kiona vineyards. We also found time to hike in Richland. I was really sad to see them go on Sunday afternoon, but I'm glad we had a really amazing weekend.

Day before the Big Crush

Today was a nice, easy day. Colin and I painted barrels in the morning. When you get new oak barrels, you need to paint a treatment to prevent mildew for storing. Most of the day was spent gabbing in the sun at the crushpad, paint brushes in hand. We headed into downtown Prosser for lunch. It's a buzz right now because this is the weekend of the Prosser Hot-Air Balloon Rally. Nice. It's going to be pretty tomorrow to look up in the sky and see those balloons. Makes me think of my Napa Valley balloon ride last year. That was fun.
Originally, I was planning on going into Seattle today with Kay to do deliveries, but stayed behind so I can catch up on work around here. Clay and Gary went over to the vineyards on their own and brought in 6 tons of Sauvignon Blanc. Oh boy. It's gonna be one LOoooong, long day tomorrow. But,I'd much rather crush day then have a bottling day.

Update on the visitors: turns out T & D just bought a house (hurray for them!)so they won't be joining us this weekend. Darn! We could've used all the help we can get. Ha! Just kidding. I was looking forward to seeing them again too. Well, J & J are still coming up so I'm looking forward to having some company at the crashpad.

Cheers!
CellarGirl

Hurray! I'm getting visitors this weekend. J, her bro, T & D are driving up from Seattle. They picked a great weekend since we will be crushing more Sauvignon Blanc on Saturday. I'll give them the option to help or watch. It's also the Prosser Balloon Festival this weekend so the skies will be filled with beautiful and colorful hot air balloons. I'm looking forward to a visit with friends and a chance to relax. Must get some rest now since we will be busy sampling grapes in the vineyard tomorrow.

Cheers!
CellarGirl

It's been a busy few days at the crushpad. Over the weekend we crushed the sauvignon blanc and then spent Monday and Tuesday racking off lees and racking juice to other tanks. The exciting part of Tuesday was finding a bumble bee in the juice in the tank we just racked to. Leave it to the guys to come up with some fancy way to get it out of the tank. It was floating about 8 feet down from the top so they got a hose and prepared to siphon it off. Gary and Colin were the dynamic duo. Success! Colin managed to siphon it out, but then Gary put some reverse pressure and poor Colin sucked juice. Not a happy camper. But he was the hero of the day. Yesterday was a long, long day. I spent the day before running citric through the filters in preparation for bottling. We started off cleaning and heat sterilizing all the equipment. Then we set up our stations on the bottling line. I was in charge of placing the glass on the line, Dwight managed QA, Kay managed the pump regulation, Colin, Clay and Gary were in charge of labels, boxing and pallet stacking. Lots of physical activity. In the end, we bottled over 500 cases of the Chardonnay. That's 5 pallets of boxes stacked 4 high. Not a small feat for a small crew. K & C took us out to mexican last night. Margarita time.

Well, today's is a day off so I'm catching up o n posts and emails. Then, I'm heading to the Tri-Cities mall. A girl has gotta shop!

Tasting Room
Spent Saturday in the Tasting Room pouring wine for the folks stopping by on their bikes and in their cars. It was mostly a friendly crowd of repeat customers who know K and C very well. It was nice to see the personal relationships they have built by being in the valley for a long time. Took a break in the middle of the afternoon to have a personal tour of the Hogue Cellar production facility. David, our host, is also a Davis grad and did this as a special favor to K. Most impressive was their wine lab and the phenolics analysis equipment. I caught a glimpse of Jordan the red wine maker. I remember Jim mentioning a Davis grad was working there. In the evening, we had a nice outdoor dinner/BBQ with K & C and their family members who had driven up from Corvallis: John, Amanda and their little daugher Elizabeth. Also at the dinner were Martha, Marge, Colin and I along with K & C. Prensa stayed in the car since she didn't have a sweater, poor thing was freezing. We had a our fleece and layers so we didn't mind at all.

K and I started our morning fairly late. We decided to take it easy since the weekend is shaping up to be busy with visitors on Saturday, crushing Sunday and bottling on Monday. I learned how to operate a pallet jack today. It was pure comedy. The way you steer is counterintuitive so I spent a lot of time doing half turns. I looked like Austin Powers trying to parallel park. Not a pretty sight. But I'm sure it was amusing. But I did get the hang of it and successfully parked a half a dozen pallets of barrels...in some tight spaces, I might add! Not too shabby. The morning was spent racking the cab franc into barrels. That was easy. A lot of cellar work is wet, damp and cold. Did I mention that already? Rubber boots are important. I just want to reiterate that to those who are considering running away from their regular lives to join the circus like I'm doing.
I really enjoyed today and having K all to myself. The pace was nice and we had some great conversations in between work.

By Mid- afternoon the sun had come out and there for a break and time to walk among the vines with my little dog in tow. Prensa barely clears the tallest blade of grass so she did a lot of hopping over clumps of grass. We're wrapping up now with some blind tastings of the chardonnay to determine how much malic to add before bottling. My feet are a little weary but mostly I'm ready to take a nice hot shower, get this grape juice and wine outta my hair, and unwind with some wine.

Cheers!
CellarGirl

First "real" day at the winery.
This morning was spent in the wine lab. I learned about the importance of cleanliness. All equipment has it's place "mise en place" which makes for an organized winery. I rinsed out the stainless steel tanks using extremely hot water (+150 degrees) fed into the tank with a hose and splash ball. This effectively cleaned out the tank which had some tartaric crystals. I was very glad when K told me I did not have to climb in there to scrub down. Everything here is scrubbed with proxy clean which is a low impact cleaner. After that, we took a sample of the Sauvignon Blanc (2006 Upland) which was pressed two days ago to perform some lab tests. The three lab tests are: Measuring Brix, Titratable Acid, and Ph levels. K's set-up is very high tech so I feel like I'm getting a little spoiled with the measuring and equipment available. Next, we will be racking the wine and adding yeast from the bottom per vinquiry's new suggestion.

Wednesday was another driving day. I overnighted in Bend, OR and then head out for another 4 hour drive to Prosser.
The drive along WA-14 was beautiful. The weather was perfect with blue skies and big puffy clouds. The Columbia Gorge River was a dark and swirling contrast agains the calm skies. There were vineyards facing the Columbia River as I passed Benton. When I hung a left onto WA-221 I passed the Chateau St. Michelle vineyards and the Columbia Crest vineyards as well.

OMG. What am I doing? I am driving across three states to take part in a thrilling, exciting adventure in Wine. I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. For the next 6 weeks, I will be working as an apprentice/cellar rat to Winemaker K at CW in Prosser. In exchange for doing the grunt work/cleaning in the winery, I will gain invaluable knowledge working alongside a winemaker I hold in high regard. How does that saying go..."if you do something you love, work doesn't feel like work..." Well, ask me at the end of the week. I will be making daily blog entries on my experience, feelings and observations about my apprenticeship. I'm approaching this from a complete novice standpoint and I hope that the one person out there that is reading this blog (hi Mom!) will live vicariously through me and perhaps inspire you to do something fun, a little risky and fulfill your dreams. Speaking of dreams, I need to get some sleep so I can start out early tomorrow.

Cheers,
CellarGirl