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