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