Another warm and beautiful day here in Prosser. We crushed and pressed our LAST white wine grapes for the 2007 Crush/Harvest season. Hurray! Today's line up of crush crew were me, Kay, Clay, Kristen and Sharon. Here's a photo of Kristen and Sharon.

We hand sorted about two tons of Semillon from the Carter vineyard. These grapes were handpicked by a careful crew and the bins contained barely any leaves or bad clusters. There were large clusters of verdant green and other clusters of a more yellow, sun-kissed color. I tasted berries from each lot and all were sublimely sweet and balanced.

When we hand-sort, the grape clusters are placed on a conveyor belt and we pick up and turn over each cluster as we visually assess questionable clusters. The interesting looking ones go through another examination as we sniff, snip and toss any bad grapes into the dump bin. The bad grapes are ones which have any signs of mold, sour rot or uneven ripening. Kay is very meticulous about which clusters make the cut into the grape must and which ones end up on the floor. Everything is done at an even, but fast pace. Yet, we still find time to talk and have pleasant conversations as we hand-sort. During much of the crush season, I have been the designated lug washer. This means washing out the plastic bins that the grapes are picked in. Each bin or box weighs about 30-35 pounds each when full of grapes. When the bins are emptied, they are then placed on a bin washer which I manually pull through and hose down all the sweet and sticky grape juice and stack these bins in towers of twenty. These twenty stacks are then placed five towers each onto a pallet. However, today I was on the hand-sort line while Kristen did the bin washing. Sharon has the "fastest hands" on the line so we have her spot and sort, while Kay and I snip and toss.
We had a little lull in the crush as we waited for Dennis to bring in the second load of grapes. I took advantage of this lull and got a lesson in driving the forklift. It isn't Rocket Science to drive a forklift, but you do have to be very aware of your surroundings. No need to have a forklift rodeo and go around needlessly endangering your colleagues. Not that any of that would happen around here at a small scale winery operation. We rarely operate both forklifts are the same time. Still, safety first!

After crushing, we rinse, clean and sanitize the crushing line and then dump the must into the press. The press is mostly an automated operation so we get another break and have a light lunch. It's an idyllic scene as we sit around the picnic table making sandwiches from artisan bread with some yummy gourmet cheese, basil and tomatoes fresh from Kay's garden. The grounds are warm and sunny in the noon time glow. Copper and Autumn, the two golden retrievers are playing in the grass with my little chihuahua Prensa, nervously prancing about the fringes of their play. I want to hang onto these memories. I know that cooler temperatures and wet weather are around the corner. But for now, I will enjoy these warm memories.

The rest of the day is routine operations: punch downs of the merlot from last week. The two totes are coming along nicely and with the yeast doing their job of turning the grape must sugars into alcohol and making a lovely wine. These will soon be ready to press and then tank. The other totes are a few days away from press. But already it's getting a little crowded in the facility and we will soon need to find space for everything else that is coming in. Not to worry, Kay has a plan as usual and has already worked it out in her head where everything goes.

Tomorrow's agenda calls for cellar work. Tonight's agenda calls for a nice hot bath and a good night's rest.

Cheers!
Alice