October 14, 2010, Crush
I haven’t written in my journal for a while. It is nice to be back, to know that my journal is there waiting for me.
But I apologize to my readers for my lapses.
I have been very busy, and from October’s standpoint, and from the standpoint of the insanity of grape harvest and the crushing and de-stemming of the grape clusters, it seems like another lane of traffic; maybe fast, but not as fast as right now.
What is even crazier, is that I am writing this while two ton of grapes sit in my winery, delivered last night by my grape hauler, Al Stover. Why, for goodness sake, would I start writing now, at this moment, when grapes abound?
I’m not sure where the middle of crush is. I have already received two tons of grapes over the last two weeks. The first grapes were the Merlot from Upland Vineyards, and then came Cabernet Franc. It’s too early to determine the quality but I think it is going to be my kind of harvest because of the cooler weather this past summer. Cooler weather usually means better grape acidities, less sugar and therefore lower alcohols and slightly less ripe flavors. This should be a Cabernet Sauvignon-kind of year.
Back at the winery, awaiting crushing today, is a ton each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache with a couple hundred pounds of Viognier, a white grape that I will throw into the Grenache. It should take about four hours to crush all of this. Today I will have help from my friend, Carol, and from hired help, from Shawn.
I expect to get another ton of Cabernet Sauvignon in the afternoon from Rex Noah’s vineyard in Walla Walla that will be crushed tomorrow, Friday. Crushing will happen after bottling. My bottling crew, John and George, will help me bottle some much needed wine. I am running low of all of my wines…..remember, I said I was busy. I’ll get help with those grapes from Shana and Justin, as Shana owns half of the grapes, enough to make about a barrel and a half. Then on Friday I expect another ton of Cabernet Sauvignon from Walla Walla, from the Dwelley Vineyard, and the family that owns the vineyard will help crush those grapes.
Finally, I should be getting one ton of Semillon from the Den Hoed vineyards sometime in the next two weeks. It feels like relief, but I know that it is false as there are still island grapes to pick and to process. I am hoping that the grapes will ripen. The last couple of weeks of sunshine definitely helps.
Then, there are cider apples. These are ready for me to pick up at Mt. Vernon and on the island. These will have to be processed.
Meanwhile, as I was trying to do some maintenance on the press, oil and replace a gasket, I broke off the head of screw which I had taken off to drain the oil from the press’s arm. I later learned from Patrick at Napa Fermentation that the screw’s only purpose in life is to keep the ball bearing, in the bottom, in its place. So I thought it would be relatively simple to drill a hole in the screw and use an extractor to turn it out. Somehow, I pushed the screw in. Oh geez, isn’t that typical for me. So then by email and phone, Patrick helped me figure out how to get the screw into position so that I could extract it. I ended up using a magnet to position it, and oh, was I so happy when it came out. Now I am waiting for the replacement screw to arrive. It is so ridiculous, this feeling of euphoria, of being able to fix something, after the bottom feeling of my originally breaking the head off the screw, knowing that my old basket press is old.
Some of things that have been taking place this year: over Memorial Day Weekend, I helped organize the book festival on the island, called ReadOn, WriteOn, VashOn. It was very successful and we were at capacity in all of the events. Yesterday, I just started meeting with a poetry committee that will organize next year’s poetry fest. This time around, we are starting earlier to take advantage of potential funding sources. The hope is to alternate years, poetry fest one year and book festival the other year.
Also, we held the third annual Vashon Winery Folk Festival in August. The weather cooperated and the festival was remarkable with over fifteen different acts with food cooked and sold by Paul Motayoshi. I think Mark Wells was a bit disappointed in the turn out, but he did an amazing job of arranging for the entertainment, something for everyone. Thanks also to Chuck Roehm for his direction and his sound system, and thanks to Deirdre Grace for help in publicizing the event and her friend Jan for set up skills.
I mentioned earlier in these notes that I was really busy this summer. June, July, August and September were all very busy. I stopped selling in the market to concentrate on winery sales. Even though I miss the market, I don’t miss having to run to set up, break down, and set up at the winery; it’s just too frenetic.
What I have noticed this year about my customers on Saturday and Sunday is that they are, in general, younger, late 20s to mid-30s, and they come in groups, sometimes twelve people in three or four cars. I asked my son, of that age, why that is and he said it is kind of a social thing and people round up their friends on the internet, in Facebook I assume. Well, I don’t mind but it just seems like a dramatic change in customers. And the reason that I was really busy.
Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache grapes ready for crushing.
Carol helps crush Viognier which goes into the Grenache to add aromatics and richness to the body of the wine.
