(Continued from Garage Winemaking – Part 1)
Harvest day is a labor intensive day, reaping the bounty of a season’s hard work of tending, pruning, and trellising the vineyard. The rain came and went and our friend Beau had arrived for the week of winemaking. The guys headed to Borgo Pass Vineyards early in the morning after grabbing some breakfast and 10 lbs of dry ice.
The guys were assigned two rows on the vineyard by Mark, the vineyard manager, and they went to filling three large buckets of the ripe pinot noir grapes. After the 230 lbs of grapes were picked, they went through the destemmer-crusher to do the obvious and were collected in a food grade Rubber Maid brute. You will soon find that we buy everything on Amazon.
Dave then weighed and added Potassium MetabiSulfite (KMBS), which is an additive to prevent oxidation and microbial growth of wild microorganisms. Then, he added pectinase which is an enzyme that breaks down pectin to prevent haziness in the wine. Some people say to wait 12 hours after adding the pectinase to add the KMBS, but others choose to add them at the same time to reduce the risk of the juice going bad during those 12 hours. They chose the latter.
After we drove these bad boys home (the buckets, not the guys), we did a cold soak. Adding dry ice drops the temperature of the grapes to stall fermentation and allow a longer time for the crushed grapes to soak and extract more color and flavor from the skins.
Cold soaks are typically within the 55-60 degree Fahrenheit range. After the cold soak, they’ll add a pinot noir specific yeast to begin fermentation.
Here were their supplies: Star-San 32 oz sanitizer, sponges, scale, refractometer, Kimwipes, distilled water, ACM Economy wash bottle, PBW cleaner. The final brix from picking was 24. Ideal.
We ended the day with a harvest day pot roast courtesy of Ree Drummond in our Le Creuset Signature Enameled Cast-Iron Oval French Dutch Oven and turned in early for the night. This was just a mini glimpse of what harvest is like at a winery. Two measly rows of grapes. It’s mind boggling to think of the attention and manpower required to manage a couple hundred acre vineyard. A hard earned day of work begs to be rewarded with a hearty meal.
This week in Oregon, it’s the start of a wet week with the forecast showing rain for the next 5 days during prime harvest time. Dave just finished an intense week of working the vineyard and cellar at Stoller Family Estate. Lots of unloading of fresh picked grapes into bins, destemming and preparation to be pressed. He was rewarded with ribs and brisket. Sweet perks of working with people who are equally passionate about good food and wine.
