Last Garden Harvest
Our home garden did not disappoint this year. It was all we could do to keep up with harvest all the goodies, and thanks to some extended warmer weather we harvested well into October, eating the last of it this November. Cheers to green thumbs!
Harvest 2021
Harvest is well underway. For us it starts with the Pinot Noir grapes. We pick and night or in the early morning, so the fruit is fresh - cooler, and firmer for transport to the winery.
Last Pick of 2020
Harvest 2020 with all its epic circumstances has concluded. The grapes are in! and we can turn our attention to preparing for the next growing season.
Here are a few photos from our last pick of the season. Cheers!
Harvest Time 2020 Vintage
2020 is proving challenging in more and more ways. We were happy to kick off the harvest season with a successful early morning harvest this week. Thanks to everyone who worked hard and got the job done. Cheers!
Pressing Off the Wine
Note - this post was originally published 11.14.2014
It's been a busy harvest season. This morning we're pressing off some wine. The wine has finished fermentation and we're pressing the grapes and draining off the wine. Cheers!
Picking Pinot Noir
Note - this post was first published 09.09.2014
It’s a great feeling when you get to see a project through. That’s how we felt last week when we had the opportunity to pick a Pinot Noir vineyard in the Russian River Valley that we had started working in January of this year.
When you work with grapes, the job is to nurture each vine individually and manage the vineyard as a whole. When to pick the finished product – ripe grapes – is actually up to the winemaker. Whoever is purchasing the grapes is using them as the raw materials for a beautiful wine. The growing season, elements, geographical features of the vineyard, and vineyard management techniques will all have effects on flavor. But the style of wine (bursting fruit flavors, bigger wines with higher alcohol contents vs. more traditional lighter alcohol wines with more restrained characteristics that might develop more over time, etc) starts with when to pick – at what levels the acidity and sugar exist in the grape.
Pinot Noir is a thinner skinned grape that ripens before thicker skinned grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah.
Here’s to the 2014 vintage, cheers!
Almost Harvest Time
Note - this post was originally published 8.14.2014
The grapes are ripening, trucks are moving bins and tanks up and down the Valley... harvest should start here soon - in the next week or two.
Some of the bounty to be picked, then crushed and fermented:
