Bottling #2

More corks arrived on Wednesday so we tried bottling the last of the Adamo 2007. However, the sediment got kicked up so we had to abandon the effort since we were not willing to filter the wine.

We did find other stuff to do though. We finally transferred the last of the wine out of secondary fermentation into ageing. The last of the wine is the Trovato 2008 (sangiovese and pinot noir).

Another activity is finalising labels for 2007's wine. We're going with the same labels again, just changing alcohol levels and year on back. We also need to get the new label and name approved for the pinot noir we're doing.

Saturday will see a few people popping over to see us. Maybe they'll allow us to post pics of them - maybe they're on facebook. Do check out the facebook account - become a friend.

Bottling Adamo 2007

The barrel racks got here on Friday, so we were able to bottle on Saturday.

We bottled the Adamo 2007 (sangiovese and cabernet franc blend) and then we moved the Jorro-Ma 2008 (syrah) and half the Evidente 2008 (pinot noir) into their French Oak barrels.
What we're left with is four secondary fermentation drums containing the sangiovese and pinot noir that goes into the Trovato 2008.
You may like to enjoy some video of bottling, corking and capping that is on our facebook space. On this blog we offer the following pictures of the winery and some activity.
On Wednesday we shall be finishing off the bottling of Adamo 2007 and finally transferring Trovato 2008 from secondary fermentation into ageing.
Also, thanks to those who were at Whole Foods, Lane Avenue, on Saturday afternoon. Michael was released from winery hard labour to do the tasting there. We know it was a success as he had to send Katrina back up to the winery to get more wine to sell.

Here you can see us preparing a French Oak barrel. We re-use our barrels as they're way more expensive than American Oak and old European wineries re-use them too. We clean, gas them, when not in use, then re-hydrate them to swell them up again before cleaning before re-use. Barrels leak like sieves if they've dried out so re-hydrating is necessary unless you want to lose a lot of wine.

Below you see our growing wall of wine. In the foreground are the prepped French Oak barrels that will receive the secondary fermentation from out of the blue fermentation drums.

This is our bottle filling machine. Wine is pumped into the reservoir at top, then wine is dispensed into bottles via the 4 spouts you see at the front. The bottles rest on the shelf below the spouts whilst filling. From here, the bottles are passed to the corker (no pictures of corker here, but a video of this is on facebook).

After the cork is inserted into the bottle, the bottle then has a tin foil cap placed on top of it and the bottle is inserted, neck first, into the capping machine. See video on facebook.

The wall of wine grows again.

However, we still have some wine left in secondary fermenters that will be used to top-up the barrels over the course of the next 12 to 18 months (these are the demijons at back, sealed with olive oil). The blue fermenters will be emptied by next Saturday.

Ageing, Selling, and Robert

1. Let's deal with Selling and Robert first.

1. Robert - if it's you in L.A., and you really want a case, then we'll apply for the 2nd part of the license California doesn't mention - the $500 for the Dept of Equalization (sounds funny, but not as funny as who issues the Direct Ship Permit, the Dept. of ABC ( kid you not).

Shipping kits are ordered and should be here this coming week.

LOCAL SALES POINTS

a), Shane's Gourmet Catering & Market

447 E. Livingston Ave., Columbus, OH 43215-5534

Phone: (614) 358-5555 Fax: (614) 358-7777

b), Simple Indulgences

20 West William Street, Unit A Delaware, Ohio 43015

Phone: 740.363.5763

c), Clintonville Community Market

200 Crestview Road, Columbus, OH 43202

Phone: (614)-261-3663

d), Whole Foods Market

1,
3670 W.Dublin-Granville Road
Columbus, OH 43235
(614) 760-5556
2,
1555 W. Lane Avenue
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
(614) 481 3400

e) House Wine
644 High Street
Worthington, OH 43085
(614) 846-9463

f), Buy From Us Direct

The ship kits are here we have FedEx lined up, so place your order for our wines.

We take VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover, Debit. If paying by check, you have to mail your check in first.

Phone - (614) 893-5455

email: viavecchiawinery@yahoo.com

3. AGEING (aren't we all)

Deliveries to Ohio seem to be a problem. This past week we got let down with the delivery of our French Oak barrles. This meant we were not able to transfer out of secondary fermentation to ageing in these barrels. Never mind the fact that Colporteurs, who supply the barrels, took our money around January 24th! We have shipped from Australia before, and that's quicker and logistically simpler than shipping from California to Ohio.

We haven't quite worked out the blends, but the starting point is to work with what volumes we have in secondary fermentation and translate them into barrels based on prior behaviour. There will always be some give and take with short quantities and so on and it can be quite a mind-bender of an exercise. Actually, it's Wine Soduko: just when you think a certain combination of secondary fermentation varietals will work for a finite number of barrels, you'll then notice that you're short on another blend...and so it goes on.

This is much more of a challenge for us since we don't have the luxury and buffer of huge quantities of wine to deal with and we have less room to manoeuvre with choices and the blend configuration for a given number of barrels. Then you have to allow for top-up.

Wine Transfer Notes

[Two of the "Old Boys". These demijons came from Grondola in the Tuscan Appenines. They're at least 55 years old if we give it a break, 'cos if it travelled with Paolo's family in the first migration to England, in the 1920s, then they're older]

Some basic info on the wines we've been transferring over the past couple of weeks.

Please note that the Natural Sulfite Level ("NSL") is that which occurs in our wine naturally. We measured it last weekend. What we measure here are the Free Sulfites that are able to deal with oxygen in the wine and keep it locked up out of the liquid, preventing it turning the wine or feeding any residual yeasts/sugars. You'll remember that we have not added anything to this wine at all.

"ppm" is "parts per million.

The Organic Standard for Wine is 120ppm free sulfites ("Org")

The Federal Standard for Wines is 350ppm free sulfites ("Fed")

The Californian Standard for Red Wine is 175ppm / White Wine is 225ppm ("CA")

"Bordeaux Blend" comprises Cabernet Sauvignon, cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Varietal or Blend ------------- NSL --------pH------------Final ppm

-------------------------------------------------------------------- (Org = 120ppm)

San Giovese ----------------------- 31ppm -----3.8--------------80ppm
San Giovese/Pinot Noir Blend - 33ppm -------3.8--------------80ppm
Shiraz ------------------------------ 37ppm -----4.0 - 4.2-------60ppm
Bordeaux Blend ------------------ 40ppm -----3.8 - 4.0-------60ppm
Cab Franc ------------------------- 35ppm ------3.8 - 4.0------60ppm

For wine to be drunk between now and September, the NSL sulfite levels are fine. Since we'll be ageing these wines, and then they'll sit in bottles, these levels are too low and there are not enough free sulfites to deal with the controlled oxidation as they sit in barrels and any residual yeasts/sugars that may want to get something started.

Yeast can survive in up to 15% by volume alcohol. Maybe why we see a lot of those higher alcohol wines is that it's hoped they'll deal with residual yeasts so sulfiting can be reduced, but you need very high acid to deal with high alcohol so lord knows what's thrown in to knock the acidic taste back.

For us, this is a difficult time. We do not want to lose the wine. We do not want to use even, in our minds, the excessive Org standard for sulfiting. We are fortunate to have good Acid. So we make a judgement call. This year we decided to add minimum sulfite still way below the lowest Org Standard and below the recommended sulfite levels for the given ppm, pH and volume. If the San Giovese and Pinot had ended up in French Oak barrels then we would have stuck to 60ppm, as it is, we're using new (to us) technology and don't know how the wine will age in it so we erred on caution but still well below Org Standards.

As far as our chemical intervention goes, this is it the beginning and end of it.

[Two of our Bordeaux Blend French oak Barrels. They're handsome aren't they]

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Barrel Monkeys

Pictures at end of post.

On saturday we put the San Giovese and Pinot Noir into ageing in the flextank maturation vessels. We were particularly pleased with the Pinot Noir, which we could have bottled there and then. In fact, we should not be that surprised since the technique to which we adhere was structured so as to allow you to drink your wine early without extended ageing and the expense of keeping things barreled for a while. After all, this is a product to be drunk! In fact it is interesting that even today in Italy "il vino rosso di Toscana" can only be labelled "vino di tavolo" - table wine. No more no less. It's made to drink. You can do what you want to it and age it and have the planet deem it a super-Tuscan, but at the end of the day, it's table wine.

A further post this week will talk about ph and free sulfites.

But speaking of tradition (remember we explored "barrel spinning"? see link in list of links at left for that), well Via Vecchia Winery keeps alive the tradition of Barrel Monkeys.
The work of a Barrel Monkey is a forgotten trade, eclipsed by the popular movement that liberated the child chimney sweeps and child labour during the mid Industrial Revolution. If Dickens had lived in a viticulural region he would have written about Barrel Monkeys instead of Chimney Sweeps.
Barrel Monkeys would climb into huge fermentation vats and crushing troughs (we'd love one of those) and clean them out. Sometimes the fumes from a fermentation vessel would be too much and the child would pass out. This would be dangerous were it not for the fact that the child was made to wear a bell around their neck. For as long as the child moved, the bell tinkled. If the bell stopped tinkling the child would need rescuing. If the child played a trick and deliberately stopped so as to silence the tinkling, the vintner would bore them with that fable of Aesop's about The Boy Who Cried Wolf. "nuff said.
There is one school of thought that says the term monkey was used in reference to the bell the child wore which was like the bell a performing monkey would wear on his costume when employed at the hurdy gurdy with cup in hand.
Here, we see Via Vecchia making use of a volunteer Barrel Monkey for a day.
In the video and pic you see him with a maturation vessel lowered over him. He then turns around and around, wiping down the insides of the vessel as he turns. Obviously we helped, but we didn't fancy having him crawl in and roll it around from inside on the floor to clean it.


Here are the flextank maturation vessels. They each hold 200 gallons of wine.

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More Wine Goes Into Ageing

Saturday - and we put the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc into ageing in their French Oak barrels.
The pump played up again. Nothing to do with the impeller - Paolo repaired the torn blade and it held all day - but the motor itself. Seems like the motor wants to turn over, but there isn't the "kick" to start it off. We checked the load on the drive wheel, the tension of the drive belts and they were fine. It's just that the drive wheel didn't turn even with no load upon it. Anyhow, since it was making noises like it wanted to go, we resorted to "kick-starting" it. This was achieved by running the pump with the drive exposed and Marty hand cranking it until it 'caught". This worked all day long and we got through it fine.
However, since the pump is meant to be both self-priming and self starting, this is not good. We believe the starting capacitor is "fried".

Paolo designed a dip-stick to measure off how much wine was being pumped. This was needed to roughly gauge when we had enough of a Varietal in a barrel, essential when wanting to achieve the different percentages of each Varietal in each barrel. It worked fine.

Topping off the Bordeaux blend barrels was done by siphoning out of the demijons we had racked in December for the Cab Franc. We left the Cab Franc until last because it is the smallest percentage in our Bordeaux blend and our pump cannot pump with the responsiveness needed to be shut off in time when the barrel is full. There is a device that can be bought that senses the change in pressure at the barrel full point and shuts the pump down there and then.

The Bordeaux blend dealt with our Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. We had enough Cabernet Franc to make up its own barrel. Anton reminded us all that Cabernet Franc is the father of Cabernet Sauvignon, and for my money, at this stage, it seemed better in many respects. The remainder of the Cabernet Franc went into storage in a bag from FlexTank that will keep the wine safe for up to two years -you place the bag in a 60gallon drum.

Only the SanGiovese and Pinot Noir to go.

[l to r - Paolo, Marty (holding drum), Michael in back of drum, John in front of drum holding red funnel]
Here we're carefully pouring off the last several gallons in the drum into a demijon. We don't pump out all the way to the end as we do not want to suck the sediment (lees) back into the wine - remember we rely on natural sedimentation as our filtration method as we do not mechanically nor chemically filter our wines. This wine will be again siphoned into the French oak barrel.



This is Anton siphoning out of the demijon the Cabernet Franc into the French oak barrel.


This is Micheal diligently tagging the Cabernet Franc barrel.

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Scali's & Let Down

[pic of Dante, in Pisa not Firenze as you'd likely assume]

Wednesday we had a change of venue for the weekly Via Vecchia Winery meeting. We went to Scali's restaurant. Quite a gem of a place, really. We met Frank (came over from Italy about 37 years ago with his parents) who runs the place and enjoyed his hospitality - he treated us to un piatto d' antipasto e poi, un digestivo per tutti. It's a great place that takes care of your needs and if you're appreciative you may get to sample something special that's not on the menu.
He actually loves our sanGiovese wine and was really impressed when he learned we make the genuine article without any added sugar, yeasts, coloring, glycerine, sulfites and so on as everyone else does. It was also nice to speak in Italian as I don't get that much of an opportunity these days and great to talk of mutual experiences of dining in Italy and so on and so forth. I'm sure we'll get into war stories before too long. Here's his link...
http://www.scaliristorante.com/home.html


As to putting the wine into barrels, which was meant to be tomorrow's activity, we had to cancel that because all shipments of French Oak barrels and Flextank maturation vessels have let us down.
The French Oak will get her next Tuesday (we hope) and the Flextank won't ship until feb 9!
Flextank cannot explain why they didn't ship since they were meant to go out 2 weeks ago! In fact they shipped the storage bag from Australia and it arrived here in three days! I suspect shippers play havoc with delivery due to the recent restrictive laws on driving hours that now include waiting time for loading/unloading - so they don't move until they have full or "economic" loads.
Flextank will see if they can get the maturation vessels out earlier. I do hope they can.

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And more from in the US, Canada and Italy.

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New Ageing Area #2 & a Chainsaw

Yesterday we all completed the organization of the new wine ageing area rather quickly. After a mere hour the pickup was loaded up and ready to go - all that delayed us somewhat was waiting for Sofia to get ready.
The area we have allocated for ageing should keep us going for a while. It's tucked away off the main production floor too. Getting it ready for next week, when the first French Oak and Flextank barrels go in, mainly involved clearing out junk. We saved off some nice pieces of wood though as they always come in handy, but cut up an old bed frame that Jerry will take down to those who live in the woods so they can use it as fuel. Jerry should be back from New Mexico soon.
Here's a movie of Marty firing up the chainsaw. Not the correct nor safe way to start it up though. And this from the Marty who forbid Michael to ever touch the "straps of death" (more on that later). Sorry, forgot you can't change the orientation.

Michael did touch the straps of death though. these are the thin metal straps used to hold the pallet loads of grape cases together. On crush day there was a lot of "be careful" about cutting those straps. Anyway, Micheal touched them but only after asking if he could, but by this time we were either more nonchalant about injuries or just didn't care anymore as he went off with barely an acknowledgment from us. And he did a nice job too - here's a picture of them coiled into a cardboard box. Still deadly all coiled up waiting to strike - now with added rusty bits.

We set off in Anton's pickup to the waste transfer station. Some of us had never been and there was much talk of an almost mythical group of people, the Salvagers or Dumpster Divers. No doubt these folk play havoc on the unsuspecting dump as we saw many signs whilst at the dump warning them off. How dare they just come in and try to recycle stuff! So it was fun throwing trash into a pit and Anton didn't suffer any punctured tires.
On the way back we stopped off in Delaware for elevenses, for it was 11. Michael, Paolo and Sofia opted for a slice of Americana at the Hamburger in, est 1932, but just like stepping back in the 1950's. Paolo resisted the biscuits and gravy. Anton and Marty went to the Acapulco for uevos rancheros. After that we visited the quality wines and gifts shop. it was very encouraging that the first words out of the shopkeeper's mouth was, "have you got any wine yet?" I'd only been there once before and we got talking so this was a nice surprise.
Back at the winery we finished organising the space and after a bottle of wine (Sangiovese/piot noir 2005) we got to configuring the hoses for next week's pumping. There was a moment when it looked like we were a connection and clamp short, but we finally figured it out.
And then some more wine, this time from our friend at Sorrenti Winery in PA (Cherry Valley Vineyards).
And a little while later, some of our BDX from 2005. Here we see Towelie organising getting a bottle of wine out of the barrel.

And so, after a lot more chat, ended a very fruitful drive around the dinner table.

PS - Almost forgot...
Welcome to Nigeria, Spain and Australia ('bout time too).

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New Ageing Area

Tomorrow we sort out the new ageing area where we'll store the barrels of our wine. I hope that we'll have pics to show you as we've been too long without them, but please go back over our Archive to see lots and lots of pics and video.
We're concerned you're getting bored, so please go back and see just how interesting and amusing we can be.
Michael - no trials of strength please - we don't need more injuries.

Kelly - thanks for your Comment. We discussed it on Wednesday. You certainly brought up a couple of experiential aspects of the cork that we had missed.