Full Moon Racking

Well, we're truly in the midst of secondary fermentation. This weekend saw the final racking of the wine. Last weekend was the full moon, dead on, so we transferred the bulk of the wine at this auspicious time. A lot of our process is dictated by moon phases and other un-scientific methods, but it means we can make wine without the treatments, so who're we to question millenia of practice.
This weekend we finished the wine in the demijons. The demijons manage our silty wine, enabling it to clear with time separate from the free run wine. Here's a picture of us racking from the demijons by siphoning. The demijon on the floor in the iron cage is thought to be around 100 years old (see previous post).

Our process, in part, relies on the lees in the wine to provide natural anti-oxidation/protection against air. It's the rationale behind the "sur lees" method of winemaking. Here's a view fo the lees that have settled out against the sides of a demijon that has just been racked. Lunar-esque n'est pas?


Now those same lees have fantastic astringent qualities too and make great face packs, as demonstrated by Via Vecchia's own Apron Boy (aka Paolo at right of pic) and Rob' Clone (aka Marty at left of pic).
Also note that Zen Tree Soaps uses these lees of ours in its face pack product.


And speaking of Zen Tree Soaps, here they are at the North Market in Columbus. The upright and longitudinal wooden display stands are made out of an old wine barrel of ours (Marty ran them up) and on them you would see, if you were there, soaps using grapes skins from our Pinot Noir and Syrah, sugar scrubs using grape seeds from our grapes and the face pack using our wine's lees.
This is a nice venture for us

Bottling and Corking Wine

[At Left, Anton filling a bottle of wine with 2005 "Bordeaux"]

[At Right, Clone Rob and Apron Boy

then cork the filled bottle]

As requested in a prior post, more on the wine filler. We do have video of this, but it's currently on private view in youtube because, as usual, the production possibly suffers too much from bloopable innuendo and double-entendres. Oh well, if we vote to release it, it will be released - check back.

Racked the Top-Up Wine.

First task yesterday was to decant the wine in the demijons into empty demijons, leaving the lees behind and giving it an airing. We missed the full moon, I know, but hope the new moon did something

We've had a lot of queries from search engines on lees and sur lees, but we forgot to take a picture of the lees in the demijons so those searching for them could get an idea what they are. In our process the lees serve as a natural anti-oxidant - any ladies want some as a natural face-pack?

As we racked the wine we tasted. All was A.O.K.

Topped Up the Barrels.

We also took the racked wine and topped up our barrels of wine to eliminate headspace. Again, some tasting and stirring and smelling. The wine is progressing nicely.

Broke into another private stash.

We bottled another lot of 2005 "Bordeaux" with our incredibly efficient, not-a-drop-is-spilled wine filler. We still are not filtering, relying on natural sedimentation to do the job naturally.

Michael.

He's back from some place with "hole" in its name, somewhere out west. Apparently our resident feats-of-strength-I-may-have-a-thing-for-Carmen Miranda-fruit-headwear man got himself into a bit of bother with a kayak and a raging two foot deep torrent of water. Nature IS very deceptive. But a big "THANKYOU" to Shep who risked all to save him.

Labels and Bottle Filler

Bottle Filler.
The bottle filler arrived this week. It did not cost $1000, unlike almost every other piece of equipment. It is also, apart from our barrels, funnels, hoses, and demijons, our only piece of equipment not made of stainless steel or aircraft grade aluminium.
Since the winery board that met was at only half strength (Anton and I) we decided to try out the bottle filler. Michael was attending the funeral of someone who took part in a very significant piece of history and who didn't tell their story, and Marty was in a "busy", "may turn up later", "it will be late" kind of situation.
Anyway, this filler, which vacuum fills, treats the wine extremely gently as it fills bottles. It dispenses just enough wine for your size of bottle and the wine does not even foam as it goes in. We thought the fill level would differ with varying bottle sizes, but it didn't.
So we broke a 5gallon demijon of Bordeaux just as a trial run. We're always trying things for the first time otherwise so it made a change to practise first on a bucket of water, then on the Bordeaux.
It was a very civilised process. Very calming almost. And at the end the small amout of waste that was collected was just enough for a couple of glasses of wine.
I think the most impressive fact about this wine filler is that there was not a single drop of wine wasted during the bottling process!

Labels
We have agreed on the two label types we're going to be using consistently across our blends and varietals. We even have a different name for the Bordeaux. We could be at the printers by the end of June.

Molly.
Thanks for the photos. Very flattering - yeah right.
Actually there are some good ones and they're all fun.
Look out for them appearing now and again.

Barrel Break

This will be brief. It's late.

So, Saturday. Where was Rob P? And how about the stress of a late arriving Joe without whose container Scott would be short a few gallons of our finest Bordeaux blend?
Despite all this and more, such as the multiple appearances of Mr Hankey (sp?, Michael?), the "Pink" branded sun hat, and ceremonies of dubious worth, the penultimate barrel of Bordeaux from 2005 was distributed.
Later that day we went to MamaPalooza, as we were invited and which will get its own post and video in due course. The best bit was the announcement from the stage that "Via Vecchia is in the House!" That was fun. But, as I say, more to come in a future post.
Quick Update on Winery business - we've committed on a labeller, label design is going great guns and we're enquiring about 2007 SanGiovese.
Are we having fun yet? Stupid question, course we are.
PS - anyone know who wont the Eurovision Song Contest?
And below, left to right on all three rows
Back row - Scott, James, John; Centre row - Paolo, Joe, Anton, Marty (yellow cap); Front Row - Linus (dog), Mike, Michael (with hat).

Topping Up

There are many who claim to have fun with what they do, and yet... and yet you look at what they post to their web sites and blogs and they all look so serious and well, not having fun. I know we have been accused of just having fun, but frankly, since when does having fun lessen the importance or credibility of what you do? And that's not rhetorical, you can answer and debate that one with us if you like.

So anyway, today's fun was topping up the barrels. We also had the pleasure of Mike coming over to visit and help. We haven't seen enough of him lately and it was good to have him joining in the fun - or should I say, work.

We topped up from our reserves in the demijons. All hand pouring no less, with lots of sampling. We have some video of that, but can't post it here as some of us got a bit colorful in our comments.
The Cabernet Franc had kicked up again! We won't interfere with that though and we'll let it burn itself out. We do not want high alcohol wine but that Franc may well push it for us, so we may actually withhold it from sale this year and blend it with something next year.
We also tried a 50% Cabernet Franc and 50% Syrah mix - too early too tell what it would be really like, but it was pretty much alright, good even, anyway, we drank it.

So now to pictures.

This is our hand crafted process in action. Careful pouring to top up the barrel. Please note that there you see direct evidence of our natural filtration process - note the sediment at the bottom of the gall jug? well that has settled out and will not go into the barrel. The same happens in the barrel. When we siphon the wine out of the barrel the sediment will be left behind. In the meantime it's a lesser form of a sur lees method of winemaking. The lees are reputed to be natural antioxidants too, and is why we are able not to rely on sulfiting.


This is our board room. Very serious, as if!

This is us under the watchful eye of Bacchus. A gift from Katrina, who Michael (white shirt) proposed to.


Finally, we got the 2005 Winery Year DVD out - we have two versions 1, the fast cut/lively music version and 2, the sepia toned/Italian folk song soundtrack. As those of you who have seen these productions of prior years, I hope you'll agree they're just full of fun. But then, we do have fun, as I said.

Oh, The Culture...

But this time it will the personal stuff - at last! And just in time for the festivities too! But now we get there, I'm thinking, "let it go a few more months."
Nah, not really.

Here we are demonstrating the care and affection with which we handle our wine. This is on the small demijon side of the "house". Paolo here (seated) is sporting the latest in "apron-boy" (TM Via Vecchia Winery) couture with a nice white stripe on blue background apron, or as the culturally obnoxious would have it, the "enovitivini demi-kilt". Anton (standing) is wearing a mobile fruit fly catcher earpiece and, in the interests of keeping this historically and culturally accurate grows his own lees filter in the form of his beard, which in time will grow to a length and shape that will, when he places his chin on the edge of that red funnel, lay in the funnel and filter the wine as it is poured through it. This is a very prized job as he can sample the wine as it pours at the same time he filters it. Hey, it's all about efficiency, it's a wonder those in Oz haven't thought of it.

In this picture you see Marty demonstrating the markings and headress of the Tribal#3 enoculture civilization. This is believed to have been worn by apprentice; the markings on the nose and cheeks respectively representing the physical signs of the "Master" wine makers' red noses and rosy cheeks.
Note also below the lower lip there's a deliberately shaved little beard, again representing the novice status, as only the "Masters" may wear the full beard.

Well I don't know who let the 21st century in! Here's a wine/must pump. This was used to transfer between the big drums of wine we've got in production. It's shiny isn't it.






This view is of one half of the drum population. In them there's Shiraz, Merlot, Cabs Sauv and Franc. these have not been racked yet - that is going on across the way (see Mr. 38) where some topping off of the last San Giovese drum is taking place.