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.

A Temple of Our Wine

So, you know we're pretty creative bunch what with soap dishes made from our barrel staves, soap with our grape skins and so on and so forth, not least the design elements of our labels, choice of bottles...well, looks like we have surpassed ourselves this time!

It didn't start out as being a Temple of Wine, but that's what it ended up as.

We took a used French Oak barrel of ours, cut out the front, used the staves to make internal shelving, burned images and text into the wood, made it safe, but all from the perspective of a floor display.

Then it gets borrowed and it ends up in the air and looks like a Temple of Our Wine. See photo. That's our wine bottles around, in and on it.

Some behind the Scenes...

This is our corking machine. Place cork in brass hopper and pull lever down.

This is our filling machine. Place bottle under nozzle (teat?) and fill.

This is our labelling machine. Place on labelling table in exactly same spot as last time, labeller in exactly same spot on table, get template bottle with secret marks on it to align, then place bottle on it, hand crank and the labels are on...maybe first time if you've been a good lad. If not, you will suffer the endless torment and agony of micro-adjusting misaligned labels.

Bottles, upright in cases on our roller conveyor, resting to allow the cork to decompress in the bottle neck, before going on to labelling and then being placed upside down in cases to keep cork wet.

Foil Spinner (again) - Boys 'n' Their Toys

Weighing in at around 16lbs, Via Vecchia Winery took delivery of its first new/used foil spinner. Here we have a precious moment as Mike and Marty get acquainted with the new arrival. They just couldn't wait to remove the cowling to expose its gubbings and see how it functions, or were they trying to figure out if its male or female?

Foil Spinner Update - C'est Arrivee!

For those following the foil spinner saga, it arrived. Only a week later. we should count ourselves lucky in that it survived being handled for an extra week.

This piece of equipment is possibly the heaviest-smallest piece of equipment we own. It's also possibly the one that's going to take a fair bit of stamina to use.

Anyway, we'll photo it tomorrow and post it's pic for you.

In the meantime, enjoy Columbus' own DOO DAH Parade.

Foil Spinner Update & Another Back Label Candidate

The Foil Spinner

So, it turns out that UPS Customer Support didn't mean "cash" when it said "cash" as it really meant "money order". This meant the 2nd attempted delivery of the foil spinner aborted on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday, UPS Customer Support said the foil spinner was in its distribution depot at Trabue Road, so we went down to get it, accompanied by a money order.

After about half an hour at UPS on Trabue, we were told it was buried somewhere and wouldn't be scanned 'til Monday, when it would be re-delivered.

Monday. Monday we'll finally get it. We hope they accept money orders issued by United Dairy farmers, otherwise it's third strike and the spinner's being returned to the sender, Frances. Stay tuned.

Another Rear Label Photo Candidate.

This photo of us at Via Vecchia is another potential candidate that may end up on the rear label (see other candidate Here).

Again (left to right), Marty, Paolo, Anton and Michael.

Foil Spinner Update

So we got the deal done on the foil spinner. We're happy. It was sent via UPS. Howver UPS wanted payment in cash - it was COD - not a check, not a credit card, not a debit card, but cash. So it was not surprise when we couldn't raise the $38.79 needed.
The foil spinner was taken away - to be redelivered Thursday when we've found the cash.
It Beggars belief!