See Us at Whole Foods - Pinot - Oxford YouTube and a Fun Competition

Sat. July 25 , 4 - 6pm.
Whole Foods at Sawmill Parkway (Dublin Store).

Whole Foods are running a meet the local producer event and we'll be there since we're a local producer. Stop by, say, "hello" and wear you Via Vecchia buttons so we know not to bore you with our spiel all over again and can talk about other things.

Pinot Noir.

The Pinot is bottled and now labelled. This will not be released through any retail outlet and not subject to tasting events. It's too precious for that - seriously - the grapes are the most expensive we buy and it has been aged longer and as you know, time is money, especially when you manage your barrels like we do. And it is good. A true Pinot not artificially mellowed out. And we don't use enzymes to bleach the color into the wine from the grape; this is still produced the way we do all our wines with no artificial treatments or interventions, a process no-one else can claim hand-on-heart. This is not cola nor chemical soup.

Oxford.

Angie posted an animation of the Oxford Wine Affair we were invited to at Oxford, late June. We appear twice. A Via Vecchia button to anyone who can spot both appearances and describe the shot accurately enough. This "competition's" open until August 1st 5pm. Send entries via email to viavecchiawinery@yahoo.com and put "I Seeeeee Yooouuu" in the subject line.

Vino Meza - Whole Foods

VINO MEZA
48 N. State Street
Westerville, OH
614-259-3101

For those of you East of Columbus and perhaps a little tired of travelling in to Whole Foods on Sawmill to get your fave bottle of Via Vecchia wine, or even travelling out to us in Powell, note that from Tuesday 10 March, Vino Meza (Westerville) will be carrying our Adamo (cabernet franc and sangiovese blend) and Trouve (bordeaux blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot blend).

Whole Foods
Sawmill,
Columbus

And for those of you trying to get your Trovato (sangiovese and pinot noir blend) from Whole Foods, we delivered more Trovato to them this morning. They also have the Trouve.

Past Week's Fun

We had scheduled to take the trovato 2008 (comprising sangiovese and pinot noir) out of secondary fermentation and into ageing and to bottle the remainder of the adamo 2007 (sangiovese and cabernet franc).

One was dependent upon t'other. To move the trovato into ageing we had to free up the vessel the adamo occupied. We had started doing this over a week ago and only had about 200 bottles to go, however...

When beginning to pump the wine out to the bottle filler, sediment (lees) were kicked up. Since we do not filter, chemically, mechanically or otherwise, this meant we had no choice but to abandon the bottling and store the wine until the lees had once again settled out.

So we transferred the adamo to demijons to settle out and sealed them with olive oil. This enabled the vessel the adamo was in to be cleaned out and the trovato put in.

The nett effect is that we accomplished putting the trovato into ageing, and have deferred the bottling of the remainder of the adamo.

We have to be flexible in this game of minimalist winemaking.

We had a couple of parties over for tasting's on Saturday. Now you know we're not open to the public but we do open up by appointment. The first party was from a yacht club on Eire and we rented in chairs and a big round table for them. There were 12 of them.

It went very well with lots of good questions. We also learned some things from them too, which is always nice. There were a couple of them who visit wineries extensively and they bring what they learn from those visits to us and share. So everyone's collective knowledge increases.

Their visit lasted about 2.5 hours and fortunately for us, the later party was delayed.

Our tastings always take a long time...we all have a lot to talk about and it's about our collective favourite subject too. I think it's a good sign of a good event if it basically keeps going on like a good party.

The second group was smaller in number but no less into the visit. We learned from them that our associated winery imagery was recognisable to them and they had seen the wine "around". We also found out that other people will proclaim they know us as one guest told of someone who works in a worthington drinking establishment who claimed to know us, but we were at a loss of who it could be. A small world I guess.

Anyway, great fun had by all. People are just great.

A photo of how we set up the winery for the visitors is at top of this post. This is the same space you see occupied by blue fermentation vessels in earlier posts.

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.

Barrels, Tastings & Opportunities

Last week we tried out our new bottle filler. It did a barrel in about a third of the time, maybe less - so 3 hours do do @277 bottles down to 1 hour. It honestly took longer to set it up and clean it, although with familiarity that aspect of it will improve.

The French Oak barrels are ordered and are on their way; scheduled for arrival next Wednesday. We will rehydrate them so they swell and don't leak, and turn then periodically until we're ready to move wine into them from secondary fermentation.

Next Tuesday we will have a visit from a prospective retailer who is putting together a wine shop independent of a distributor and therefore free to take whatever she tastes and believes to be good and unique. Personally, I feel it would benefit to know which outlets are "Free Houses" and can select what they want.

Next Thursday we're at Jungle Jim's emporium in Cincinnatti where we get a shot at having them carry our wine. This is due to the Doctor who attended La Tavola's first wine pairing dinner earlier in the month. We love customers like this. Thanks, Doc!

Next friday we're at the Clintonville Co-Op. Eugene - tell us what you want and we'll bring some reserved just for you!

Inventory Update
JorroMa (syrah) is almost gone.
Pinot Noir (un-named as yet) is going to be so good it will not form part of any tastings unless bottle price is paid as it's an extremely small production - and it's very good. It will also first go on release to those on the mailing list for first chance to buy. It will be first come, first served. Availability around May or June this year for this fresh 2007 pinot noir.

Getting Busy again

So a lot is happening again.

Saturday 9am - 12noon - if you know us, pop on by see what's up - shout when you arrive, we'll help you across the snow.

We checked out or old barrels and rejuvinated them. This consists of cleaning them out and filling them with water to rehydrate them. We have put wine in before hydrating and just watched it leak out again, whilst frantically caulking the head with sliced cork - can't do that with a plastic cork. Luckilly it has always been the head that leaks and even luckier, the head you can see, not the one against the wall.

So all went well with 2 barrels. 1 barrel decided it would pursue an alternative career as a sieve impressionist and got into character by happily leeking like one for about 12 hours.

It leaked from the head and the staves. But happily for us, it eventually gave up and decided to join us in maturing the 2007 wine and closed up as tight as a, well, a barrel.

It all helps with cutting down the expense of ordering more used french oak barrels and helps the planet.
We ordered morebarrels for 2007 too. They may be here next week, and we may start transferring soon after. I think the secondary fermentation is more or less complete. We'll see.

These barrels will be rehydrated too.

Tomorrow we try out our new filling machine. For thos eof you familiar with the Tom Baker Dr. Who, the filler looks like the machine used by the Santarans (Sultarans?) to go around kidnapping survivors of a crashed ship on an earth many years in the future. I dare not copy a photo from the BBC since they jumped all over those who copied the TellyTubbyies. remember them?

Well what about the Clangers, BagPuss, Chrystal Tipps and Alistair, Ivor the engine and Ludwig (what was that all about?). And long before there was Captain Jack, there was Captain Pugwash and Noggin the Nogg. Feel free to add to the list of nostalgic programming.

By the way, the Pinot Noir for 2007 is out of this world and will get even better over the next 6 months or so. Reserve now as we already have people who have tasted from those barrels making offers!

Also, Jorro-Ma (the Syrah) is getting very low.

We Stomped - Again

GET WINE

Friends

Thanks to all those of you who turned up on 10/11 and to those that helped out. We hope you stayed for food later on in the day and enjoyed the now traditional bonfire.

(above - the start - all clean - rollers prepped to take bins of grape to wooden tippers that feed the crusher's hopper with grapes)

The day did not go as smoothly as we had hoped as we had machinery issues with many a tear down. This was particularly annoying since we had replaced the main bearing on the destemmer's axel only a couple of night's earlier and hoped for clear running.

Also, some grape varietals just turned to a jam in the collector and refused to go through the pump to the fermentation vats, so there was a lot of reverting to Plan B which meant crushing into open top tubs that were then carried to the fermentation vats.

As if this wasn't frustrating enough, on Wednesday 15th we decided the Merlot was just like concrete so we reverted to Plan C which is foot stomping. We stomped by feet 2,160lbs of Merlot that night to free up the juice and produce a must capable of fermentation.

We're not called Via Vecchia (the old way) for nothing!

Needless to say, none of us found time and energy to take photos, although we hope to get some from Kay and Dan who were filming us again for The Documentary. Actually, I think Carrie posted some, but I lost the link... can you please provide again, thanks?
All in all 13,500lbs of grapes were crushed that day.
We did Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.

Again, thanks to those that persevered with us on the day... Special mentions to;

Holly, you are an excellent stand in for Joe S;
Carrie, your enthusiasm amazes;
Nick & Joan, your apron appreciated your return visit;
Mr & Mrs H, what can we say, STARS!

But Mike H, you mean to say Colorado's got something better to offer?

And for those requesting it, here's Cynthia's Pasta Recipe. The veg and basil was picked from the garden that day.

Cynthia writes,
"I didn't get to all the guests on Saturday, and many people like the
sauce. So if you'd like to email them a thank-you with the recipe or
post it on the blog that might be fun.

Crush 2008 Fabulous Pasta Sauces

Fry 2 diced onions and 6 cloves crushed garlic in a good quantity of
olive oil. Then add 5-6 quarts of quartered fresh tomatoes, a bunch of
flat-leaf parsley, and an eighth cup of finely chopped basil, and a
teaspoon of finely ground rosemary. Simmer with 1/2 bottle of wine for
3 hours, and salt to taste.

Heat your serving plate in the oven. Then layer pasta, sauce, and
grated Parmesan cheese in about 3 or 4 layers for your average
platter. Makes about 4 platters.

For sausage sauce:
Cook 3 packages of nitrite-free hot sausages (Kroger is best), cool
and cut into rounds. Fry chopped mushrooms in olive oil, add diced
sausages and simmer until mushrooms are floppy. Add basic sauce and
simmer. Serve over penne layered as above onto a hot platter.

Yum!"

Thanks again. Next piece of work is transfer to secondary fermentation,

All Done (well, nearly)

Bottling.
We seem to have just about finished what has turned out to be a process that started in January. Yes, all our 2006 wine has been bottled, apart from one barrel of Adamo (Cab franc and Sangiovese).
Last week we bottled and labelled the last of the Trovato (Sangiovese and PinotNoir).

2008 Wines
For 2008, whose grapes will arrive on a few weeks, we're going to be doing largely what we did for 2006 and 2007, but we'll be doing more of some wine and less, or none, of others. It's purely based on where we feel the market is and what type of a range we have.

Other.
a) And those on you on the mailing list, you'll hear about a potential new product that we hope to bring out in the same way that we offer bath and body product from our wine's grapes, seeds and sediment (lees). Those not on the list will have to wait until the news is posted here - just an advantage of getting on that list I guess. Hey, I've got to push it somehow, right?

b), Tasting - At Whole Foods on Sawmill today 12-2pm. See you at the podium, and if you having lunch by the podium, let us recommend one of our wines to go with it.

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

Just a Few Things...

As we creep ever nearer achieving that most excellent event of seeing our wine in its bottle, fully dressed, there are events going on that heighten this excitement and serve to douse it somewhat. In short, we're experiencing a decidedly mixed bag of emotions right now. Its effect is seen in how few the posts to this blog has become.
So this post will be plain and just go through some high and low lights of the past few weeks. It's ameasure of things when we really only have one low, but it is of such fundamental importance, it seems to dominate and negate all else.

Highlight 1 - Soaps and Recycling Grape & Seeds.

This is so cool. Lucia of Zen Tree Soaps found a use for our grape skins and seeds. She makes soaps and all manner of our related products. When she came by to see us transfer from primary fermentation to secondary fermentation she went away with about 3lbs of each grape varietal we had - taken right from the fermentation bins.
Within a week she had returned to show us her Pinot Noir soap. A soap with our pinot noire grapes in it. Paolo has been using this for two weeks now and reports the bar is at the stage where the grape skins are really poking up and so as you soap yourself they act as an exfoliant.

Highlight 2 - Recycling Grape Sediment (Lees).

Still with Lucia, we gave her about a cup of lees from which she is experimenting with a face pack. The lees are a great anti-oxidant and we know from our own experience, that if you smear it on your face, as it dries it really cleanses your skin.

Highlight 3 - Candle lab

Curt of The Candle Lab stores visited. They make custom candles and they run candle making parties. he likes our wines and is looking for a way to introduce them into the business. State laws, such as they are, do not simply allow him to sell our wine, or readily include them as a private event party beverage.

Highlight 4 - Maca's

Michelle (of Mamapalooza fame in prior posts, and partner in StarfFish Clothes), called us from Maca (a Tapas Bar in Powell, no website) . She had got the owner interested in our wines. So we went down with some wine for him to try. This was very nerve-wracking as it turns out that Norm, who was a basketball player for Barcelona (No.15), Spain, was taught how to taste wine by the winemaker of Chateaux Margaux.
Long and short of it was that he liked it, said we were doing the right thing, and that it was amazing that we turned out a nice wine as he thought we had a big handicap other winemakers don't (our shipping of our grapes).
So he wants the wine. And again, State laws being such as they are, this is not as simple as it sounds due to minimum markups etc. But we'll get there.

The Abyss - 1

Our label approval is a grind.

Federal laws being such that they are, means that because our State of Ohio does not touch California, where we get our grapes, means we cannot claim the California appellation. Fine. However, if you want to state the grape varietal on your label, you need the appellation, so we are prevented from stating the varietal on the label. And, without the varietal stated, you cannot put the year.
So, even though , we do get our grape from California, we do use sangiovese etc, and we did produce our wine from the 2006 harvest, we cannot say any of that at all, anywhere.
All we can say is Red Wine, state alcohol content and give the blend or varietal a fanciful name.
We were not allowed to state that we don't sulfite either, or use minimal sulfites, or sulfites below the organic standard.
At one point we were prevented from using "produced" even though we do produce the wine - that got sorted out in our favour - eventually.
We feel penalised. We cannot state what we have done on our label. we cannot state truth. In fact, during one enquiry of the Feds, we were accused of doing something illegitimate because otherwise we wouldn't be querying their rules and trying to find loopholes to get the true information on our label!
How does this serve the public, when we are prevented, through regulation, from stating truthfully on the product's label what is in the bottle so that the consumer can make an informed decision?
Whatever, we'll get there. If anyoen has some helpful industry advice, it would be very welcome.

Columbus C.E.O. Magazine Article
Yeah, we'll talk about this later. Lessons learned in journalism, we guess.

Bursting Wine grapes.

We took delivery of the following grapes from California.
SanGiovese
Pinot Noir
Cabernet Sauvignon
Merlot
Syrah
[here we are with some of our grapes]


These grapes are then transferred to our stainless steel crusher and destemmer. We handle the cases of grapes across roller conveyors and sorting tables, and eventually they end up on a rig that tips them into our crusher.
Sorting. By this we mean we go through each case of grapes to remove all leaves, dried out grapes, green grapes and moldy grapes. This year's grape was very clean, even by our picky standards and although there was more leaf than expected, there were virtually no bad grapes.
[here's Mr.H on sorting duty. Stirling work as always]


Crushing. This is done by our crusher. Actually, it should be called bursting instead, since the rollers through which the grape passes are set such that they burst the grape and do not crush it flat. All we need is for the juice to become loose so that nature can start the fermentation.

Our crusher also has a destemmer which removes the stalks from the must that ends up in our fermentation drums. This year was different in that the usual handful of stalk did not make its way into the fermenter.

[here's Mike at the rig with the stainless steel crusher in the middle. The black sorting bins go in the platform to Mike's left. thius platform is then raised to tip the grape into the crusher. Notice juice and grape in the rig. Mike has his hands in the crusher's hopper - do not try this at home]

Next post will talk about the food we served up.

Labels (again) with more Crush Prep, MamaPalooza #2

Label Update.

We have settled on a front label for the SanGiovese, SanGiovese/Pinot Noir, Syrah and Cabernet Franc. The last corrections went off to Kim today to take care of.

We also got our rear label through. My own initial impressions were good. The four different takes of the rear label that Kim worked up for us will be discussed at tomorrow's winery meeting. Personally speaking, I hope we can have a definitive vote for one of them, in the same way we did for the photo for the rear label. If we do we can then proceed to get the labels reviewed and approved by the FEDs, and then Ohio Liquor Control Board.

Crush Prep.

Last week saw a re-think of the crush equipment set up. We had initially designed and built a chute system, but on further consideration this was actually the right solution to the wrong problem and so one redesign later, we're doing something different ... keep watching for a post and pictures on how this new development shakes out.

MamaPalooza #2

Remember we went to MamaPalooza a while back? Well, we're invited again. Those on the mailing list will get an invite too as we can invite others. There will be a pie competition too - those of you getting invites please look out for invite for website containing the details.

I guess we'll have to take more wine?

Alcohol Levels

Here's the latest on the wine's alcohol content. Now, remember, we don't chaptalise; we don't add sugar to the crushed grape and juice to give us the alcohol we want; we let the wine get on with it.

Of course, it's not THAT easy. There's a fine balance between the timing of the transfer from primary to secondary fermentation so that you a), don't kill fermentation and b), don't let the wine oversteep in its skins. A fine balance that doesn't prejudice the naturally occurring yeast's abilty to eat the sugar that's naturally present and convert it to alcohol.

So, given no sulfiting and no sugar, relying on experience and intuition, this is what our grape gave us:

a) Bordeaux Blend - 11.5% to 12%.

b) SanGiovese - 11%

c) SanGiovese/Pinot Noir - 11%

d) Shiraz - 12.5%

e) Cab franc - 13%

This is the high end, if not the pinnacle, of what you could hope for without artificially adjusting the fermenting wine.

This is wine alcohol levels (let's ignore the Cab Franc) that you can comfortably drink with a meal at lunchtime and return to work sober on. On a hot day, what better than a wine with a cool lunch that won't knock you for six.

The Cab franc. Remember we reported it had kicked up again? Well this is what it was doing; creating an (I would say) impossible 13% for a wine with no artificially added sugar. Go figure. We don't run a laboratory so we'll live with it.

PhotoShoot

This post was meant to be called something really great. Michael came up with it, but I forgot it. So, it's not great.

Anyway, Monday we had a photo shoot. We got together as a group for the photo for the back label of our bottles. It was all ironed white shirts in the heat and unfeasibly delicate glassware.

Michael was on time, and I think I can add, "for once".

From the photos below you'll see our props;

1 - mocked up bottles of Sangiovese/Pinot Noir and Bordeaux (former in Burgundy style bottle with the sloping shoulders, the latter in the other one);

2 - barrels - the barrels here are what contained our private stash of Sangiovese/Pinot Noir and Bordeaux;

3 - dangerous and nerve wrackingly delicate stemware, courtesy of a brave, or foolish (I cannot decide which), Anton. I mean, the life expectancy of glasses in the winery is shorter than that of WW1 pilots and he brings these along. By the way, what's the similarity between the stemware and the flextanks? They're both big! Look at the size of these glasses - they have bowls the size of your head.

Our photos were taken by Peteris Osis. Peteris is Moose Bend Images (peterisosis@gmail.com & http://www.moosebend.com/), specialising in landscape photography and kind enough to help us out.

This is Peteris.

Anyway, this is a potential candidate photo from the shoot which may feature on the rear label. Thanks to Michelle and Brian (of Mamapalooza post) for location.

And this is via Vecchia

(left to right as you view this)

Marty, Paolo, Anton, Michael

(this was slightly enlarged as it pixellated badly on loading - I think that's because Peteris' file is so big blogger couldn't handle the number of pixels at the original loaded size - I hope we don't get pixellation when this is reduced for the rear label)

Of Friends and Fun

(This is Rob P (left) and Marty. When Rob P left for California in 2004, Marty was created to replace him. To avoid them being mistaken for each other Marty was given pinned-back-go-faster-ears and made to wear a cap)
Yet again we find ourselves just having too much fun!
Is such a thing possible!
How do we do it?
Remember a few posts back we asked where in the world was Rob P? Rob P who was meant to turn up for the BDX barrel break? Well turns out we were so happy to learn he was going to visit us from California that we all refused to read his email correctly when he told us that he could make it anytime except the day we planned. Anyway, Rob P showed up yesterday at the winery...and it turned out to be (naturally) one of those late night / early morning affairs.

There was also the added and delightful bonus of Molly. This is not to say Rob P isn't in himself a delight - I mean, we all love a wine critic, right. Molly wasn't quite sure about what we were about but as we toured the winery with her and explained what was happening and what we did, she settled in as it jived with what she had learned from a Discovery Channel programme about true/real winemaking.
Rob P and Molly showed up after we were just about done with winery business. Just as well. Which was:
1. Bottle Labeller.
The bottle labeller arrived. Ok, this probably needs a post of its own with pictures, but this piece of equipment has just got to be the world's most expensive inexpensive-looking product. I mean, it is very well made, with some very nice touches, but even so... If you want to check it out go visit Great Engineering and click on the BenchMATE product for demo and spec sheets. Thanks Greg for getting it to us all the way from Oz at a price cheaper than the US can provide and in a quicker timeframe too.
2. Bottle Filler.
This is on order and due in on 4th June.
3. Labels.
Real good progress here. We're just about to lock off on design format between designer and printer and have our label size worked out. We need to do the back label though.

Other business.
a) Wine tasting.
We tasted the BDX, now in its 13th month in the barrel. In the words of Borat, "You like."
b) Rob P and Molly.
Oh, that was just too much fun. We sampled the BDX, then went back and tried some 2004 and 2005 SanGiovese/PinotNoir.
We handled the Chambourcin with tact.
Needless to say we probably overdid the real wine propaganda, but hey, when you're passionate you can't stop yourself. And we hope Rob P and Molly enjoyed themselves too (guys, we'll send pictures and you can let us know which ones we can publish - Molly, we'd love the video of you naming your barrel and Rob P the one with your stylish headgear).
c) News from the frontLine of Wine Tasting.
After a tremendous campaign of endurance and self discipline in which no quarter was ever given, Mr. H of Westerville, possibly our biggest reader and, together with Mrs. H, the most gracious and generous of hosts, accidentally drank a 2004 Sangiovese/Pinot Noir. Any disappointment he may have felt upon the realisation of such a lapse in self-discipline that allowed the out-flanking of his long term strategy was then successfully countered with the satisfaction that he had drank something quite special and smooth. Well done, Sir!

Paranoia

The paranoia continues...

Just broke out the shrink wrap pvc and sealed each Flextank with it. In effect, each Flextank is now like a big wine bottle, with the shrink wrap pvc being its cap.

But why do this?

Unfamiliarity. That's all. Remember we don't do the chemical risk mitigation against air and so our wine is less tolerant than others and our wine maybe needs that little bit more protection than most from any air that may leak into the Flextanks. The pvc is just another air barrier in addition to the cling-film and the floating lids in and on each Flextank.

Here's the two Flextanks we have with SanGiovese and Pinot Noir. The one on the left has the headspace filled with a bag of CO2 and has a floating skin on the wine.

Technorati Tags:san giovese, pinot, flextank, via vecchia, winery,
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

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]

Technorati Tags:ageing, bordeaux, cabernet, french oak, pinot, san giovese, shiraz, via vecchia, wine barrel, winery
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

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.

Technorati Tags:barrel monkey, wine, via vecchia, flextank, san giovese, pinot, maturation, natural, organic
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Finally! There's light at the end of the tunnel or, should I say, wine at the top of the bung hole?
Yes, flextank got those maturation vessels shipped out to us and Anton and I collected them today.
They look good in the winery - quite a different dynamic goes on looking at them. What do I mean by that? Well, everyone knows about traditional wooden barrels and you all know what they're about, laying on their sides, being barrel-ish. Their size and presence is a known quantity and nothing grabs you. When it comes to these Flextank maturation vessels though, now that's another story.
You see they have Presence. For a start, they're taller than us and wider. So you stare at this big thing and realise it's going to a big thing full of a lot of wine! A big lot of wine, if you like. So, something bigger than you are AND full of wine, stood there just being full of wine. It's full of wine and it's really large. Imagine something you can climb into, being full of wine. Imagine floating in it full of wine. It goes on and on. Far more imposing that the subtle and unassuming wooden barrel on its side that you have dominion over.
Anyway, they arrived so tomorrow we put the San Giovese / Pinot Noir in one and the straight san Giovese in t'other.
Photos tomorrow then. TTFN.