Labelling 2007 Adamo & Marty

Wednesday evening we'll be labelling the 2007 adamo - that is a blend of sangiovese and cabernet franc - very unique , very right for spring. treat yourself and order before the country clubs snap 'em up for those outdoor buffets.

where is Marty? Does anyone know? Last seen in Colorado. Last spoken to last week, sometime. Last voicemail and text ignored, last Friday. What's up with that? Hello, Marty? You out here?

Picture of Marty, so we can remember what he looks like.

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.

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.

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?

Been An Age, Hasn't it.

So what happened? too much too tell. Getting to be that time of your again.
So, briefly:
1. We racked the top-up wine in the demijons and also took the opportunity to top up the barrels.
2. We tested the Sangiovese and Trovato blend for free sulfites and adjusted. Paolo again demonstrated great paranoia by wrapping up the tops of the flextank maturation vessels in cling-film and heat shrink-wrap plastic.
3. We measured up the production area as we're shifting where we crush this year and will have a different setup. this resulted in us needing another 10 feet of hose, couple of hose bards, a tri-clamp etc.
4. And we compiled a Wish List.

5. Went to Oregon to see Bob of the labels and Carl of the grapes - more on these two in a later post.

The Wish List.
And who says wishes don't come true?
Anyway, the wish list for Wednesday's consideration is;
a) Racking tube - this is a stainless steel equivalent of our pipe and fishnet stocking filter we used last year to separate wine from seeds and skin when we went from primary to secondary fermentation.
b) Punch down tool - a stainless steel equivalent of your arm, which we use to push down the cap on the wine during primary fermentation.

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.

No Headache Red Wine, Gaston Huet & Mary B

Just in case some of you still don't get what we at Via Vecchia Winery are accomplishing, let me put it in terms of potentially the No.1 complaint of Red Wine, the HeadAche.

Yet again, another red wine lover who dallied from her passion due to the headache, went through two bottles of our wine this weekend (one San Giovese and one Bordeaux blend) and declared that she did not get a headache. That's right, no chemical buzz. It's all terroir with us.

And to put it in terms of one of the superstars of Post-1945 French WineMaking, Gaston Huet of Veuvray, "A well-treated wine is an un-treated wine".

Yes, we make the un-treated and well-treated wine to which he refers.

Now, do yourself a favor, go back and read through this blog, then sign up to get on the list to buy a few cases (or barrels) of this unique wine.

"Nuff said. Lesson over.

Oh yeah, Mary B of Raleigh... it is unfortunate but perhaps unsurprising that you learn of Michael's engagement through the postings of this blog, and for that Michael begs forgiveness (what penenace do you require of him?). We urge you to check in here on a more regular basis so that you do not miss the wedding invite.

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!

Where's The Stuff #2 - Barrel Update

[no pics for the mo' - so here' s something we initially threw in with a file on images we associated with Via Vecchia Winery - it's someone waiting to get into the Galleria Degli Uffizi in Firenze. My nephew Stephen knows all about that because I took him there when he was about 12 years old and I made him queue for about 1 and 1/2 hours and I remember saying, "...because it's the Uffizi and you'll be grateful I made you stand in line to see the stuff inside when you're older." ]

The French Oak barrels are in Chicago. Will they get here tomorrow - Tuesday - ? We've been hit with some cold weather, so any excuse to delay shipment. They closed the schools here today because it was 5F / -15C and poor kiddies couldn't wait for their buses. I don't know, when I was a lad....blither, blather, rant, rave...what the world's coming to!

All I can say is I'm glad I buy the engine oil that's good for up to -20C below otherwise the engine would be very hard to turn over in the morning and probably wouldn't. As it is my gearbox is a bit stiff for the first few miles, so I guess that oil's not as tolerant of the cold.

I actually had ice form on the windows inside the car today despite the heat turned all the way up and on the second highest speed.

Anyway, enough of that. Hopefully we get the French Oak tomorrow and we'll get them into the winery. We'll let them "sit" for a day and then on Wednesday we will blend into them the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. That will probably do, then on Thursday we will do the Shiraz and bag up into storage the excess Cabernet Franc, if we don't bag it up on Wednesday.

The Sangiovese and Pinot Noir will have to wait the arrival of the flextank maturation vessels. Still looking to ship out on Feb 9th (not good, not good).

Technorati Tags:cabernet, pinot, sangiovese, merlot, french oak, flextank, maturation, cold, beauty, uffizi
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

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.

Welcome to ...
Yugoslavia
Slovakia
Brazil
Rep. Of Korea
China
Israel
And more from in the US, Canada and Italy.

Technorati Tags:dante, scali, winery, flextank, french oak, via vecchia, ageing, sangiovese, wine barrel
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

"Finish" and "Taste"

Up and down, up and down. That's how the emotions go when you put something out there for public scrutiny. We have had a very good reception apart from a Chicago tasting of one of Michael's splits. We don't know details as to treatment of the wine before tasting (was it left out for a while and subjected to +70F?) but at least it was all good apart from the finish.
Anyway, and I ask Michael to correct me as I'm sure he'll consult the Encylopeadia of Wine, from my own point of view I understand Finish and Taste to mean the following.
Finish.
There are basically two groups of aromas in wine 1), the direct aroma through the nostrils and 2), the indirect aroma when the wine is in the mouth (retronasal).
Finish refers to the endurance/persistence of the retronasal/type 2) aroma. So, in theory, a Great Wine (or an ordinary wine with a lot of artificial help)continues to reveal aromas and flavors in the mouth after it has been swallowed, lips licked, and a breath taken.
Taste.
The four possible tastes in wine are Salt, Sour, Bitter, Sweet. It cannot be anymore since the human tongue just deals in these four. If you taste Salt, oh dear! I really don't think any wine should naturally taste of salt, but if you're manufacturing wine for the Fast Food Generation, perhaps the addition of salt would help them appreciate it.
Some sweetness, bitterness of astringency from tannins or the "sur lees" method, and some acidity will be present. For my part, and this is extremely subjective, a Great Wine should have all three in barely perceptible amounts, neither one dominating. Therefore I like a mellow, smooth wines and avoid high alcohol wines (12.5% and Up) because they have their acidity artificially increased to cope with the alcohol (and I believe higher acid also leads to higher sulfiting, but need to check that one).
That's enough for now (The Winery Web Site Report continues to influence), but next time see an epistle from Eubulus on the consumption of wine.

winery
wine
wineries
wine tasting
winery web site report