WOT A SLOG! October 4th, 2009

(with apologia to Mr. W. Shakespeare's King Henry V Act II Scene III)

Via Vecchia Crush 2009, Act II, Scene III, The Winery Steps

"This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crush 2009 shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered;

We few, we happy few, we band of vintners;

For he today that stomped and carried the grape to the vat with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in Ohio now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That slogged with us upon Crush Day 2009."

Why the dramatis? Well, although 'tis not unusual for something to go wrong and make life a tad more bothersome, Crush 2009 really did itself proud in the "pain" department and it will go down as the slog to end all wine-making slogs. And as is oft the case with adversity involving people pulling together, it will make for good story-telling and thoise who were not there will wish they were. And that made me think of King Henry V's St. Crispin's Day speech to the troops before he gave the French the trouncing at Agincourt (1415).

So what was so pianful this time around? Well, namely we again pushed production to the limits of our heritage wine making method and it was lucky we know how to do it by hand or forget it. ..

1. Grape turn up 2 days late and still cold - oh no, risk of stuck fermentation, boo-hoo, get the lab-coated man-not for us, we can deal with this with no artificial intervention.

2. Merlot won't go through the hopper to the pump and on to the fermenters;

3. Ditto for Cabernet Franc

4. Ditto for Cabernet Sauvignon

5. Ditto for Pinot Noir

2 through 5 thus involves putting a black bin under the crusher to collect juice and skins, then carrying bin down twelve steps to winery (it's underground for temperature reasons), where the grape is again crushed in the bin before being poured into the fermenter. It meant a completely manual process no tknown since 2004 when we did it all by foot for the last time!

Some perspective - the above procedure was repeated @ 330 times with each bin weighing between 50lbs and 70lbs of juice, skin and seeds.

Just as well the Syrah and Sangiovese behaved and we were able to bypass the above hassle and pump juice

and skins to the fermenters.

A rythm was eventually adopted by Paolo, Marty and Joe working this process in the winery where each would work 2 out of 3 trips, rotating on crushing duty. It developed into hour after hour of a play on the Abbot and Costello "who's on first?" sketch, 'cept this time it was "who's on top and who's on bottom?" The bottom referring to who cam down stairs first and therefore was in position to crush again.

Of course, "top and bottom" can mean other things too, which made for a lot of painful laughter and some concern from those at top of stairs doing the initial crushing.

Anyway, as the speech says, I would kick myself if I hadn't taken part even though it was a slog.

[still to come..

our pre-crush event, honour role of thanks for volunteers, pressing update]

Busy, Busy and Busy

We've been quiet 'cos May was busy. Such a lot of activity around bottling and labelling 2007.

We're now in 3 restaurants in Cleveland,

The Bistro on Lincoln Park

Le Fever's River Grill (Cuyahoga falls)

La Campagna (true old school - no menu, no price list, just foods cooked there and then - oh, no website)

and

Our 3rd Whole Foods

La Campagna is currently batting 5 - for - 5: 5 mixed cases in 5 weeks. They know how to sell wine.

There's no carbon contribution as the deliveries made to the places above share an existing ride to Cleveland.

We also donated wine to 2 charity events - Dine Originals and Women Attorneys Group.

We're invited to do the wine for the Dean's Dinner @ Miami University

And we will be at Oxford Wine and Art Affair.

There's more we're busting to tell - but can not.

PS - Mike H - got the check!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Transfer to secondary fermentation

Over Friday 12 and Saturday 13 we transferred the wine from primary fermentation to secondary fermentation.
Deciding when to do this was mostly driven by the finger method, but had to include some allowance for the must rising and peaking, then falling back into the wine. Whatever.
The transfer is a hard slog. We had a guest staying, Roger, who was here for a spiritual healing event he'd set up, but he soon found himself helping in the winery.

Here's Roger being plied with food and drink, prior to the forced labour.

The transfer is roughly divided into two processes.
1. Free Run
Up until 2 years ago, free run for us meant opening a spigot and letting the wine flow out of the primary fermentation vessel. Now it means what we pump out. With free run we pump the wine from the primary to the secondary fermentation vessel until it's full, then seal it with an airlock of olive oil.
2. Press
After we have got the wine out of the primary, we then take the grapes and seeds (marca/must/cap) and press these out. We collect a lot of wine this way, but it's a bit more silty. This we separate into demijons and use it to manage our barrel losses whilst ageing and also to keep the secondary vessels topped up. The silt will settle out quite effectively without use of chemical or mechanical filtration.

Here's our press. It's all manual. We make it a bit of fun too as you can work the press like a ship's capstan, so obviously we stand around the press and sing sea-shanties as we pull and push the lever on the ratchet. Before the press really "bites" into the grape the ratchet spins quite freely on the central screw, hence the capstan effect. When the press has bit, then one person cranks the lever, end of capstan.

This part of the operation takes a while and is monotonous. Long into the Sat's early hours, Roger listened to us singing sea - shantys. We are pirates, you know.
Sea shanty's are great as you can take it in turns to make up your own verses...you can but imagine.

After the wine is pressed out, you dismantle the press and you get a compacted "cake" of grape and seed - see below.

Another piece of fun was pressing Mike's cap. Here you see a short (and dark) video of him finding his cap.
[video to come - fed up of waiting for yahoo video to process it]
Now we did have some labour saving device this year int he form of that conveyor that you saw us use during the crush itself. Now you see the conveyors on the floor providing a great way to get heavy drums of pressed grapes out of the pressing area and into the area where they're staged to go out of the winery.

Oh, did I mention this was messy?

Next post about how we have collaborated in the community to use our waste grape skins and seeds and how we're going to reuse the silt that settles out of the wine.

Punch Down Tool & Stomping

Recent activity on this blog reveals an interest in Punch Down tools and Stomping Grape by foot. Luckily, Via Vecchia, always authentic, can offer you true grit on both topics. When we say we do it by hand and it's crafted, it is. Where else could you see punch down using your arms or stomping by feet?

1. Truly hand (arm) crafting the wine.

From last year check out this most manual of punch downs where it's literally all elbow-grease.(you may have to scroll down a bit).

2. Evolution.

From this year, see evolution in action as we learn to use a tool, which is a highly specialised stainless steel disk on a stick.

See it in operation as it punches the grape skins and seeds (the "must" or "cap" or "marca") down into the wine, which is becoming less like grape juice with each passing day.

3. Stomp Grape by Foot.

Now for stomping. We always do a bit of this, and here's a photo. Maybe if there's still enough interest we'll do a compilation of foot stomping over the years. And of course, stomping is communal, as demonstrated by N&J below, who are incredibly good sports and were such a lot of help.

Other Matters.

Of other matters, we transferred from primary fermentation vessels to secondary fermentation vessels over friday evening and saturday. More of that in a later post.

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.

We Stomped!

Well, we stomped again!
As our first year's production is still ageing in barrels in the cellar, the second year's grape is crushed. A lot went on that day, so we'll do a little each day or so to take you through it, rather than produce one huge post.
We'll touch on the food we prepared and the trouble we went to in ensuring it was produced with the same care and pride we take in our wines; on the various parts of the process we use; the efficiencies and the inefficiencies we encountered; and, most importantly, the community of people that help us do this.
It is most fitting to therefore start with The Community.
This post is dedicated to those of you who turned up and contributed to a great day.
Thankyou.

(if you are not in this photo, it's very likely you will be in photos of the rest of the day's proceedings - to be posted)

Last of the 2005

Today was, in retrospect, a watershed. It passed almost without significance and yet, it marked an end to making wine outside the "bubble" of the bonded winery status of Via Vecchia Winery. Why? Well, today saw the breaking of the last remaining barrel of our Bordeaux blend (Truove) from 2005 which was not produced under bond. From here on in, any bottling of personal use wine will come from the bonded 2006 barrels.

We leave you with images of that last barrel, a stack of wine cases duly receiving their bottles, and Michael standing proud beside his quarter share.

Well done all.

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?

Crush Prep 2007

2007 grape crush is coming up and it seems that each year we're devising something or other to hopefully make the work easier.

(at left, Marty works on making safe rough edges).

Last year we were solving the issue of primary and secondary fermenters (see here), and having a lot of fun with it too! This year the process of getting hand sorted and cleaned grapes into the crusher is up for experimentation.

So it starts out with plans about a platform onto which the bins containing grapes are placed and then tipped into the crusher, but ends up with a chute system into which grapes are placed and delivered directly to the grape crusher without lifting heavy grape bins.

To compensate for the lack of an aggressive angle, especially on the chute that will run along the sorting table, Marty will make two long chute hoes to assist the grapes on their way downwards.

(at left, end view of lower chute atop grape crusher's hopper).

PLAN B - always has to be a Plan B, is if this doesn't work or it's just too much bother, we will take the crusher outside and revert to the old method of lifting grape bins to the grape crusher's hopper and tipping them in.

(at left, side view of lower chute atop grape crusher)

(below, from left to right, Paolo and Marty grin for the camera, and salute you with old-man Moretti beer).

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.

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.

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.