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.

Photos at last!

A few photos for you. There's been a dirth of images lately, so here's some to make up for it.
And just because we don't grow the grape, doesn't mean there isn't more labour involved with our heritage process and there isn't left craft. Thankyou.

But first, our 2007 grapes are still making soap. Latest batch for sale arrived. Contact us for purchase. Thanks

Pump Out Free Run.

Well, Strictly speaking, free run should come out under its own steam...but that's modern day corruption for you. We still have primary fermenters (the blue drums) with taps on to let it out, from the days everything was done by foot (excluding this year's foot stomping of the merlot), but we pump it out now.

Press Out the Second Wine.

The wine that's pressed out of the skins and seeds after the free run has been taken is traditionally used as a second-grade wine to drink pending your first drinkable wine in the New Year. I don't think any winery does that any more as it's all money. We use this to top up the headspace in the ageing barrels during ageing - any left goes into its own barrels when the vintage is totally bottled and we keep tasting it until we decide what to do with it.

Second Wine Storage

The second wine is storage in demijons. Since the 2008 merlot had to pressed by foot, we thought it appropriate to store and manage it in one of the original old boys from Tuscany - who's pushing 120 years old by now. Look at him go!
By the way, the wine is sealed with virgin olive oil. It floats on the wine and doesn't let air in whilst letting fermentation gasses out. See if you can find a photo of the tool used to extract the olive oil in an earlier posting.

Secondary fermentation Underway.

Free run wine now in secondary fermentation in these blue drums. See some of 2007 wines ageing in french oak barrels in background.

2007 Grapes are in Soap Again.

Here they are. Order some - order them all!

Now for Some Fun.

There are many items of very specialised and costly equipment in the winery, that only trained personnel can use - only kidding, just common sense and a lack of fear is all you need. There are also good luck charms in operation too - winemaking t-shirts are worn, luni-head necklaces are worn, and so on. However this year it was like super-hero-dom in the winery with special appearances of that dynamic duo Mermaid Man and Apron Boy, with dandy yellow gloves of imperviousness and apron of skirtness.

First time yellow gloves have turned up , 'cos it's obvious what would be said, but the apron's been around since the beginning - see if you can count how many pictures through this blog it appears in (hours of fun).
Unfortunately we cannot divulge the identities of Mermaid Man and Apron Boy.

Tasting at House Wine, Worthington

"Thursday Night Tastings at House Wine

6-8:30pm, no reservations, taste at your own pace, $15/person

October 23rd - Via Vecchia of Powell, OH"

We're on again, this time at House Wine in Worthington.

We'll also be taking along grape samples, so you can truly experience the grape.