Before the Hornets Wake

So, with the mystery grapes from our backyard, the guys began to make a rosé. Early Tuesday morning, Dave and Beau (and a little help from Olivia) got to harvesting our backyard grapes. The hornets have been going crazy over these sweet grapes, many of them sleeping in the dried grapes.

After picking, then sorting and destemming, they manually crushed the grapes and strained them with a nylon straining bag, strong hands and a fine filter in the funnel. This was probably the most grueling day. Ten hours of constant manual labor. The guys decided not to do a cold soak with these grapes, so not too much red color was extracted and there weren't enough red grapes to get a nice pink color, so they added a little of the pinot noir juice.

A day's hard work deserves a little play.  We headed to Les Caves for some happy hour (shrimp hush puppies, pork tostadas, beer pretzel... drool) and a walk around downtown to burn off some calories.

 

The pinot noir grapes are progressing nicely in the primary fermentation stage. As you can see, a rich color is developing and the bubbles signal that fermentation has begun. Once we are past primary fermentation (when most of the sugar has been converted to alcohol), they'll be pressed (not by hand this time but through a press). Then, they'll be placed into several carboys where they will go through secondary fermentation (called malolactic fermentation). Stay tuned!

Harvest Day

Harvest day is a labor intensive day, reaping the bounty of a season's hard work of tending, pruning, and trellising the vineyard. The rain has come and gone and our friend Beau has arrived. The guys headed to Borgo Pass Vineyards early this morning after grabbing some breakfast and 10 lbs of dry ice.

In our opinion, Borgo Pass did a beautiful job of tending the vineyard. Grape clusters are occasionally dropped or thinned throughout the growth cycle to prevent overgrowth and increase the flavor concentration of the grapes. The methods involved in this are an art in and of itself, affecting the outcome of the wine. Without all this attention, I'm sure you'd have a monster of a vineyard... much like our tomato garden.

The guys were assigned two rows on the vineyard by Mark, the vineyard manager, and they went to filling three large buckets of the ripe pinot noir grapes.

 
After the 230 lbs of grapes were picked, they went through the destemmer-crusher to do the obvious - destem and crush - and were collected in a food grade rubber maid brute.

Dave then weighed and added Potassium MetabiSulfite (KMBS), which is an additive to prevent oxidation and microbial growth of wild microorganisms.  Then, he added pectinase which is an enzyme that breaks down pectin to prevent haziness in the wine. Some people say to wait 12 hours after adding the pectinase to add the KMBS, but others choose to add them at the same time to reduce the risk of the juice going bad during those 12 hours. They chose the latter.

After we drove these bad boys home (the buckets, not the guys), we did a cold soak. Adding dry ice drops the temperature of the grapes to stall fermentation from starting and allow a longer time for the crushed grapes to soak and extract more color and flavor from the skins.

Cold soaks are typically within the 55-60 degree Fahrenheit range. After the cold soak (either tomorrow night or Tuesday morning), they'll add a pinot noir specific yeast to begin fermentation.

Here are their supplies for today. Sanitizer, sponges, scale, refractometer, kimwipes, distilled water... The final brix from today's picking was 24. Ideal.

Dave and Beau looked pretty exhausted at this point and in need of a shower, but the cold soak temperature was at 65 degrees. If left at that temperature, wild fermentation would have begun by the natural yeast already present in the grapes. So, they went to get more dry ice. "We don't dictate what we do - the grapes do," they said as they drove away.

We ended the day with a harvest day pot roast courtesy of Ree Drummond and turned in early for the night. Today was just a mini glimpse of what harvest is like at a winery. Two measly rows of grapes. It's mind boggling to think of the attention and manpower required to manage a multi-grape growing vineyard.

Veraison and Engustment

We just got word that the grapes are ripe and ready for picking. It'll be interesting to see what the brix is after the rainfall these last couple of days. It didn't rain too much and Friday was a gorgeous day. Beau is arriving late tonight and the guys are planning on going out Sunday to harvest the grapes. In a commercial winery, once veraison occurs (the change in color of the grape berries), the winemaker keeps a close eye on multiple factors to signal ripeness for picking.

Here's a picture of veraison occuring in our own Oregon backyard somewhere around the end of July. We have two types of grapes that you'll see in this picture. We still haven't figured out what kind of grapes the red ones are but they don't seem to be pinot noir because they don't have prominent seeds. Maybe pinot gris? The white grapes have an incredible floral flavor and have the hints of a riesling.

Brix is one of the factors which signal ripeness (sugar levels), pH is another (level of acidity). The scientific measurements are one side of that decision. The other side is the actual taste of the grape berries or the physiological ripeness. In french they call this engustment. The numbers may be where they need to be but the aroma or flavor may not. The tannins (the flavors that come from the skin and seed that give wine that bitter or astringent texture) need to mature. All these factors can change significantly in a matter of days, so it's important for the winemaker to monitor his or her vineyard daily. Once all the factors line up in place, the winemaker makes the call to harvest the grapes and that's when the fun begins.

Berry Sampling

This harvest, Dave and our good buddy from Temecula, Beau, will be making their first batch of wine from the Willamette Valley, so I thought I'd document their journey. Dave found a local vineyard through a connection at Corvallis Brewing Supply called Borgo Pass Vineyards. We've been waiting to hear when the pinot noir grapes are ready for picking. Ballpark date - we were given the weekend of October 2nd. Once they are at the right brix or measure of ripeness, they should be harvested right away.

As soon as we walked onto the vineyard, Dave tasted the grapes and based on the level of ripeness deduced that they were likely cabernet grapes. Cabernet grapes are usually harvested after pinot noir.

We decided to make this a family activity (really, we just don't have babysitters or family closeby).

But they enjoyed it. 

There goes Dave walking up and down the rows inspecting and tasting.

 

These grapes were much sweeter than the first ones we tried. They're the pinots!

 

"Mom, this is taking a lot longer than I expected. I thought we were just picking grapes."

 

 

 

After some nest making on our first daughter, Olivia's part, and Dave running up and down the rows berry sampling to get an overall picture of their ripeness, we finally have a baggie to sample.   

 

Crushing in a Ziplock... not as glamorous as a grape stomp.

 

Then straining...

 

After some settling, finally he takes a dropper and tests the brix through a device called a refractometer. 

 

After three readings, he got an average of 24 brix. Which is an ideal brix and this means they are ready for harvesting. However, through his experience at his previous job, he knows that the random sampling isn't a true representation of the population. The seeds are still a little too green and crunchy for his liking. So, we wait some more to harvest or pick these grapes. He thinks it may need another few more days but what complicates things is that the weather forecast predicts rain the next two days which will drop the concentration of the grapes. We need to wait until the grapes dry and stabilize again. It'll likely be a week before they can harvest. This is a practice of patience before the cellar work begins.

 

Olivia has waited patiently, so she gets a cup of the young pinot noir wine. Fresh squeezed grape juice.

These grapes are also pinot noir grapes that have been picked by John, a retired crop and soil science professor at OSU, who is planning to make champagne 

(or sparkling wine if you want to be technical). His family is a fifth generation Napa family. You probably didn't know that champagne is made from a combination of red and white grapes (pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay). The grapes were from another lot and their brix was slightly lower, 20. They're not as ripe as the ones Dave sampled. However, pinot noir grapes are picked earlier for champagne due to a need for higher acidity. Dave also met a chemist and his wife who were harvesting grapes for their own wine this fall.

Successful berry sampling trip with no meltdowns, for kiddos and parents. And based off of today's sampling, Beau bought his ticket and is coming this weekend and staying for a week to start the winemaking process. The journey continues...