A stretch of perfect weather over the last week and a half basically brought harvest to a halt—the panicky need to pick fruit ahead of detrimental weather models evaporated as warm days and sun blessed the vineyards and the grapes could be left to hang.
We were able to use some of the slightly less than ideally ripe fruit that did come in ahead of the nice weather for a new sparkling wine project that will eventually be bottled as Brut Rosé and Blanc de Noirs—a first ever for the Walnut City label.
Our biggest custom crush label, Zivo, picked about 25 tons of Pinot Noir from their Rocky Hill Vineyard in the last two days, the majority of which was processed today in what I can only describe as a masterpiece of logistics on the part of Michael, our winemaker. 6 different Pinot Noir clones spread out over 65 individual picking bins to be destemmed and processed into 22 one and a quarter ton fermenters. Insane!
Everybody had their role and the day ran like clockwork. I feel like I passed a test. My mildly awkward movements and modest confidence only dogged my first 2 fermenters, but I kept pace and ended strong and ready to take on just about anything this place can throw at me.
The most exciting part of the process was the 4 whole cluster fermenters I got to stomp around in before the remaining fruit when through a total destemming. Whole cluster fermentation is exactly what it sounds like, instead of separating grapes from stems, the clusters are layered intact with dry ice and allowed to ferment with the stems. The result can bold and brassy, fruit-forward and texturally magnificent if done well.
With clean rubber boots, the clusters are gently pressed in layers with dry ice—from what I’ve gathered, the goal is to tread lightly and minimize stem breakage to mitigate stemmy, green tannins and off-putting phenolics. The dry ice lowers the temperature of the grapes so fermentation can be delayed, in what is called a cold soak, while flavor and color is extracted from the skins (among other things more complicated, I imagine).
[Only 1 nugget of dry ice made its way into my boot, but I got that effer out quick!]
[The daunting spread sheet Michael handed me when I arrived this morning with labeling instructions and additions for every fermenter that would pass under the destemmer throughout the day. If required, each fermenter gets 100 pounds of dry ice, layered, and small additions of sulfur dioxide at the correct moments. 3 picking bins per fermenter and numerous Pinot Noir clonal varieties including: 115, 114, 777, 667, Pommard, and Wadenswil.]
[Winemaker Michael Lundeen (left) and Dr. John Zelko, owner of Zivo Wines and the best surgeon/winemaker in Portland.]
I’ll check back soon! Thanks for all the great comments!
-Rob.
You are totally owning this experience! Awesome.
So freakin’ cool!
Love these pix!
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Interesting!!!!! I guess that we can’t do it at home!
I freaking loved reading this!! So excited and happy for you. Glad to hear you got that effer out of your boot, too!
Wow.
wow Rob – I have no idea what your talking about but regardless it sounds AWESOME! Enjoy every second.