Harvest is over

It is a long time since I posted a blog but in the future Autumn and I will post blogs so they should come twice as often at least.

Harvest started with the picking of Sauvignon Blanc in late August. It was not ready when the owner called. After we destemmed it we pressed and then cleaned all equipment. After cleaning the destemmer we tested it and it was frozen. No go. Stopped. The next day I took it to Santa Rosa to be fixed. About a week later the repaair facility said they would deliver it. OK so I waited, waited, waited and then called the shop. They had delivered it to the wrong winery. What a pain. If I had a flatbed truck or trailer it would have been easy to get load it and bring it here. It was difficult to get it in the pickup and just as difficult to get it out. I managed, turned it on. It worked. The next morning we started harvest at Sierra Vista.

It was a great harvest with some big, full bodied, reds with alcohols less than 14% which is what we aim for. And of course our whites will be concentrated also because we dry farmed the whole vineyard except 1 watering to the Roussanne.

More tomorrow,

John