The fruit kept rolling in Friday with a new twist: Viognier from Folin Vineyard in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon. Justin Cox, one of the full-time cellar assistants, slid into his green rubber wet-weather gear and braved the steady rain to retrieve the fruit from the staging area while we set up the sorting line. In contrast to the Syrah, the Viognier would not be de-stemmed but would instead be ushered directly from the sorting line to the press. There were about 8 of us on the sorting line sifting through the whole clusters, removing any leaves or other vegetation and culling out any bunches that didn't meet the strict standards laid out by our Associate Winemaker, Eleni Papadakis. Domaine Serene is a 
gravity flow winery, so in lieu of using pumps to transport grapes we either allow them to flow of their own volition down a slide to a lower level in the winery, or, as was the case Friday's, we forklift the sorted fruit down to the fermentation level and gently tip it into the press.
After we finished sorting the Viognier we moved on to processing more Walla Walla Valley Syrah, Eleni would occasionally pop over with a sample of the Viognier free run juice or of the pressings for us to taste; I think my teeth still ache from the abundance of sugar and acids from those couple sips I took. Sweet, high-toned juice makes for great Viognier and we can’t wait to taste the finished product.
The latest round of Syrah did not present any issues. The fruit came in very clean, so we were able to sort through it and process it at a good clip. As those of us who are relatively new to this cellar grow accustomed to the layout of the harvest deck and fermentation area, we will be able to push forward with less and less lag time and start establishing a consistent rhythm. This week, from one day to the next, I could feel our momentum building and our confidence surging. I'm sure that in a week or two the processes will be so entirely ingrained into our muscle fibers that our hands will be chasing clusters on a sorting table even as we sleep. – Written by Zach Bryant, Harvest Intern. Photos by Megan Jones.
gravity flow winery, so in lieu of using pumps to transport grapes we either allow them to flow of their own volition down a slide to a lower level in the winery, or, as was the case Friday's, we forklift the sorted fruit down to the fermentation level and gently tip it into the press.After we finished sorting the Viognier we moved on to processing more Walla Walla Valley Syrah, Eleni would occasionally pop over with a sample of the Viognier free run juice or of the pressings for us to taste; I think my teeth still ache from the abundance of sugar and acids from those couple sips I took. Sweet, high-toned juice makes for great Viognier and we can’t wait to taste the finished product.
The latest round of Syrah did not present any issues. The fruit came in very clean, so we were able to sort through it and process it at a good clip. As those of us who are relatively new to this cellar grow accustomed to the layout of the harvest deck and fermentation area, we will be able to push forward with less and less lag time and start establishing a consistent rhythm. This week, from one day to the next, I could feel our momentum building and our confidence surging. I'm sure that in a week or two the processes will be so entirely ingrained into our muscle fibers that our hands will be chasing clusters on a sorting table even as we sleep. – Written by Zach Bryant, Harvest Intern. Photos by Megan Jones.
No comments:
Post a Comment