Local Wine Co's Blog

Per last week’s post detailing my first harvest may I now present you with day two.

Up at 7am, in the vineyard by 730 the picking (or should I say sorting) had begun.

Sunrise on the way to the vineyard (Davis Family Vineyards 'Soul Patch' vineyard).

I met Guy, his son Cole, buddy Rodney and a group of pickers (there were about 5 of them) down in the Pinot Noir vineyard.

Pinot Noir on the vine.

Guy gave us a quick rundown of what we would be doing for the next few hours (and by few I mean 8). Cole, Rodney and I were instructed to follow the tractor/pickers through the vineyard. As the pickers tossed baskets of grapes into two giant tubs we would sort through the clusters and remove all the raisins and leaves.

The tractor.

Pinot Noir off the vine.

For the next 8 hours we sorted through 12 tons of grape clusters. There were all sorts of bugs crawling through the grapes as we sorted; lady bugs, spiders, ear wigs… good thing I didn’t have any issues with little critters. The sugars from the grapes made everything you touch stick to you. The high temperatures and lack of shade made our job even more of a delight. It was a very hot (the temperature in Guy’s truck read 111 at one point) very sticky, very long afternoon.

Around 330pm we had officially finished picking and sorting.

Next on the agenda, preparing the grapes for the fermentation tank.

We headed to Moshin Vineyards in Healdsburg, CA this is where Guy does all of his fermenting.

Each bin containing one ton of pinot noir grapes would be run down the shaker table, onto a sorting table, into a destemmer, and finally into the fermentation tank.

Shaker and sorting table.

Stems from the destemmer.

Pinot Noir finds its new home in the fermentation tank.

This process took roughly 2 hours to complete… it felt like 30 minutes compared to what we had just accomplished.

Next came the clean-up.

This was probably my least favorite part of the day. Ever single spec of Pinot Noir had to be removed from the shaker and sorting tables, destemmer, hoses, bins… No grape residue could be left behind. When Rodney told me this I thought he was kidding, how were we ever going to get every grape morsel cleared away?

The clean-up.

We left Moshin around 730pm that night exhausted but yet very excited (this 2010 vintage of Pinot Noir was going to be killer).

I don’t think I had really expected to work as hard as I did that day… wine makers are extremely hard, very dedicated workers.

My experience that day will be one that I remember forever.

I (Maureen Grier) recently had the pleasure of working my first harvest.
This is a little taste of my experience …

I arrived in Santa Rosa, CA on September 26th. For the next 3 days I would be participating in harvest at Davis Family Vineyards.

Driving up to the Davis residence I was in awe as I had my first up glance of a vineyard.

along side the driveway

We settled in and enjoyed a nice welcome glass of Davis Family ‘Cuvee Luke’ (a delcious blend of Roussanne, Marsanne , & Viognier).

Shortly after I was on my way with the Davis Family to watch the sunset at River’s End (a restaurant that is perched on a bluff overlooking the mystical Russian River entering the great Pacific Ocean).

We took a pit stop at one of the local state parks, Armstrong Redwoods SNR to see the historic redwood trees. The cool breezes, soft land, and quiet air were absolutely amazing… a true campers delight.

A glass of bubbles in hand… we arrived at River’s end just in time to see the sun setting into the pacific ocean.

Sunset. River's End 9/26/10

The evening ended at one of Guy and Judy’s favorite local spots, ZaZu. I had the pleasure of meeting chef Duskie Estes (competing on this season’s Next Iron Chef) and her husband John Stewart. The fresh prosciutto John plated for us was amazing!

John Stewart, a true pig master

Think happy local ingredients picked at the peak of freshness and prepared to perfection… that’s ZaZu.

… I went to bed that night with a full belly ready and rearing to go in morning.

My alarm was set for 7am… tomorrow, we pick Pinot!