Anatomy of a Grape

Anyone geeky enough to get behind this diagram? You can see the difference between first, second, and third press – and why it actually matters – here. (Second and third press typically make the juice more astringent. Some winemakers don’t even press at all, that’s called free run.)

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Wine Thieves and Bung Holes: The Basics of Barrel Tasting

Barrel Tasting weekend is just one week away and pre-barrel weekend starts tomorrow, folks!!!

This post was NOT titled in reference the customers OR tasting room staff who will be part of this glorious weekend, but to some fundamentals shared with us by our cellar hand and resident barrel topper/cleaner/connoisseur, Braden. Read on about barrel basics and the how and why of tasting from them so that you can sound impressive and knowledgeable and not like a bung hole (metaphorically in this case). 

Hoops and staves and wine stains

Barrel Parts:

1.     The barrel itself: made from oak (unless it’s stainless steel, which is a whole different ballgame) that is generally French, American, or Hungarian, and the storehouse of aging wine. In addition to origin, there are different species of oak, treatment techniques, and cooperages that contribute to a wine’s complexity (subtly, but surely). Barrels can be toasted to varying degrees (“vanilla, chocolate and caramel notes with medium to medium plus toast, smokey and bacony flavors with a heavier toast, things like coconut with a lighter toast….” —don’t even get Braden started on this topic.)

2.       Staves: the individual wood pieces of the barrel, bent over a fire

3.       Hoops: the rings of metal that hold the staves together

4.       The (infamous) bung: plugs the only access point to the barrel’s contents

5.       The wine thief: the tool that makes it all possible.

heheh...

Why Do It:

From a functional perspective, we barrel taste when we are considering what to blend with what (which barrels might go well together), to make sure nothing is spoiled or has anything funky going on, to see if we need to top or add SO₂, or if the wine is ready for bottling and later to be sold. There are a lot of reasons that functionally, we must barrel taste regularly.

(BUT) Barrel tasting is an opportunity that not many outside of cellar hands and winemakers get, so the pure uniqueness of the experience is another reason to: for the fun and excitement.

An interesting point Braden made about barrel tasting is this: wine tasted directly from a single barrel is its own unique wine. Once it is ready to bottle, every barrel is mixed together into one large tank, the resulting wine drunk from the bottle being the combined result. What you taste from a barrel is a singularly experienced sampling. Something pretty beautiful there.

Patrick, barrel tasting like a boss.

Now, at least from my perspective, you are an expert. May you barrel taste with the best of them—this and next weekend, April 27^th and 28^th, Chardonnay and Cabernet, all day (hey hey)!

Put it in a Bottle and Cork it.

That’s generally how I feel about bottling. I think it was a wise and eloquent farmer who, with similar sentiments once said, “Git er done.”

The bottling line has teams—A and B. On team A you will find industry veterans with 30+ years of experience (and their wives, with 30+ years of experience by association) and those up to the physical challenge (swift, strong, and with endurance). On the B team you will have unsuspecting volunteers (customers who think “that sounds fun!”) and people prone to spills and attention deficits (me).

There are six jobs on the line. One pulls cases off the palate, two dumps the bottles, three puts the bottles onto the machine to fill, four corks and takes them off, five puts them back into the box, and (if we’re lucky) another puts them back on the palate. Usually it’s One, and usually it’s Curt, because he likes to dance while he works so there (and because he's A team, and one of the 30+ consitutency) he gets to—back and forth to Elvis’ music and especially to the 60s stuff—while everyone else stays put.


Bottling: not a new concept

The sixth job is that of conductor—and that position is only filled by the conductor himself: Matt, Wine Maker, controller of pace, flow, and wine pump pressure (cork refiller, crisis response team, and morale sustainer), all in one. Like John Wayne would, he does it with a coffee in his hand. (Like a badass.)

Bottling is not for the weak or weary. Hundreds of gallons of wine must be pumped into boxes on boxes of wine bottles without breaking the pressure of the pump. This is a marathon of multiple hours of repetitive motion, standing and moving, also repetitively. (Did I repeat myself?) Wear comfortable clothes, tuck your shirt in, tie your hair back, because you don’t need distractions, kinda deal.

Two things make bottling awesome. First, delicious wine that most everyone on that line has in some way put stock into is going to bottle. Second, spending hours six inches from people you work with every day, or see sometimes in the afternoon, or have never met at all, inevitably makes for varied, often curious conversation. The best kind.



Vintage TMW Riesling bottling shot

As I’m writing this, I can’t even recall the gamut of topics we’ve covered—but trust me when I say we’ve hit it all. Last bottling round (2013 Rosé—224 cases thereof) the unrealized dream of a Two Mountain house band was seriously considered (wine barrel percussion feels genius two hours into a bottling run). The greatness of one band over another, the ranking of taco stands (freshness, presentation, variety, discussed in detail), and sometimes wine related things (what distinguishes rosé from blush, or HOW MANY MORE CASES??).

 

Like everything we do around here—grow grapes, make wine, and put it to bottle—we do it seriously, but have a hell of a good time meanwhile. If you are ever around during a bottling opportunity, I encourage you to take up on it—for the company and the test of fortitude, and the bottles of wine the boys usually send you home with. But be weary, because like everyone else, you’ll be starting on the B Team …with me.

Recent Rosé bottlings from Facebook

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Kelly: “I’m writing a post about bottling called ‘Put it in Bottle and Cork it’” [laughs heartily]
Pat: “You always think your jokes are a lot funnier than everyone else does…”

Notes from the Tasting Room: The Cherry Blossoms

This is written from the perspective of our tasting room and Wine Club coordinator Kelly, who moved here last year from a big city and has been fanatical about a tiny place called Zillah and its wine country ever since.

Spring Barrel (oh so soon!) will mark my first full year of living, and growing and learning, in the Yakima Valley. I am coming full circle in my experience of the shift of seasons—the sun, the weather, the food, the plants, the work—that all changes with them and is all so distinct. (Seasons are a novel concept for a Southern Californian…)

Every time of year here is beautiful in its own way. During summer fruit is ripe and juicy from the trees, people are outside and energized and everywhere, and during fall, each leaf is yellow and the sun is no longer unrelenting. During winter the snowy vines and empty irrigation canals have a contrasting calmness that by then is welcome.

But spring, the last of the seasons for me to experience here, is by far my favorite. It feels like nature was secretly planning this explosion of green plants and chirping birds for a few months now (winter, that conspiring season)… because it did explode. Suddenly the sun is brighter and the days are longer, but best of all: the cherry trees are blooming.

The Cherry Blossoms on the Washington D.C. mall are beautiful, but the orchard cherry blossoms here are beautiful in a functional way. After living and working on a farm, where hard work and getting things done are nonnegotiable daily priorities, functionality is beautiful in its own right. Coupled with hundreds of delicate pink blooms, on trees perfectly lined, it’s mesmerizing.

Cherry Blossoms at the winery, no justice done!

At the winery, the people are coming back, more tasting room visitors with every day. Things are warming up and summer is moving in (picnics and porch sitting and river floating and sun roofs, oh my!) and I am counting down to Spring Barrel weekend (April 27 & 28) …so I can do it all again.

See you in the tasting room!

Kelly