One Year in the Yakima Valley

Before we get all excited about harvest and crush in September, here is a snapshot of our year in the Yakima Valley, verbiage courtesy of a rediscovered vintage Visitor's Center brochure.

Spring, First Signs 

 

IN THE VINEYARD: Buds begin to swell, budbreak, and the vines begin to show the new season’s green. Cover crop and grasses begin to grow and surrounding orchards bloom.

IN THE CELLAR: Bottling wines for summer wine releases (fresh and fruity white wines, dry roses) and young reds for fall release. Warmer temperatures encourage the red wine barrels to complete their secondary, or “malolactic” fermentation.

Summer, Grow Grow Grow

 

IN THE VINEYARD: Vines flower and their delicate scent perfumes the air. Grape clusters “set” and begin to show this vintage’s crop. Winemakers take advantage of the warm weather to check out the upcoming crop in the vineyard.

Red grapes color up after going through “Veraison” and begin to soften and build grape sugars. Toward the end of the summer, the varietal flavors are apparent and sampling for harvest maturity begins.

Fall, The Action Begins

 

IN THE VINEYARD: Harvest begins! The entire year’s crop will be harvested between September and November. If you’re lucky, you can see some of the activity and share in the excitement of a new vintage.

IN THE CELLAR: Fermentation turns the cellar into its own “aroma-therapy” center. Yeasty, fruity and delicious aromas are everywhere.

 

Winter, Peace & Quiet

IN THE VINEYARD: Frost generally drops the last leaves off the vines, and they descent into dormancy for the winter. The bare vine architecture is in stark contrast to the way they looked in mid-summer with lush, green leaves.

Punching Down

WARNING: Muscles required.

There is a point in the wine-making process, after crush and when fermentation is just beginning, that muscles are required. Not that they aren't required throughout the rest of the year for basically everything that is done around here (lest I am remiss)... but it is during this time that they are put to the test: can you punch down with the professionals?

Since the color and most of the flavor in red wines is derived from the skins, it is important to extract as much as possible from fermentation. The creation of CO2 during fermentation causes the skins to rise, forming a cap. The cap needs to be pushed down and broken up so that the color, flavor and tannins can be extracted by the fermenting juice. The more aggressive you are about breaking up the cap, the more wine will be extracted, dark and tannic. Other than enhancing the flavor and a great upper body workout, here are reasons to punch down:

-      During the early stages of fermentation, it helps introduce oxygen to yeast cells, helping them “kick start” fermentation

-       It helps keep harmful bacteria or mold that could ruin your wine from forming

-      It helps dissipate heat that naturally occurs during fermentation—left alone, the cap can reach high temperatures 

At Two Mountain, like most wineries punching down by hand, we use what looks like a life-size potato-masher to push the cap down, break it, and submerge it again. Here, we punch-down at least twice per day (once in the morning and once before bed). Each bin gets about a week and a half of punchdowns—which, depending on when the bins come in, lasts from two to eight weeks. It is not an easy task! 

If you’ve ever attempted to make a red wine at home, but the finished product lacked color, taste, or astringency, changes are your wine could have benefited from doing punch downs—something to keep in mind. 

 

Sources:
http://wineyakimavalley.org/files/documents/Fast_Facts_and_Terminology.pdf
http://www.grapestompers.com/punch_down_cap.aspx

Crushin'

CRUSH (n.)
1. During harvest season when the grapes are picked then crushed or squeezed for juice.
2. A painful experience, very common among middle schoolers, that involves being obsessed with a member of the opposite sex for any length of time; also, the object of this affection.

Whether you are in winemaking or the throes of unrequited middle school love, crush is upon us. In honor of such an occasion (which on the wine farm happens once annually, and in the alternative scenario ad infinitum) – we thought we’d throw together an index of wine tasting terms applicable to both wine glass and love interest. Read on and share our childlike enthusiasm for imagining our honeyboo boo childs through wine terminology:

SUBTLE (adj.)
Delicate or slightly mysterious, difficult to perceive or understand, subtlety is an art form.
YOUR WINE: Possessing finesse, flavors that are understated rather than full-blown or overt.

AGGRESSIVE (adj.)
Making an all-out effort to succeed, being boldly assertive and confidently self-assured, IN IT TO WIN IT.
YOUR WINE: Harsh or pronounced in taste or texture, usually due to a high level of acid or tannin.

FORWARD (adj.)
Direct, honest, and upfront: usually the way you are not when it comes to crushing.
YOUR WINE: Having bold, easily distinguishable flavors. Matured to the ideal age, having reached its full flavor potential realized. (…but how great does that sound?)

with nice LEGS (n.)
The viscous droplets that form and ease down the sides of the glass when the wine is swirled—indicating fullness. Alternatively, sexy when tanned.

… and avoid those which are NUTTY, MUSTY, BITTER or BLUNT. And don’t come crying to us if you don’t take that advice.

Oops...Have Not Posted in a While

Since our last posting, almost a month ago (my bad), a lot has happened. We have finished harvesting everything for ourselves and only have two tons of late harvest Riesling and Petite Verdot for other wineries to go, pressed off all of the Syrah, Cab Franc, Myer Merlot and Cab, the Cab Franc Rose', Riesling, Viognier and Chardonnay and finished with fermentation, we had a frost scare, I got Swine Flu (I do not really think it was H1N1 but it makes for a better story) in the middle or our busiest week, and we picked the most fruit ever by over double in a single week, we held the first annual Great Grape Stomp and had another great Winemaker for a Day event (pictured above). Living the dream we like to say.

Hopefully all of my whinning makes the tardy posting a little justifiable.

The light is at the end of the tunnel and it is great. We still have 35 tons fermenting but should be done with that by the end of next week. It has been the craziest harvest we have dealt with but fruit quality was outstanding so it is worth it. A full harvest recap to come in the near (sooner than a month) future.

The crew is now winterizing irrigation and equipment, fixing all of things we break during harvest and hold together with duct tape and a prayer and generally taking a deep breath. Matt has been busy monitoring fermentation (50 tons at once is a lot for us) and I have been his cellar rat for the past few days.

There are videos of both the Great Grape Stomp and Winemaker for a Day posted our Facebook page.

More interesting and thoughtful postings to come...

Harvest, Harvest, Harvest

Harvest is moving along. Things are moving remarkably quickly at this point. At this rate we should be done more than two weeks early.

We spent all weekend picking and crushing and after a long Friday night (literally all night) and few technical difficulties we got our new destemming and auger feed equipment dialed in (at least we hope so becasue I have to put in any more 28 hour days I might end up calling immigration on myself for the free ride to Mexico and never come back).

This weekend we picked Syrah and Riesling. On deck for this week is more Syrah, more Riesling, Cab Franc, Merlot and Malbec and maybe even some Cab from a light set hot site. The question of the year is where the hell are we going to put all this fruit? It might be time to clean out the garbage cans and tuperware (is that how you spell that?) and anything else that could possibly hold grapes for fermentation.

Oh yeah, the picture is from sunrise on Saturday morning while STILL crushing.

Harvest Begins (if not perfect)

Yesterday was our first day of harvest. We picked six tons of Chardonnay for ourselves and three tons of Rousanne and three tons of Semillon for other wineries. All in all yesterday went great. However, today was one of those days. Our pick schedule changed 37 times and our new equipment (new to us at least) did not quite work as planned.

The auger feed (which gets the grapes into the destemmer) is a little taller than we would have liked. Matt saved the day with some quick welding and it looks like it should work now (please cross your fingers or knock on wood or whatever else you do for good luck).

We will be picking Syrah and Viognier on Friday and crushing Merlot and Gurty. Sunday is a big pick with Riesling.

There is another video of our first morning on Facebook.

And It Starts...

Harvest is officially upon us. We are picking Chardonnay and Riesling from Copeland and Rousanne, Viognier, the remainder of the Semillion and Syrah from Dineen and have Merlot and Gurty coming from other sites all by Friday. My favorite day of the year is finally here. Harvest!!!

Will keep you posted on how harvest goes as it unfolds. Pictures and videos of harvest to come.