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…”

2013: A Year of Significant Anniversaries

(and firsts, certainly firsts….)

Well, hey, Washington! You really got us thinking from all of that anniversary talk (the 150^th of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50^th of the March on Washington and the I Have a Dream speech) during yesterday’s Presidential Inauguration.... (If you missed it, it can be summed up pretty entirely here.)

Closer to home are another two anniversaries that we’re heading into 2013 with: the 30^th of the Yakima Valley being recognized as an AVA, a big one for all of us here, and for those of you who were with us for the party in September, the 10^th anniversary of the winery.

Much like the rest of America (cheesy tie-in!) we’re going into 2013 with optimism, enthusiasm, and lots of good energy! We have a few big projects on the horizon, including converting 12 acres of cherry orchard to vineyard, several tasting room updates, and a serious focus on enriching the events that you know and love (Dinner and a Movie, Winemaker for a Day, Rosé Release).

And just because we’re feeling celebratory, here are some other anniversaries we can celebrate all year long. More excuses to drink wine, right?! Here’s to:

The 10^th anniversary of the birth of the iTunes Store, the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Rosa Parks, and the 600^th anniversary of the crowning of Henry V. (Hey, whatever!)

Wink, applaud, toast, and repeat as necessary.

TMW

I find this article on world of booze in the year to come to be rather entertaining (even if written by a Canadian). I specifically like the "family" restaurants with sommeliers. Enjoy!


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/new-year/a-tipplers-predictions-and-wishes-for-2010/article1414507/

P.S. This picture has nothing to do with the link. I just really like it. Thanks Mom for the great picture of the new (relatively) wine.

Vacay BayBay

Christmas was great and we hope yours was as well. It is great to get a little RR over the holiday. Matt is in Wyoming visiting Abbey's Grandma and I am Mexico with Erin (short stick Matt?). Warm and sunny! Went on a taco tour last night having one taco at each of the make shift stands that set up shop in the evenings here in Guadalajara. Lots of fun but the jury is still out as to which stand reigns supreme. We will have to try again tonight.

Have yet to consume any wine since arriving but the Indio and Corona Obscura (dark Corona they NEED to import in the states) are drinking fantastc.

This picture is from the the old entry gate to town of Zapopan (suburb of GDL).

Coopering

We get a lot of questions about how wine barrels are made (coopered in barrel lingo). This is the best video I could find on the process.


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Done at last!!!

Harvest is now officially done (one ton of late harvest Riesling on Saturday hardly counts) now that Matt has all of the 2009s put to barrel. Finally, it is over!!! All in all 2009 was another great year. We skirted the frost and quality was great. I have never seen Matt as pleased with a vintage this early which I think is a good thing. I am excited to see how the 2009s progress and mature over the next couple of years.

We are getting ready to bottle the remainder of the 2007s and 2008 Lemberger and the super secret surprise to be announced in early spring.

The tasting room is closed and all is good on the wine farm. If you are in the area and thirsty we are generally around so swing by. We will gladly pour you a taste despite our official closed sign.

Happy Holidays!!!

I am Impressed

This is really pretty cool. I guess I will no longer have to break off the neck in those "no cork screw present" emergencies that happen from time to time.

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.

Bottling

Today we bottled our 2007 Merlot, Syrah and Reserve Syrah. Tomorrow we will be finishing up the Cab and Cab Franc. Thank god this is all we have to do until December (bottling=a necessary evil) when we have a very small run to do.

It all went very well thanks to our friends from Cultura Winery, http://www.culturawine.com/. It is really nice to have great friends willing lend a helping hand (especially when they make fantastic wine).

We have posted a video of us bottling on our Faceboook page, http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Two-Mountain-Winery/27945791660?ref=ts, if want to see how we roll.

Wine 101 #1-Veraison

As we get lots of questions about grape growing and winemaking we thought from time to time we would would do an eduactional posting centered around what is going on in the winery or vineyard.

That said here is Class #1 in your very own Wine 101 class. Veraison is the topic of the day. We are going through veraison as we speak. What is veraison you ask? Very simply this is when the grapes begin to change color. Veraison is a french word/term for "changing color."

During verasion the grapes stop cellular growth and start the process of ripening (which is good as otherwise would not taste very good). Sugars begin to accumulate in the berries as the flow of water into the berry begins to slow relative to the amount of sugar. The rate at which sugar accumulates is directly related to the amount of canopy the vines have as photosynthesis creates the sugar.

In addition to sugar accumlation the the acids in the berries begin to drop off. There are two main types of acids in grapes, Malic acid and Tartaric acid. The malic acid degredates much quicker at this point and leaves tartaric acid as the perdominate acid in the grapes.

The grapes physically change color through the formation of anthocyanins and xanthophylls. Methoxypyrazines, the herbal green flavor compound, also begin to breakdown as well during veraison.

It is also interesting to note that what exactly triggers veraison is unknown. It is widely thought this process is triggered through hormonal changes or signals the plants send out but the exact reasons are still a mystery.

This picture is of Merlot in veraison last year. I will post some pictures of this year's veraison on Facebook.

A Much Needed Reminder

We had a pallet of wine leave for Japan today and it reminded me, which I need from time to time, that our wines are actually consumed by real people. I sometimes forget our wines are consumed in a context outside of our winery.

It is inspiring to know that roughy 40,000 times a year someone choose our wine to make their dinner with friends, or family, a little more special or to end the occasional 'day from hell.' To be honest, your support not only helps to justify my overwhleiming-love-bordering-on-fetish for Excel spreadsheets but makes those long dusty days on the tractor and seemingly endless cold October nights working the press all worth it.

Plus, without being able to chase the four-wheeler the wine dogs would all be a little more 'healthy' (read fat) than they currently are. I think without the constant attention Gus gets from tasting guests he would have holed up somewhere thinking nobody loves him, painting his nails black, wearing a studded collar and listening to death metal.

Thanks for the inspiration.

It is hot!!! I am not sure what else to say. The wine farm is a little slow with the heat as the crew is going home at 10am to avoid getting cooked. Luckily the winery is a refreshing 65.

We are spending a lot of time right now working on the 'darkside' of the wine business. Finishing budgets for the next fiscal year, working distribution alotments and generally getting caught up on inside jobs (not all bad with heat). We do not expect a big impact on the vines from this heat but are keeping a close eye on everything. A little water does wonders to keep the vines moving and healthy.

If you live in the Seattle area we are doing a tasting at Picnic (Phinney Ridge) tomrrow from 5:30-7:30. More information at http://www.picnicseattle.com/. We will be pouring Riesling and Rose (both of which we are out of in the tasting room) as well as a few reds. Perfects wines for hot day. Hopefully we will see you there.

The New Year

Well, the New Year has arrived. As you can see we have begun to use a different method by which to blog about the winery. The concept is this will help facilitate timlier postings. Time will tell.

Life on the winery is a little slow right now as the tasting room is closed expect for by appointment guests (feel free to make an appointment if you would like to visit this time of year). We spent December cleaning up from harvest, getting ready for the infamous Christmas Gala Extravaganza and generally eating entirely too much. Now that we are back at it we have been both been stuck inside getting all of the really fun year end stuff done.

Matt has been topping the 2008's as the ML tests come back. I do have to say the few lots he has let me taste have been very exciting. 2008 looks to be very good.

While procastinating on doing year financials I have also been putting together vineyard to do lists and planning for the fast approaching spring. The vineyard crew will be back in a month or so to start pruning so it will not be too long before it time to start farming again.

I wish everyone the best in 2009 and look forward to seeing you as the year unfolds.

Until, live well and drink well.