What's on my wine rack...

Here are some new additions to my wine rack. I was intrigued by the Albarino because it is pretty close to my name (Albian). One great myth the wine industry has demolished for me is the idea that "pink" wine is super sweet and something my grandma June drinks. When you find a great dry (meaning not sweet) Rose it can rival almost any red on a nice fall day. This one from Quady North in Jacksonville, Oregon has a peachy character that I love. I absolutely love Eden Vale's Syrah 2003! It tastes like a "big bowl of bing cherries". I had this sweet carbonated wine at a friends house and for a little mix up it was great. The middle wine is from Kriselle cellars in Sams Valley, Oregon. It is called Di'tani (2010). It is a quite nice red blend but it is mostly Cab Franc.

Beautiful.

 The beauty of a winery.

All the hard work pays off! An amazing glass of wine!

Harvest Time - Sorting

On this day of harvest we sorted Chardonnay grapes. This picture illustrates the steps to sorting. The bottom left picture shows the grape being dropped (by forklift) into the funnel to go onto the sorting table. The top right is the grapes coming onto the table to be sorted. The bottom picture is the huge bin of grapes we are going to sort. There can be anywhere from two to four people sorting depending how high the volume is.

Grapes!!

 This is a Merlot grape. Certain grapes have certain shape to them. This cluster has a what is called a "wing". Most grapes very in shape and size. Some grapes are tightly clustered together, others are loose. Distinguishing marks can also be found in the clusters branches and the color of the branches.

I labeled these grapes for the tasting room. I went out to the vineyard and picked them. The idea was given to me by the wine maker herself. It was neat to pair the grape with the actual wine in the tasting room. Wine making is a beautiful art.

Harvest time - Big Equipment

Harvest time means using big equipment. Definitely need forklifts (top left)! The bottom left picture is a sorting table. The grapes get dropped down that funnel looking thing on to the belt. This is where the grapes are thoroughly sorted for all the best grapes. The picture on the right is sorted grapes going into the all powerful crusher to make the juice.

Wine Fun

Harvest Time at the winery is fun but super hard work! This is an idea...
This was a day where we sorted 10 tons of grapes such as Merlot, Malbec and Cab franc. These are Merlot grapes. So the grapes go from the large Tupperware looking containers which have been picked by hand from the vine. Then they make the journey across a sorting table where all the yucky stuff is picked out by hand. By yucky stuff I mean anything from leaves to spiders. Some grapes get de-stemmed such as. Then individual grapes get to be crushed to make the beautiful juice to make wine!