My first couple days as a 'harvest tech' or 'cellar kitten' (rather than intern or cellar rat) have been eventful and full of things to learn. I am submerged into a facet of this industry that I am not yet completely familiar with, and it is very challenging to switch gears from sales and customer service to production and physical labor. This is EXACTLY the kind of raw experience I am looking for and hope it will deepen my appreciation for an industry I am already obsessed with.
For those interested in what goes on behind a small winery's door, please check out what we have been doing to get geared up for the harvest. There is so much preliminary stuff to get done before the main event, and even the small cleaning tasks are vital to creating a quality wine, such as Keever.
Just to make it easy to understand, I will list the things I have done, and then briefly explain them:
-Siphoning wine into smaller containers using tubes, mouth suction, and gravity to transfer juice; siphoning is a method we use to carefully and gently transfer juice from container to container and then it eventually makes it in into a wood barrel that is already full of previous vintage wine (see topping off below). a rule of thumb is the smaller the container the better to eliminate oxygen exposure. we take a small tube (1 in' diameter, like 8ft long), stick one end in the container (we start with large kegs or 6 gallon glass vessels) and stick the other end into a smaller container (like 3 gallon, 1 gallon, or even a 750 ml). We use suction to get the juice flowing and CAREFULLY transfer the wine. it is really easy to spill everywhere so practice is key! note: you use your thumb to stop the wine flow when it gets close to the top, and lets just say ive sprayed myself a couple times already ;)
-Topping off barrels; when a wine is put into a barrel to age, it naturally begins to evaporate, so every once and awhile the barrel needs to be filled up to make up for the newly created space at the top to prevent oxidation of the wine. the same wine that is aging in the barrels is kept on reserve in glass vessels to add to the barrels when needed (see above). taking wine that has been siphoned into a small pitcher and going around to each barrel, taking off the bung (the cap to the barrel), and free pouring the juice into the barrel so that it is filled to the very top. This makes up for evaporation, (also preciously referred to as the "angel's share") and is done every couple weeks to eliminate the oxygen space in the barrel. Some juice overflows, but thats ok! It just adds to the beautiful wine stained barrel.
-Fork Lift training; jump onto forklift, adjust forks up/down/left/right/forward/backward/ lift sh*t and move it around, play "quarter" game and win! drive around using mad Rhonda driving skills with uncanny accuracy.
-Palate Jack training; VERY similar to fork lift training, except these electric machines (or manual ones) are much harder to control. The turns are wide and awkward, but when you stand on the palate jack and press the "Rabbit" button, that baby can really pick up speed! Also another fun, yet slightly um, dangerous toy.
-Remove bats; using water hoses, banging on roof with feet, using argon gas tanks...um yeah, a group effort to get these scary, ugly but intriguing animals OUT of the winery area (at the height of this experience, 22 bats flew out over my head, i almost cried)
-Gather grape samples; using our vineyard block map, we walked to 2 different block sites on our property (we have a small but beautiful 6 acres on site) and gathered samples of Sauv blanc grapes by a"TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM, BACK" method of randomization to collect a sample that gives us a good representation of how the clusters are maturing.
-Lab work; by CAREFULLY using lab equipment we can measure and gauge Brix (sugar), pH and TA (acid) levels of the grape samples gathered to see what stage the grapes are in, whether they are ripe and ready for harvesting or if they need more hang time (note: the jargon used in the lab is slightly confusing to me, and i vow to work on it and understand more in the coming weeks) I should have taken chemistry!
-Cleaning sorting tables, screens, destemmer, elevator and catch bowls: Our receiving system (the place in the winery where the grapes come in, in different size bins) is where the fun really begins. There is a nice line of different steel machines that work in perfect harmony to sort out the good from the bad berries, allows us to pick out non-grape material (like snakes, spiders, rocks, who knows...) , then gently separates the grapes from the stems. After going to ANOTHER line for second inspection, the grapes finally pour down into a tank from the second story to the first like a purple waterfall.
I am leaving ALOT out here, but will talk more later about receiving once we actually get grapes in!!!
So---it is ME, my trusty and seasoned companion Cellar Worker Chris, and Jason Keever the owner's Son right now as the team. Other Keever family members drop in regularly to give tours and help with general maintenance.
The adventure has only JUST begun! Stay tuned.
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