Main Course

" Looks like on the agenda today we have...Pumpovers. Pumpovers. Pumpovers. A Screen and Tub. Sprinkler. Firehose. Sanitize. Rinse. Water push. Fermentation Monitoring. Check heater. Check glycol. Surprise juice shower!!!"

That is the daily production jargon and string of tasks invading my life, 7 days a week. We are now in the thick of production, after harvesting our entire estate plus our outsourced vineyards within a couple of action-packed days. Every morning, a new block of fruit came in with a whole new personality, look and feel. Some grapes were beautiful, round, firm skinned, juicy, perfection. Other grapes were shriveled, pebble-like, disfigured, rotten, nibbled on, gross. I touched them all. I got to stand on the front lines, the first position on the sorting table, so I really did get to see every grape come in, grab them, roll them around and discerningly decide if the clusters were good enough. Judgment day for grapes. The cabernet going into the Corra cab was perfection, along with our Syrah from the Page Nord vineyard.

There was so much variation from block to block, row to row, and even picker to picker. Chris said that since hired grape pickers are paid by the ton, the sneaky ones don't care if they put in the occasional rock, handful of leaves, or dry stems just to increase the weight!!! How rude.


During grape sorting, we found a small golf-size pencil, some green vineyard tape, and a precious little blue bellied lizard who was head down in a cluster of cabernet (not a bad place to be really, UNLESS he was not spotted and thrown into the destemmer!)

This is the main course of this experience for me, the apex, the climax, the sha-bang, the pulp. I am exhausted and look pretty gnarly with my matted wet hair slopped back into a pony tail or uneven braids, grey stained skin, and a half-awake smile. BUT, this is the way life is right now, and the wine that is going to emerge after this is over is more than worth my bitching.

Cheers,