As Grant mentioned, this past week we finished our lengthy fermentation (the wine went dry) and we racked our wine to new tanks, where it will rest for the next couple of months. We achieved several different goals by doing this: we separated the wine from its lees, we expunged some of the fermentation CO2, we [...]
Archive | October, 2010
When Church and State Collide
With the fermentation complete and racked off the less, I thought I’d expound on something Zach alluded to earlier: winemaking superstitions. He touched on the yeast inoculation, “prepared meticulously to the winemaker’s particular brand of voodoo”. I would have written earlier about this topic, but I didn’t want to jinx our ferment. Like many industries [...]
Life on Pritchard hill
As we are nearing the end of our fermentation period in Clarksburg, most wineries here in Napa are just getting going for the harvest. In addition to my role at Picnic Wine Co., I am working as the Assistant Winemaker for a new winery on Pritchard Hill, a wine-growing area above Lake Hennessey on the [...]
Feeling the heat, of a cold season
While we can sleep at night knowing we have our grapes safely in tank, picked at optimal maturity and fermenting with ease, others in our industry do not share this same luxury. For those not local to California, or for those locals hiding under a rock, the 2010 growing season has been unseasonably cool; two [...]
Down in the valley
I had the opportunity to take a breath and relax for a couple of hours this past weekend when a good friend of mine from Philadelphia passed through the Napa area. I stole away from work in the afternoon and we joined the hordes of tipsy weekend tasters to hit a couple of spots for [...]
We are still alive
The best part about a harvest blog is that you get to recap and write about the multitude of things that occupy your busy day during the most hectic time of the winemaking year. The worst part about a harvest blog is that you are often so busy the last thing you want to do [...]
Our 2011 blue plate Chenin Blanc!
The 2011 blue plate Chenin Blanc from Clarksburg, CA is as beautifully crisp and layered as it is affordable.
Available now at:
blueplatewines.com 
