I had a good week I must admit. We bottled on Wednesday and it went very well. Maybe one of the best days ever. I am sure it helped that it was a relatively light day as far as cases bottled but the fact that nothing went wrong was great. For some reason that seems to be the rarity rather than the normal. Due in part probably to the fact that we only bottle twice a year and what worked or didn't work for the previous vintage may not hold true for the current one but regardless this time things went well. Neither filter plugged, we didn't break anything on the bottler, the glass was dust free and the corks went in cleanly. I even had an intern helping out which meant I didn't have to be on the line the whole day. Another plus for me. And in case you were wondering we bottled Pinot gris and the Riesling. As I mentioned before we decided to hold off on the Gewürztraminer and the sparkling wine will be a entire day by itself. As far as when for the sparkling wine I am hoping to bottle it in the next two weeks. Next week I am going to open the sample bottles and finger crossed they have fermented to dry, so I will be able to decide how much sugar to add for the ideal amount of bubbles/pressure in the finished wine. Then I'll set up for that. I think I will have to borrow a filler as the bottles will not fit on our machine but more on that when it happens.
As for the rest of the week I attended an interesting lecture in McMinnville on some new products and if any one has $32K laying around there is this beautiful piece of lab equipment that would make my life sooooo easy. The salesman was trying to justify the price to us and how quickly it would pay for itself. I tried not to laugh out loud. I don't think anyone in the room thought they could justify the money in two years like he was trying to show. But it was cool anyway and it would allow me to run some tests that I don't run or have to send out for but that's okay I probably could use a second press more. We also got set up for the Memorial Day Weekend Festivities. The winery and grounds are cleaned up and ready for your arrival. We have some great bands coming in and hopefully the weather will cooperate. The schedule is on our website www.airliewinery.com. I should be out there Sunday afternoon so if you see me feel free to come up and tell me how much you enjoy my blog! ;-) Otherwise have a great weekend and I'll write again next week.
PS I've been meaning to ask. Does anyone have any experience pruning climbing roses? This one has been in the ground just over a year and I'm not sure how much I should shape it or where the best place to prune it might be. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment