Chardonnay and Foch are in Tank!

Another week gone and in a flash it seems.  I spent the week moving the Chardonnay and Marechal Foch from barrel to tank as well as all the work that goes along with moving wine.  Mostly I spend Tuesday and Wednesday watching wine move through a sight glass, trying to do other jobs in the 9 minute window afforded me and cleaning up after myself.  Barry, our marketing and sales person, bailed me out by draining the rest of the lees and washing the barrels after I emptied them.  The lees are collected in a small tank and allowed to settle for a week or two so that I can recover a little more wine.
Thursday I spent resetting the barrels and burning sulfur wicks inside them to protect the empty barrels until they are cleaned and refilled in October.  I couldn't take a picture of the wick on fire as holding the wick, the match and the camera all at the same time seemed dangerous and possibly a fire hazard.  Though in the interest of sharing the thought crossed my mind including using the camera's timer feature but in the end I decided to keep moving ahead.  Therefore you only get to see the wick before and after.  After burning the wick I put a small dixie cup in the bung hole instead of a bung because I find the sulfur gas tends to degrade the silicon of the bungs and shorten their life span.  Dixie cups are cheaper and work great for this job.
Otherwise I spend the rest of my time getting ready for my trip east next week.  Kentucky and Ohio in the August, just imagine the humidity!  It will be a good refresher for my system. Monday I am at an event put on by our new distributor, Tramonte and Sons, and then three days of ride alongs with reps in Cincinnati, Louisville and Lexington.  Leave me a comment if you have a favorite wine shop you want me to visit.  I must admit that selling wine is not my favorite aspect of being a winemaker, but a necessary one if I want the pleasure of continuing to be able to make more.  Fortunately Mary and Barry save me from having to do this sort of thing very often.  Personally, I think they are better at selling wine than I am anyway. ;-)