We’re neck deep in grapes right now - in the hosue are: 12 tons of Soucie Zinfandel, 3 tons of Cabernet Sauv from ElDo County, 5 tons of Syrah from Lani’s Vineyard, four barrels of Viognier, and 700 liters of Viognier headed for a sweet, dessert kinda wine. Also, 1.5 tons of Grenache destined for a red blending component, and 75 gallons of Grenace juice destined for a rose’.
Still to come are Cab from Napa, Petite Sirah from Clarksburg, Mourvedre from Amador and Zin from Maley Vineyard in Lodi.
I’m attempting to get the ‘07 Zinlady into the bottle as well at the end of the month, in time for release during the First Sip weekend November 8 and 9.
Overall quality of fruit this year is really nice, vineyard yields are really low.
Our forklift went belly-up late Saturday night, fortunately it quit at the most opportune time of the day. We had just finished up crushing Cab and Grenache and had moved the last forklift load into place and were cleaning up when it stopped. A bad diode is responsible, it’ll be fixed Tuesday and we’ve got a rental as a substitute til then. A real bad luck/good luck situation. Could’ve been worse and caused real trouble.
We’re nearly sold out of our 2006 Soucie Zinfandel. Just 28 cases left and available to the public. The 2007 Soucie Zin, still in barrel in the cellar, really has improved dramatically in the past month. We’ll be previewing it during First Sip as well, and probably offering a futures/purchase opportunity.
More later, off to kick off fermentation on the Cabernet.