Shipping and Inventory

Stefania is about half way through shipping right now. She sent out about half of the IL and MN orders yesterday as well as some for DC. She still has a few California orders to go and we’re waiting on weather in Arizona. There’s still a lot of work to do though but Stef says she’s on track to get everything out by Thanksgiving.

I did an inventory check yesterday and we’re sold out on 2008 Haut Tubee, 2008 Syrah and that means 2008 combo packs are sold out as well. We have 4 cases of 2008 Pinot Noir left. I’ll hold those Pinot Noir’s for anyone interested in reorders or for any late requests that come in.

I do have some magnums left as well. We offered those to our Futures list but not the general list. There are just a few. I think we have 4 Syrah and 3 Pinot Noir magnums left. I’ll likely put those up here and/or on Facebook as a special offer in the next week or so. If you haven’t added us as a friend yet it’s www.facebook.com/stefaniawine. It’s not a fan page, it’s my personal page. We don’t have a fan or company site, that’s just not our style.

The Three Day Weekend (Part two)

Saturday morning we got to sleep in for a bit and didn’t leave the house until 9 am. First I loaded 20 or so cases into the car then we stopped by the store to pick up some snacks and headed to the winery. It was ‘Pick Up Day’ at the winery and we were hosting an open house from 11-3. Stefania and I got everything set up by 11 am and the 20 cases unloaded.

Our friend Jaye joined us at 11 to help pour and answer questions from everyone. We had a fairly large group come through for us and were busy until weel after 3:00 PM. Having Jaye was a huge help and it let Stef and I talk with more people and even walk a few people through on tours.

We headed home about 4:30. We had planned on going back to the winery on Sunday and putting the Harvest Moon and Haut Tubee into barrel. We sat in the backyard for a bit and I smoked a cigar and Stef smoked some cherry tobacco in her pipe while we had a glass of wine.

The house was in chaos. We hadn’t been able to do laundry in over a week. The office was stacked with mail, the fridge was empty of food except for leftovers and beer botles and there were still dishes out from take out food Friday night. Both of us where full of aches and pains and I made an executive decision: we’d take the next day off.

We slept in and had coffee in bed. Then we headed to the local supermarket and spent $200. It was our first trip to the store in weeks that wasn’t to just pick up something we were out of. With the fridge restocked we headed home. I turned on the football game and started laundry going and Stef cleaned up the kitchen and fridge. I made us turkey club sandwiches for lunch and started a fire in the fireplace.

Even though the day was full of chores it felt so relaxing. We finally had the house back in order and fresh laundry hung up. For dinner we handmade cheese raviolis and a sausage sauce. Stef watched the Simpsons and I was asleep by 9:00 PM. When we woke up Monday morning we both agreed it was the first time we’d really felt rested when waking up in months. I headed off to the day job and Stef spent the day loading up shipments to the East Coast. We’ll tackle the barreling on Wednesday, it was good to have a down day.

The Three Day Weekend (Part one)

Friday I took a PTO day from my day job. I hope it’s my last for awhile, I’m down under 60 hours now of time off. There was rain in the forecast though for Friday night so we knew it was time to bring in the last of our grapes for this year.

I left the house at 7:15 to get cash out from the bank and put gas in the car. I’d need the cash to pay the picking crew for the day. I was also down to a quarter tank of gas and knew I’d put a lot of miles on for the day. It turned out to be 156 miles in all. I was back at home at 7:30 and Millie, Jerry and our small picking crew of three were waiting for me. Stefania was already outside and we loaded up in less than two minutes and where on the road to the Split Rail vineyard.

The trip took just about 70 minutes. We were slowed a little by traffic in Santa Cruz and then by a slow moving truck on the one lane road above Corralitos on the way to the vineyard site. When we arrived Ian Brand had picked about 60 pounds of grapes and his two volunteer pickers had just arrived on site.

Things moved pretty quickly. Our experienced pickers made short work of the vineyard and Stefania and I sorted grapes as they brought them in. It gave me a chance to catch up with Ian some. For the past two months we’ve talked, emailed or texted almost daily, but I don’t think we’ve had a conversation over 5 minutes in length. Both too busy. In all we took about 3/4 of a ton from the vineyard this year. The extra week helped a lot. Ian thought the brix would be 23. I guessed 25. Stef would measure it at 25 later in the day. It was 21.6 just two weeks ago.

It was about a 75 minute drive then to the winery. When we arrived Millie took the picking crew out into the vineyard to start picking the Chaine d’Or Cabernet that could be salvaged. Stefania started doing punchdowns and getting her lab ready to take readings on the incoming fruit. Jerry and I hooked up all the hoses and equipment we’d need to process the fruit, then he and I crushed it all in just under 30 minutes total time.

Stef let me know that the readings on the Harvest Moon showed it was time to press the must. We had wanted to wait to do that and were hoping the brix was still around 4 or 5 so we could wait out through more rain on Sunday. We can’t press in the rain, we don’t have a cover large enough to cover the press. So after a little discussion we decided we’d just muscle through and press that day.

I headed down into the vineyard next to check on the crew and sort what they had picked so far. Our plan was to pick into 30 lb bins and then dump into a 1/2 ton bin I had loaded on the back of the tractor. That way I could sort each bin after it was picked. The crew was moving slowly. They were cutting out bad grapes on clusters with mixed good and bad as we had done with the Chardonnay. I knew we wouldn’t have time for that so I changed them up to just picking good clusters and leaving the rest.

In the end we pulled about 400 pounds of Cabernet out of the vineyard. More than we thought we could save back in August, but still a tiny amount. We processed that fruit and then everyone pitched in to clean up and make the switch over in equipment from crushing to pressing. Bins were cleaned and the pump cleaned and refitted. The hoses were switched out and the used ones cleaned. The crusher was cleaned and the press prepared. It took about 45 minutes to make the change over.

Everyone then pitched in to load the press. We transferred two full bins of Harvest Moon Cabernet. It’s a messy operation and Millie splashed the most juice on herself by far. I was able to kick of the auto-program at 3:30 though and get the press going. At that point I paid two of our helpers and Millie took them back to their car in San Jose. Estella, Jerry’s wife had made us all sandwiches and Stef and I were able to eat ours as the press ran.

Jerry and Gill finished cleaning up from the picks and then they too got to relax for a bit while we let the press cycle through. After about 30 minutes of break time I decided to take on another chore that needed doing. We had built two compost heeps in the lower vineyard with the stems and pressing from earlier lots. Jerry Anderson asked if we could move those as they were in the line of sight of the neighbors backyard, spoiling their view.

The spent pressing were pretty easy to move. I scooped them up with the tractors bucket and spread them down the rows as fertilizer. The stem piles where a little harder, at least for me. I can now add ‘bulldozing’ as a winemaking related skill I have. Turns out there is a significant art to bulldozing, especially on a grade. If you go in too high, or don’t drop the bucket just right, you skim right over the top of the pile. Go in too low and you dig the bucket in and rear up the tractor on its back wheels. Eventually I got it all pushed out of sight though.

I got back up to the crushpad in time to finish up with the press. We left the dry pressings in the press and loaded in the Haut Tubee to be pressed next. I set that on a slightly shorter cycle. I knew we were loosing sunlight and cleaning the press at night is almost impossible. AS it was we did finish after dark which resulted in my most painful injury of the season. I was spreading out the pressings in the vineyard from the Haut Tubee pressing after we finished and it was dark in the vineyard. Even though I had the headlights on on the tractor I never saw the vine that smacked be just below the eye. I had a red welt for a few days.

We finished cleaning up in the dark by flashlight, but were able to return all the harvest equipment back to storage for the winter. Stefania and I left about 7:30 and were back home by 8:15.

Bluefin Restaurant San Jose

I’m promoting local businesses that I’m fond of and since last night was dinner at Bluefin I thought I’d write them up today.

http://www.bluefinsj.com/

I didn’t think they got a very fair write-up by the Metro or was it the Mercury News…I forget who did the review, but the author basically ranted about serving endangered fish and how it was bad for the environment etc etc.

The two sushi chefs at the counter are very personable, the staff is friendly and knowledgeable and the food is supreme. They take extra care in selecting only the best fish flown in directly from Japan and the quality is noticeable. Last night I had something I wouldn’t trust to any other chef no matter what, it was Kobe beef “sushi”; raw beef chopped with sesame oil, soy sauce, over rice and wrapped in nori.

And as a special request, they made me an Uni Shooter (usually with a raw oyster, but I like the sauce with the Uni – sea urchin), very briny and clean.

As an environmentalist, I’m more concerned about the number of plastics that end up in the ocean, not the amount of fishing. Is Bluefin a great restaurant? Yes, I highly recommend it.

Hope to see some of the locals up at the winery on Saturday, we’ll have our OpenHouse 11-3.

Open House This Saturday

Please join us Saturday Nov 6th for our bi-annual open house and Fall Pick up day. We will be pouring samples from our Fall release as well as past vintages and preview barrel samples from upcoming releases.

If you selected ‘pick up’ on your Fall order form your wine will be available for pick up at the winery.

There is a lot going on in the winery right now and we’ll demonstrate punchdowns and show you the active fermentations we have going right now. There will be snacks and the famous open house hot dog cooker may come out if weather permits.

Complete directions are at:

http://www.chainedor.com/directions.html

…….Update……

This was the official invite that I sent out this past weekend. We will have just crushed the Estate Cabernet and Split Rail Syrah the day before the Open House. We should have 5-6 active fermentation bins going and we will do punchdowns on each one.

Here I Am

Stefania has been doing most of the blogging lately but I’m still around. Every time I think I’m going to write a blog the only thing that comes to mind is what particular part of my body is sore at the moment (shoulders and right hamstring right now) and I know that’s just not that interesting to people.

I did take one of our traditional start of day pictures though last week. It was a late start to the day at 8:40 AM, and that was because we knew if we got to the winery before 9:30 it would be in the high 30’s there. It was 45 in our driveway in San Jose. Cold and pain, not compelling blogging I’m afraid.

Things are moving along though. We’ve pressed the Crimson Clover Cabernet and it’s in tank settling before going into barrel. I’m really happy with that wine and think it will be the highlight of 2010. The ‘Franken-Pinot-Stein’ is also in tank, still slowly fermenting. Right now it taste and looks like a Port. We’re not sure what we’ll do with it but we’re hopeful we’ve fixed all the major issues.

We filled a half barrel with Chardonnay. That’s all we have for 2010. We may buy some grapes from the Coastview Vineyard to have more Chardonnay but we’re just not sure right now and have to decide in a couple of days. The Haut Tubee is finishing up in tank and we’ll likely press that on Sunday. There are also two bins of Harvest Moon Cabernet fermenting away right now.

Next week we’ll likely harvest the Split Rail Syrah and salvage what we can of the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. Once everything is in from the vineyard we should have another 3 -4 weeks or so of fermenting, pressing and settling. It looks like we should finish up around December 1st. Another long harvest season for us.

Best Artisan Chocolates? Dolce Bella in SJ!!

I met Audrey Vaggione at an event at the Capital Club downtown SJ a couple of years ago…she is awesome!!

The email invitation I received recently was to announce their Grand Opening this Saturday, October 30th at a new location in San Jose.

The link to her website is here:

http://www.dolcebellachocolates.com/

Go visit and sample her creations, you’ll be hooked.

FrankenWine

It’s almost Halloween so it’s fitting to talk about the FrankensteinWine in tank right now.

Brix came in under 50 (that’s a joke), and the initial sulfur tests came back off the charts. Fun.

So I generally don’t like what Laurie Daniels writes about for the local newspaper in her wine column. But today she actually got it right when she said this is a year that winemakers will need to put all their skills to work. Sure it’s awesome when we don’t have to intervene with the process, but there is always something that needs to be monitored.

This year, we are using all our skills with the FrankenWine (that’s what we started calling it). We’ve added plenty of water hoping to get the sugars balanced, tartaric acid to fix the pH, and copper sulfide to fix the sulfur stink. And let me tell you what, this wine stunk like butt the first two days it was fermenting. We fixed that asap and it’s no longer detectable, but I kept having to reassure guests that no, I didn’t in fact just fart.

As of today, the wine is inside the winery in tank with the heat lamps on to help push it through the last stages of fermentation, we’re at 3.8brix, we should have been at zero by now….we’re trying not to freak out, but we are.

Everything else is going along as normal, the year wasn’t a total loss but it has had some interesting challenges that’s for sure.

“It made a loud popping sound and then….”

The day started at 7:30 a.m., it wasn’t too bitter cold yet, but it was overcast and the clouds were rolling in for the first real rain of the season.

By noon, Paul and I had transferred 2 tons of pinot, bucket by bucket, into the press. We got one short break and then Gerry showed up with the first of two truckloads of cabernet.

The three of us processed that first ton, manually into the crusher. We were about 3/4 done when the guy we sold used barrels to showed up with his truck. No break before loading up a dozen barrels…but wait! Just as Paul was getting ready to pull down the first rack of empties, Big Joe died.

Paul came out from inside and said, did you hear that loud POP? (we didn’t, the press was running) that was Big Joe, it’s dead. So, for the rest of the barrel moving, no forklift…Super.

Gerry, Paul, and I ran relays with the hand truck and hoisted barrels and racks, up and over hoses and around various obstacles.

Next day we had the repair guy come out…his van.


The new batteries in Big Joe…

The deceased batteries…

And then, because I think I figured out how to take video and get it uploaded…a shot of the fog rolling in the other night (a couple days back) as we were wrapping up and leaving for the day.

Shipping Update

I’ve gotten a number of calls and emails about shipping. We did include a note about shipping dates on the back of the order form but I think next time I need to put it on the front where it’s easier to find.

We’re going to start shipping the first week of November. This year we decided to wait until after all the picking was done before shipping. Last year we tried to manage both at the same time and it was too much. Shipping is pretty labor intensive and time consuming but it also takes up a lot of office time. Stef ends up spending a couple hours each day during shipping season answering phone calls and emails and sending out tracking numbers.

We thought it would be better to do that when she’s not having to spend all day out in the vineyard so that’s why we waited to ship. We expect everything will go out by Thanksgiving. We’ll likely start working from East to West so that everyone has wine by the Thanksgiving weekend. If you need yours sooner let us know.