The Tasting Room
In the Vineyard
In late winter and early spring, the vines are pruned and tied to the wires. In the photo on the left,, Andrew Wilber is cutting back Valvin Muscat vines. After pruning, the vine will consist of two canes, with about 10 buds each, which are then tied and wrapped to the wires. We try to get all pruning completed before bud break.
By May the vines are tied to the wires and soon the buds appear and break. At this time we hope there will not be too many frost filled nights as this would be detrimental buds and vines.
The Wine Cellar
The wine cellar is full of stainless steel tanks and wooden barrels. In late winter and early spring, white wines are clarified through "racking," a process of decanting the wine off the dead yeast cells that settle in the bottom of the stainless steel tanks. We do this process at least three times during the winter. Each time, the wine gets clearer and more carbon dioxide from the fermentation will be driven off. Clarification is aided by the fining agents which help speed up the settling of the yeast.
The crew bottling our latest releases -- Row House White, Row House Red, Serendipity and Cabernet Sauvignon. We use a mobile bottling truck for our bottling. Rob Poole (top right) and Liam Wilber (bottom left) are just two members of our crew.
Pressing
Left: Andrew picks up bins full of Riesling grapes with a forklift
Right: Derek rakes the grapes out of the bin into the destemmer and crusher, while Rob makes sure no juice goes astray
The stems and a few leaves come out one side and th grapes go out the other side and are pumped through a hose
into the grape press
Left: The grape press is regulated to how hard the grapes are to be pressed
Right: Derek adds rice hulls to the juice which acts as a press aid
The end result of the press process; juice that will be fermented (left) and pumice that we will compost (right)
At times there are equipment glitches. But, Rob, Derek and
Andrew are right there to fix whatever arises.
Events
