Big Days

Friday we had what I thought was a pretty big day. We brought in roughly 30 tons of fruit. Half Pinot noir and half Merlot.
Night harvesting is a newer craze. It's great! Picking crews hit the vineyards around 2am and deliver the fruit the wineries throughout the morning so when winery works get in, your fruit is waiting for you. David said it's like Christmas. You go to bed and wake up to fruit ready to be processed. Friday morning, this is what I woke up to...



We started around 8am Friday morning and finished up around 6:30 that evening. Kent had promised us we would all be finished in time to head to "Cheers! St. Helena" that evening and, has he promised, we all made it. Kent and Celia were on pouring duty and Quinn and I were in party mode. Quinn went out on his own, doing what he called "power tasting" and I took my time and strolled through the shops. It was awesome! I have been to St. Helena so many times but have not had the chance to walk through all the shops so this was great. Local wineries were in almost every shop pouring their wines. For a "$35 donation" you could sample some of the finest wines Napa Valley has to offer while shopping at discounted prices. It was a great time and I am so glad I finally got to experience it!

I was able to take the day off on Saturday to get some real "business" taken care of but then it was back to work on Sunday. All the fruit that came in last week needed to be tended to. Some went into these open-top tanks and we have to do punch-downs 3-5 times each day. (I love it though...Kent has a pneumatic punch like I used last year. Love it!!)


The Merlot was put into a larger tank which requires pump-overs. This was the first year I have had to do a pump-over. The first 2 times I just hooked up a hose to the bottom of the tank and sprayed the juice/skins into the top of the tank. Today, however, I used an irrigation fitting that swirled the juice around like a sprinkler for even coverage. Here a video of it.




Tomorrow is the biggest day yet. We are estimating roughly 70 tons of fruit to come in. This is going to be an even bigger day than Friday. We are all heading to bed early tonight so we are well rested for the big day. More to come on that after I survive the long hours.