2009 Reds are in Bottle!
Wednesday | 25 August 2010
Shhhh…. can you hear the sigh of relief? The 2009 Syrah and Grenache were bottled this week. No question, farming is a 52 week per year job. In the winery, the job begins at crush. To make wine at Cowhorn requires patience and vigilance from September to bottling the following August. For Bill, who leads us in the process, he is constantly on watch. He is alert for potential problems, and he is always planning ahead for the next task, whether it is fermentation chores, racking, filtering or ultimately bottling. Yes, it is a sigh of relief. One that will last 3 weeks until we begin the process all over again!
– Barbara Steele
– Barbara Steele
Post Crush Blues and the Vertical Horizontal
Tuesday | 27 October 2009
Today we finished pressing and barreling our 2009 reds, the Block 5 syrah and the Grenache. I am so happy that the grapes are through primary fermentation and are safely into barrels! No more daily punch downs, daily floor washing, no more purple hands. But once again I find myself feeling that today was bittersweet. I am already waxing poetic about the season which is now over. Are we already done with harvest and crush? Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were lamenting the spring frost? That we were analyzing budbreak, weather, and irrigation data? Perhaps it was the rainy fall skies that made me pause today.Tonight we are hosting a vertical, horizontal tasting. With Bill’s brother Mark, we will be sampling the 2006 Syrah and the 2007 Syrah – vertical. As well, we will be comparing our 2009 acorn squash to the 2009 delicata - horizontal. Food or wine, it’s all about the mouthfeel, taste, finish… Yes, fall is my favorite time of year - a rich season in many ways.
– Barbara Steele
