On Wednesday, August 5, the Cellar Team will bottle the last batch of Red, White, & Blue® with help from the Tasting Room staff. This will leave all but one tank empty and the cellar ready for harvest! This is the first time that so many of our tanks have been empty as we approach harvest. We’ve actually had bottling runs in all but three weeks since the beginning of 2015.
We’ve already gotten our yeast, nutrients, enzymes, and tannins ordered for the upcoming harvest. To prepare for that task, Jonita, our Cellar Assistant, reviewed her notes to identify what we liked and didn’t like about last year’s fermentations. Our goal is to take care of the yeast throughout the entire fermentation. If we can achieve that, we can eliminate the need for much of the fining we have to do and thereby speed up the wine making process.
The final step is to get all of the floors spic and span. We do a lot of pressure washing of floors and drains. It is the winery equivalent of spring cleaning, however we call it harvest cleaning.
