Harvest Begins: Pinot and Pumpovers

This week our first grapes came in to the vineyard. Pinot Noir is slightly faster to ripen than other varietals and thus the first to be picked with Sauvignon Blanc expected to follow.

When the first grapes came to the crush pad our winemaker Margo Van Staaveren gave a small speech and superstitiously christened the grapes: think native American farm ceremony appealing for a generous Harvest. All of the winemakers and cellar workers gathered around and toasted a CSJ 2007 le Petite Etoile Pinot Noir which was then poured on the new 09 Pinot grapes, Ahem!

I am not sure whether we struck a chord with the wine gods or if it was just a particularly hot day in the hills but an odd number of rattle snakes were found around the winery trying to snag some shade. I encountered a baby rattler and being from the east coast did a double take…first one. We grabbed the snake and let it out into the fields…in reality someone else did as I stood with my jaw slightly agape. I was latter told baby rattlers are a bit more aggressive than adults and can’t control their venom release very well…in other words do not get bit by a baby.

The last week we have been eagerly preparing for the arrival of the new grapes in much the same fashion as one awaits the first day of school. Instead of a summer reading list, crayons, and a lunchpal…we are prepared with hoses, rubber boots, and gamajets. For the majority of the last two weeks we have been feverishly sanitizing away in the cellar. One day I personally hand cleaned 30 tanks…and we are talking 6,000 to 8,000 gallon tanks. For homework, we practice pump-overs, rack-and-backs, ozoning tanks, gassing barrels etc… Needless to say, all the cleaning and sanitizing made us thirsty to work with some real juice.

This harvest I am working mainly on pump-overs and punch downs with the occasional adding of chemicals to the juice. A pump over and punch down are two different processes with essentially the same ending…to cycle the fruit through the juice to extract flavor, color, tannins, etc. Punch downs are typically done in open top tanks with a large hydrolic arm to “punch down” the fruit. Pump over’s are done with air pumps and large hoses. We essentially drain some of the juice from the tank then pump that juice back over the top of the tank and wet the fruit.

This week we started fermentation on the new Pinot using Burgundy yeast. Since fermentation is just begging there is little CO2 emanating and the grapes are still maintaining position toward the bottom of the tank. Thus, pumpovers can get exhausting when shoveling all of the grapes that get pumped out and carrying several a large bucket to the top of the tank to dump back in the juice. Luckily for my arms and legs fermentation usually gets underway within a few days and the CO2 that is released pushes the grapes to the top of the tank.

We oddly have this weekend off...some impromtu tasting runs may lay in my future...