Love, Hate, Part II

So I left off with lots of grapes and nowhere to put them.  On Saturday, a very wet, cold and concerned crew processed all the Pinot noir they could until they ran out of  fermentation bins.  Later, that evening, RJ and I went to a charity event and I asked every farming or farming-related contact I knew if they had anything that resembled a fermentation bin.  I got a couple ideas but Sunday morning RJ contacted a nearby winery and they had 3 “old”, and I mean “old” fermentation 1-1/2 ton bins.  Between the sunny weather and the solution to his fermenting grape storage issue, RJ was a new man.  He was smiling, cracking jokes and several feet off the ground.  Alas, this wouldn’t last.  On Monday, he and Shannon were able to finish processing all the Pinot noir, rearrange all the bins and start making wine.  RJ was still flying high.  On Tuesday, they found out one of the old fermentation bins was leaking, so back to the winery where RJ bought them to see if them had more and then to pump the grapes and juice into the “new” old bin.  The stress is back.  Did I mention one of our harvest crew ended up spending two nights in the hospital starting Saturday with an undetermined GI issue.  Wednesday, we pick the whites.  More on that.

Sore Muscles and Tired Mind

I struggle to write a blog update for this weekend.  We worked all weekend at the winery, but it’s tough to report progress.  RJ finished getting the lights up after a trip to Sherwood to get the two missing sets.  I decided to attach a picture, but please do not judge the look from the picture.  The white ceiling overshadows the lights in the picture, but not in real life.  The “boys”, RJ and Henry, worked on clean up.  They managed to fill an entire dump truck full of trash, e.g. building materials, demolished stuff, broken concrete and bricks.  They also burned a significant amount as well.  While they worked for 2 days, it is hard to show progress because it looks like what it’s supposed to.  Joyce worked on the yard.  She got all the bushes pruned and dead-headed and then got what we call the “burm” weeded and bark dusted.  It looks terrific!  I helped with yardwork and the clean-up, but mostly worked on the kitchen cabinets which are going to take forever.  Let me explain the steps.  First, all the doors and drawers have to come off/out.  Then each one has to be thoroughly cleaned to get what I think is 50+ years of grime off.  The cabinets also need to be cleaned and all the various gadgets detached.  All the hardware, nail and thumbtack holes as well as gouges need to be filled in with wood putty.  Each cabinet, door and drawer need to be sanded.  Then the $100 worth of molding (136+ feet) have to be cut and tacked on.  This will add architecture but will not be easy because figuring the inside measures of the molding is hard to do since there is nothing to measure against.  RJ thinks I should do a template, but how do you do a template where every pair is a different size.  Anyway, then everything has to be painted, resanded to distress, and lightly stained.  I have gotten all th doors and drawers cleaned and puttied and have started the sanding.  I have also begun cleaning the cabinets and everywhere I turn, there is another nail, thumbtack or weird plastic device that has to come off leaving more holes to fill.  Here is a before picture.

Today, I got to participate in Kramer Vineyards’ barrel tasting to see the characteristics of each of the 2007 red wines, including our Plum Hill Pinot Noir.  The wines are coming along and I will in all honestly and no bias (ha!) tell you our pinot is tasting quite nice.

Painting and Tasting

Two significant events occurred over the last few days.  We (Joyce, Joyce and me) painted the inside of the tasting room and it looks fantastic.  It was touch and go for awhile with the technique that we we using, but the end result is terrific.  On the fireplace wall, we painted a flat terra cotta that has a little glitter added to give it a granite appearance.  The glitter doesn’t show up much but I love the color.  I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of the terra cotta for accents and furniture in the future.  We painted the ceiling white (after mistaking a 5 gallon bucket of mud for paint (another story).  And then we painted the 3 walls a mustard color with a Tuscan technique.  The first day was a white base coat, easy.  The next day the Tuscan paint is applied with a 4-inch dry brush.  The paint consistency is between cottage cheese and tapioca pudding.  It is tough to get it on thick enough but not too thick so you end of with some different shades of color.  Somehow we got a look that was great.  Joyce H. was too chicken to try it so she did the trim and touch-ups (of which I required many).  Hope the picture does it justice.  We did end in the early evening and take a wine break (picture included).  Funny how the guys always ended an hour before we did.

Second event was our wine tasting.  We had the second round of tasting of our 2006 Pinot Noir, our first release.  We had Sally and Felix, Trudy and Keith, Marilyn and ourselves.  It was a very nice wine.  I have a whole page of descriptors I will use to create a tasting cheat but for now, how does “dark cherry, spicey, medium tannins, goes well with turkey, lamb and veal” sound?  The first picture in this post is our tasting.