August 22
Today we picked the first blocks of Pinot Noir from our West Pin vineyard. It was very exciting to crush our first grapes at our new facility in Healdsburg. The convenience of location was a plus, since we only had to transport our grapes a few miles. We also tested out a new sorting table, and it was a team effort, with the crew coming over from Twomey Calistoga to help sort and configure the table. The sorting team was composed of our cellar crews as well as interns from both wineries. It was quite an international group with representation from the US, Mexico, Germany, Australia, France, Hungary and Austria. The Pinot Noir juice is cold soaking and is very dark in color and rich in flavor.
Our grape samples indicate that we will continue with Pinot Noir next week and may see some Merlot come in to Calistoga by the end of the week.
~Daniel Baron