November 7
Harvest is hard work. Maybe that’s why we are always looking for milestones to celebrate. The first “end” of the harvest season is the crushing of the last grapes. But the cellar crew will be the first to remind you that the work is far from over. So the next ending is the last tank to get pressed. But wait, these wines aren’t necessarily done with fermentation. The next ending is when all the wines are dry, i.e., all the sugar is fermented. And the final end of the harvest season is when the last tank completes the malolactic fermentation – the transformation of malic to lactic acid. These last two are what we will celebrate in November, at least for the Merlot. We will also rack the tanks as they complete malolactic and begin to clarify them to get them ready for evaluation and blending.
Our Pinot Noir is kept cool to slow down the malolactic fermentation, so it probably won’t be complete until spring. This method helps stabilize color. Pinot is so changeable that we don’t blend until later in its life, so all the lots need to be maintained separately. We will also pull the 2006 Pinot out of barrel and get it ready for bottling.
November is still quite a busy month for us, but at least we don’t have to live and die with the weather forecast like we do when the grapes are still out on the vines.
~Daniel Baron