Picking, picking, picking!

Ever since I got back from my two days of visits with Kermit Lynch , it's been a race to get ready for harvest!  Family arriving on various days, made it fun and festive.  We started picking Saturday, September 1st!! Crazy early, but with the strange weather around here this year, the grapes are  ripe! The fruit is beautiful!  Small little berries, very concentrated juice.  There's only one thing that we're looking for as far as a flaw, and that's bunches that are actually starting to shrivel up, due to the drought.  Some vines have started to drop their leaves at the base and the grapes then start the look like raisins.  These bunches we are leaving since the sugars are so concentrated that they're just too sweet!

Last night we bled off some juice for the rosé.  Look at that color, only about 6 hours on the skins!

Tonight as we were loading the destemmer, my soon-to-be brother in law, Billy got creative with the beer cooling!  He made a daisy chain and stuck them in the chiller that we use to cool the wine down.  Mmmm very cold beer after only a few minutes is a very good thing after a long hot day of picking!

More photos and news to come!