this year, the weather has been pretty hot and dry - great for wine country but not so great for fruit and vegetable farmers. i'm pretty excited about this year's vintage because everything i've heard from the vineyard managers has been positive. the fruit got lots of sunshine and with little last weekend, i spent the weekend in prince edward county doing some work with two vineyards: norman hardie vineyard & winery and black prince winery.
on saturday, i woke up bright and early to make the three hour drive out to norman hardie. those of you who know me, know i'm not a morning person. for me to get up at the crack of dawn on a saturday?! i did it anyway and it was a great drive. norm greeted me and told me that the crew was over at casa dea winery's vineyard to pick chardonnay. i had brought along a pair of garden snips and gloves so i spent a good 5 hrs snipping off bunches of chardonnay with 20 other volunteers.
the last time i was at norm hardie's, i was "attacked" by mosquitoes and it left me almost scarred for several months. this time, i dressed appropriately and was covered from head to toe. although there weren't any mosquitoes, there were some bees around. as long as i left the bees alone, they didn't bother me. that was another weird thing that i noticed. i'm usually squeamish when it comes to bugs and when i was picking grapes, there were bugs all around and it didn't bother me at all. i was so focused on what i was doing and enjoying the moment. i really did think about the bugs and creepy crawly things. i guess when you love what you do, you're willing to face the bad stuff.
picking all morning and afternoon, the crew at the winery rewarded the volunteers with a big feast. there was a whole hog roast, wood oven pizza, and lots of veggies to keep things healthy. :) oh .. and the wine was flowing. it was unlimited chardonnay and pinot noir. and norm makes a killer pinot noir.
since i went alone, a few folks invited me to join their table. greg, patti, janet, and gary were kind enough to have me join them for the late lunch. they were very interested in my wine background and we got to know each other very well. by the end of the meal, greg and patti told me how proud they were of me and my pursuit of my wine knowledge. they even gave me their contact info should i ever need a place to stay in Kingston.
the next morning, i opted to head to black prince winery for some hands-on winemaking duty with geoff webb. i started off with a bit of vineyard work - picking grapes with a couple of other students. after being at norm's vineyard, i could see why norm's wines are priced appropriately. the vineyards at norm's was very well maintained. the canopy was trimmed nicely and there was less fruit on the vines. don't think that this is a bad thing. in fact, it's better to have less fruit on the vines because if there are too many bunches on the vine, the nutrients are distributed among the many bunches .. leaving you with many "average" bunches. whereas if you had fewer bunches on the vine, those grapes would not have to compete with other bunches for nutrients and as a result, you get better quality fruit.
at black prince winery, the canopy was out of control and the vines were full of fruit. it took forever to pick the grapes from one row. in fact, 3 vines would have filled a large bucket. the bees in the area were also more active. there were lots of bees.
the interesting thing about the black prince operation is how they keep the birds away. at norm's, there's a cannon that goes off every hour. the cannon sounds like a double barrel shotgun and it would fire every hour or so. the noise is supposed to scare off birds looking to eat grapes. black prince winery is closer to town so having a cannon go off every hour isn't the best solution for their location. geoff had a solar powered sound system installed and every so often, you would hear the sound of birds in distress. this signals to other birds that trouble is near and this scares the birds away. pretty neat.
after a bit of picking, i got back to the crush pad and watched the winemaker drain the free run juice from a tank of merlot. the smell was like heaven. so sweet. he took a sample from the free run and asked me to analyze the juice. it smelled like iced tea. when i took a sip, it tasted nothing like grape juice from my childhood. this was better than Welch's. :) the plan is to use the free run merlot juice for a rose.
for the rest of the afternoon, i got to help the team crush and destem the merlot batch. meta bi-sulphite was added periodically to prevent the juice from fermenting prematurely and to keep the freshness during cold soaking. the pulp resulting from the destemming process was like sludge. i don't know how you'll get juice from that.
around 3 pm, i had to call it a day. the process wasn't over yet but i had to keep in mind that my drive home was going to be a 3 hr journey. before i left, the assistant winemaker collected a number of bottles of wine for me to take home. i got a bottle of cabernet franc rose, pinot gris, riesling, and their signature cabernet franc. hmm .. will work for wine? :) it was a nice gesture and i hope to go back and do some more work with them later this year.
my journey to gain knowledge in winemaking has allowed me to connect with some very interesting people. i've also been on some great adventures. one day, i'll have some great stories to tell my nieces and nephews.
this weekend will be another new adventure - the army run. my first 5km run. i won't be doing it alone though. my girl friends will be joining me for the early morning run. wish me luck .. :)
cheers,
pudgy
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