Sunday morning we walked into the winery and immediately knew our naturally fermenting Chardonnay was underway! And it smelled fabulous. We do not inoculate our wines. Given this is a new winery space for us we were slightly concerned that we might have trouble getting things going (not knowing how the Brosseau Vineyard yeasts would like our new home). We pressed whole cluster on September 1st and by Thursday the 7th Tracey was pretty sure it was starting. Tim and I could not yet hear it but she is the "Chard Whisperer" and seems to know when those yeasts get going before anyone else. By Sunday morning we were clearly fermenting nice and slow in each of our barrels.

The first harvest and pressing in the new winery went off without a hitch. Isabel (our daughter) even came by to provide some guidance. Here she points out we are allowing too many whole berries to fall through to the press pan). The press ran nice and slow for 7 hours. We took full advantage of the down time and held a harvest kickoff dinner with 25 (or so) of our family and friends because this little winery is truly a labor of love from our friends and family and we couldn't do it without them. We uncorked a magnum of the 2004 Brosseau Vineyard Chardonnay which was really showing off its stuffing. Ahhh, some days are really good!

We'll hold a BBQ for the last harvest which should be our Broken Leg Syrah - drop us a line if you want to join us - likely in very late October.

Jared

# posted by adonkey @ 3:18 AM