Pickers began at 2:00am and quit just before 10:00am. Crushing crew began at 9:30am pulling leaves damaged fruit and anything else that doesn’t belong there. Images include tractor leaving the field, overall and detail images and one from the Tasting Room where the process can be viewed in total comfort.
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Today the crew was back picking out the rest of our Chardonnay. Because of the heat the previous day they decided to start at 2:00am. This does not show the lighting very clearly but basically a gasoline generator, on a small trailer with tall light standards, is pulled behind the picking bins – the lighting is more than adequate. The beauty of this system is that both the pickers and the winemaker get what they want – working when it is cool and receiving cool grapes.
Pinot Noir is usually before Chardonnay but it is not far behind. After what appears to be an exceptionally warm weekend we will, if Winemaker Bruce McGuire gives the word tomorrow, be picking Pinot Monday.
We pick all our grapes at night starting at between 3am ad 4am and ending between 9am and 10am unless it gets warm earlier, in which case we stop. And the reason is that processing warm grapes and letting them sit for a few hours, damages the grapes. This a photo of the Pinot Noir taken yesterday Friday the 24th.
This is our first picking for the year from our Lafond Vineyards, Hyde and 76 Chardonnay clones. These are on our uppermost and sandiest soil, berries are very small. This is the second harvest from this block, last year the first year of harvest produced very little. The berries are small because of the sandy and infertile soil – and because of this we expect great things from this block.
These photos are from Santa Barbara Winery where we produce all our white wines.
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Click images to enlarge:
Three weeks late but these Sauvignon Blanc grapes look very good. White wine grapes are not stemmed but loaded directly to the press – only the juice is fermented. We use a conveyor to avoid pumping and possibly tearing the stems and skins. The stems serve to channel the juice out of the press.
The whole process is designed to protect the fruit from possibly releasing undesirable flavors. The press itself is a giant bladder that slowly presses the grapes against the press screen.
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Click images to enlarge.
David Lafond testing Pinot Noir. Testing at 23+/- degrees brix, seeds still green.
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