Crush 2015!
So I took off Friday from work and left around 9:30AM headed for Denver and the Lodi grapes that awaited me on Saturday. I always take the "back way" and go up a more direct but less traveled road that actually ends up being shorter in the long run. It can be pretty desolate out on the Taos Plateau. Like no cell phone service desolate. In fact it looks like this.......
My chosen route takes me through Antonito, CO which is really not much more than a wide spot in the road and is known for the turn around spot for the "Cumbres and Toltec" Narrow Gauge Railroad that winds through Northern NM and Southern CO.
I was just sorta zoned out listening to some tunes on the iPod when out of the blue I hear what sounds like a jet airplane engine coming out of nowhere this passes me going I would say 120 MPH....
It was a Lamborghini and what the heck he was doing out in the middle of nowhere I will never know, he left me in the dust in like 5 seconds LOL....
Anyways the rest of the drive up was rather uneventful compared to those 15 seconds. The Denver traffic starts in Colorado Springs about 40 miles south if you can believe that. They built a bedroom community about halfway between the two cities called "Castle Rock" that got sorta famous for a PGA golf tournament that uses the crazy modified stabelford scoring system (points). That town has blown up over the last 10 years and before long there will be no distinction between Denver and Colorado Springs, just solid housing, people and of course traffic. There is probably more people in Denver alone than all of New Mexico. Last year I made the mistake of hitting Denver around 4:30PM on a Friday and it took me about an hour sitting in stop and go traffic to get to my hotel which was only about 13 miles away. Much better this year as I left several hours earlier and hit Denver around 3:00PM. Only about 40 mins LOL
So the club that I work with is called the Pinot Garagio Wine Club. They lease the back of an older strip center in Lakewood, CO a suburb of Denver. Truck was to arrive at 9:00AM, I got there about 8:15AM as last year he got there early. The driver arrived about 8:45 and there was probably 50 club members there ready to go. They use a forklift and a pallet jack to get the pallets of grapes off loaded and moved into the winery where they start attacking them immediately.
Of course my order (half pallet) was one of the last ones to be unloaded at the very front of the refer truck. There were about 4 orders that were not billed to the club but individuals like me who take them back home and crush them.
I had several (very nice) club members offer to help me load up my pallet into the back of the Expedition. I left the rear seat at home and brought up a nice big tarp and several nice heavy blankets to cover the grapes for the 325 mile trip home. The "truck" as I call it also has a rear AC system with lots of vents and it blows cold.
We started filling the rear of the truck with the middle seat up and I thought that my order (24 lugs) should fit nicely in the back but all of a sudden it was full and there was more lugs left to load on it. OK plan "B", fold the front seat down flat and start stacking in front. Well the lugs kept coming and filled up the rest of the front area, we lowered the height down a bit to keep things from toppling over and I just went wow to myself that took more room than I thought it would.
I covered up the grapes with the rest of the tarp and then topped it all with blankets. Got the load secured so it would not move in case I had to stop quickly with some tie downs and said thank you to the guys and waved goodbye.
My route takes me over La Vita pass so there is a steep long climb up to ~9500ft EL and the truck (which has 103K mikes on it) chugged on up it but sure seemed to downshift more than it did last year.
I pulled into the house around 3:30PM on Saturday and SWMBO and I started to unload the lugs one by one onto the driveway which faces North and is shaded that time of day and cool. As we pulled them out I stacked them by varietal and started looking at the stacks and counting them and only then did I have the sinking feeling of oh........sh!t......... I have too many lugs of Cab Sauv, too many lugs of Zinfandel, too many lugs of Petit Sirah.....
The club members had accidentally grabbed the order on a small pallet next to mine as well and just kept loading them onto my truck! No wonder I ran out of room, no wonder the truck was straining going up the pass.....
I had 6 extra lugs or 216 more pounds. My heart sank as I was just sick at what happened and how whomever must be feeling and wondering where the heck his grapes were. I immediately called the Vineyard owner and started in with my story and apologizing and asking what we could do when he laughed and said "So you got them!" He said "I put those on at the last minute for my son and he called this morning and said he just was not going to have time to mess with them". I started to breath a sigh of relief when he also said he was just going to give them to the club for free but I could have them just as well, he just didn't want them to go to waste. I told him fear not, I will turn those grapes into wine. I asked him if I could pay him for them and he said no, send me a few bottles someday so I can see how they turned out. I thanked him and told him I would.
So I ended up with a total of 1080lbs of grapes or 30 lugs instead of my usual 24. My order was for 9 lugs of Cab Sauv, 6 lugs of Zin, 3 lugs of Syrah, 3 lugs of Petit Syrah, and 3 lugs of Grenache. The 6 free lugs were 3 Lugs of Zin, 2 lugs of Cab Sauv and 1 lug of Petit Syrah.
Luckily I did have 2 extra 20G rectangular Brutes that I use for crushing into. I ended up putting 3 lugs into each of my 8 20G Brutes and then 3 lugs of Zin into one of the rectangular Brutes and then combining the last 3 lugs into the last Brute.
Luckily I also had extra yeast and nutrients. I can't just get in the car and drive to a LHBS, they don't sell much wine stuff and the only yeast would be EC1118 for sure.
It took SWMBO (and I), 4 hours from setup to cleanup and put away to crush the almost 1100lbs of grapes with the treadmill motor crusher but again it worked like a charm and ground it out in no time flat. it really is nice to have all the right equipment. So glad to have the crusher stand as well. I even had enough empty carboys to handle it all. May have to buy some gallon jugs for the extra gallon I always seem to have on each primary.
So here are the pics! I had to move things into the garage as the winery just would not hold 10 primaries. Its also warmer in there as the winery is held at 65 for all the finished wine. I guess this officially makes me a bonafied "Garagista"! LOL
I worked on chemistry all day yesterday. Was too tired to pitch the yeast until this morning. Got all yeast rehydrated and bubbling away as of tonight.
Even I am thinking thats a lot of juice!
:> 
Glad you are able to accommodate your unintentional bonus haul!
They break down and fold completely flat. I was going to recycle them but I think I will hold on to them. Perhaps I will use them for harvesting my own fruit here at the house (like 5-6 of them LOL) or perhaps I can use them next year for a quick dump from one lug into another doing a reverse flip or something. IDK. Too nice to just toss though!
