Hill House Vineyard

[rrawhide]

And, through it all look what happened last night:

momma and all doing fine - just tired - she has 5 puppies - 4 yellow labs and 1 black lab. 2 were still born - 1 of each color. But, 5 is a wonderful number.


Now, Ruth Ann goes in for knee replacement tomorrow so picking will slow down - probably a few hours on Wed and then on the weekend. Oh well, brix will get up there!!!!


later


rrawhide

 

[ibglowin]

Awwww......

Going to keep one for Raccoon patrol?

 

[Runningwolf]

Very cool. Sorry to hear about the loss of two of them though. Our thoughts go out to your wife tomorrow. No need to slow thingds down though. Can't you gat her a John deere Gator with a dump. Heck she could turn out to be one hell of a picker. Build a big enough ramp she can back up on and she'll be able to dump them right in the hopper of the crusher.

 

[Waldo]

Looking mighty good buddy !!!

 

[Wade E]

Dont let Runningwolf anywhere near these cuties!

 

[rrawhide]

RW - we lost the black puppy - did you eat it?
hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? No, just did not awake in the am. sad.


Picked again today - we are now up to 2800#. Have 5 more varieties to go - Nebbiolo, Barbera, Negrara; Charbono and Forestera (white). We are not picking the emerald riesling or french colombard. (gotta be 42 vines of this stuff). Figure we will have 2.5 - 3 tons when we are done. We are doing selective picking so not taking everything. Lost the muscat, semmion, lots of the colombard, ruby cab and carmine to the critters, some birds, and bees but this is ok since there is so so so much. The remaining brix is in the 16-19 range, and it is cooling down, so figure early to mid- october for these. Might, just might, look at the riesling then and pick 10-20 gallons and try a late harvest if they are still there.


here are a couple pictures of what's up

cold stabilized the peveralla for 48 hours since i was too tired to process.

 

[rrawhide]

Mark and Steve crushing

picked 23 tubs today - Steve's daughter Amy

mystery grapes and petite syrah

found a rkatsitelli vine just loaded that we missed - tub weighs 60#'s

we have the press mounted on 2 steel sawhorses and this allows us to press right into the 59 gallon secondaries. roll up on pallet and move where we want it.

 

[rrawhide]

fermentation over and on the skins for 6 days - wow, what color!!!

the puppies daddy, Hank,came to spend the night and Daisy started barking like crazy. Thought it was because of Hank but look what we found in the center kennel.

Rattler!!!! 3 1/2 feet long with 8 rattles and a button!!! could have done some severe damage!!!!!!!

Ruth Ann doing well - walking around with walker and getting better every day.


more later


rrawhide

 

[AlFulchino]

lookin good!

glad we dont have rattlers up here

 

[grapeman]

You guys had a busy and productive day there. You guys are going to be swimming in wine!

 

[Runningwolf]

Rick, OMG snakes are the one thing that I do not like regardless of the good they do. I'm glad the closest rattlers around here are about 50 miles away. Sorry about the loss of your dog (I didn't do it LOL). Pictures are great and glad the harvest is going well and your wife is doing ok.

 

[ibglowin]

Wow, looking great Rick! So glad things are sorta spread out and not ripening all in one weeks time, gives you time to get things taken care of, including Ruth Ann!

So did you skin that bad boy and fry him up? Thats some mighty good eating!

Not sure what wine to pair it with!

 

[Wade E]

All I can say is Wow and Wow! Some great like all them grapes, the wife doing better, and the pics and some not so great like the loss of a puppy and the Rattler right in there!

 

[rrawhide]

Forgot to show how we transfer wine from the primaries to the secondaries. This particular transfer is the Rkatsitelli from the breezeway to the cool room. Used my 110 pump with 1/2" food grade hose and moved it about 25 feet to the secondary. Secondary is on a heavy duty moveable base so we can move into cool room.

over the barrels and through the woods to blue barrel house we go . . . . .

and filled completely

 

[AlFulchino]

looking great

 

[Runningwolf]

Rick, Isn't that also the same pump you use for your bottle washer? Pretty cool!

 

[rrawhide]

Yes it is!!!! I only use it for sanitizing and transfering.


rick

 

[Runningwolf]

Santa is always fooling for something to get me for xmas. Thinking about the bottles washer you're using.

 

[rrawhide]

That pump and different lengths of 1/2" hose - you can do wonders and save your back too!!!


rrawhide

 

[rrawhide]

Morn'n all


Well, here is where we are today - - - - -




Everybody is punched down and is working like crazy. Consolidated some of the wine into a blend - 3C Blend is 50% Carnelian, 25% Centurian and 25% Carmine. Fermentation is finished on this barrel. Only have about 45 gallons in this barrel but I did put a layer of CO2 to protect. Will probably use some of the mystery wine to fill barrel. Much much easier to work with full barrels than lots of carboys. Hope this blend turns out ok. This is the one on the left side.

The others are fermenting at this time. The small white fermenter is Refosco and is about 8 gallons. Next is the Petite Syrah and is about 40 gallons of must. Then the Mystery grape - about 30 gallons of must and is from an unmarked row. S.G.'s are all around 1.072.

This is the Peverella that is going to be interesting. I dosed with SO2 to kill the wild yeast after crushing and then frementation started on its on after pressing. Planning on starting with cote de blanc yeast but it is roaring along. So, I guess that I will let 'er go and see what happens when it is done.

This is the Rkatsitelli (a Georgian White from Russia) and the barrel is full.

This is a 5# aluminum tank that I got from the Beverage People (about $50) and the adapters and hose (about $10) from hardware store. The CO2 fill at a paint ball supply store was $10. Barnes Welding Supply only trades tanks and does not fill locally - and I was not about to trade a brand new tank for a nasty used one!!! This is what I use to inject co2 into my barrels - both oak and food grade plastic.

still have to bottle the 2009 Armonizzare and the 2008 Cabernet blend. Maybe this fall for the 2009 since I only own a 1/3 of it and the others want to give as Christmas presents. The 2008 is all mine and I may let go another year - we will see how she goes on that one.