It's Time to Harvest!

It's finally time. The grapes are at 25 Brix and tasting yummy. We are harvesting tomorrow. At a bright and early 10ish. It'll maybe last for one hour. Two hours, tops if we drink while we cut. Hey, it's noon somewhere!

Even at this late stage in the game of making wine, we're not quite sure as to what to do. After cutting off the grapes and sticking them in the bucket around your neck, it's still a little foggy.

We bought a wine kit from the Wine/Beer Making Shoppe in downtown Grand Junction and the guy was really helpful. Too helpful, really. After about 10 minutes of the most minute detail of everything you have to do to make wine, I went into this glossy-eyed, blank stare of a phase. I just couldn't keep up. Geez, I should brought a notepad and took notes. So I looked like I was paying attention. And he finished with "Ok, so now you know everything I know. Have fun." Meanwhile, I don't know squat.

We get a book with this kit. I'm one of those dorky people who likes to read the book first before jumping into most things. So I devoured the book one day when I'm voluntarily trapped on a flight from Grand Junction to my next work gig. I read through the whole thing. Not too bad, it's small. But after all that, I still don't know stuff.

Like what do we measure to go to the next step after we've put the grapes in the trash cans (I mean primary fermenting vessel(PFV))? How do we know when to take out the juice from the PFV and move it (I mean rack it) to the secondary fermenting vessel (aka. car boy)? Same thing on the SFV wrt to measuring stuff. Ok, now when do we bottle?

I'm sure it'll all become clear when I start really doing it, but for now I'm somewhere way out in the middle between a winemaker and a grape picker. Hopefully, I'll make it to winemaker before I need to do something serious. I do not want vinegar.

But for now I think I'll drink a glass of 2008 Dancing Bull Zinfandel, winemaker's reserve, for only $6.99. A little much for drinking alone, but it has a strong jammy flavor that makes it nice to drink without food. No problem.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!