The Last Few Days

Well we must be getting close to the finish, because we're writing less and less.

Thursday Stef and Jerry spent the day shuttling bins to Martin Ranch. We'll pick Tuesday there, and it looks like we'll just get a couple tons instead of the six we wanted.

Friday we were back in the winery (pictures coming soon) racking wine into barrels. The Pinot Noir went into one new and one used barrel with about 30 gallons left in kegs right now. We'll likely transfer that 30 gallons to a half barrel when we're all done. We tried to revive an old (1992) half barrel but it was just not going to seal back up. We want to wait on the half barrel usage until the very end. We only have 3 of them, so need to use then as little as possible.

We also put the Haut Tubee and Elandrich into barrel. Both went into new oak, a first for the Haut Tubee. The Elandrich will eventually go into a Santa Cruz Mountains blend, the Haut Tubee will be bottled on it's own, but we'll only have 25 cases for 2008.

We also stirred the lees on our Chardonnay and topped up all the 2007's.

Saturday we brought in the Cabernet at Chaine d'Or. A very small amount, just under one ton total. Last year there was 3+ tons. We didn't take any pictures of the day, but Wes posted a bunch at:

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2386957800102270864roupyx

Today we'll visit Bonny Doon to see if there are any grapes left in the Llama vineyard. The owner did not want to net the vineyard, so we're expecting that birds have taken most of the crop in the last few weeks.

We'll also be boxing up orders. The weather finally looks cool enough here in San Jose to start shipping the Fall Release. The first batch will go out this week, with more going next week. We still have a little 2006 Uvas Creek Cabernet Sauvignon left, so if you've been holding on to an order form get it in soon. We did not sent allocations to the last 30-40 people on the mailing list this time, so it looks like we're at the point that it will take a couple releases after you sign up to work into an allocation.