Day Getting Ready at the Winery

We're getting close to picking grapes so it was time to get to the winery and start to get everything there ready. On the way up I stopped at Page Mill Road and 280 to take this picture. It's a great visual on what makes the Chaine d' Or vineyard so special. The fog on the left is the ridge across from the vineyard. The one in bright sunshine is where Chaine d'Or is located.

I took this one as soon as we arrived at the vineyard. You can see the vines are in full sun, but the fog is just a few hundred yards away keeping everything cool. It was just 77 degrees when we left the winery at 2:30 compared to 92 on the valley floor. This lets the grapes ripen slowly and develop great flavors.

I hiked down to check on the Cabernet grapes. They are coming along well, but we're still 5-6 weeks away from picking.

Some close ups on the dappled sunlight we try and get on the clusters.

And a shot of the Chardonnay. The Chardonnay is almost ready, maybe this week, early next week at the latest.

Then it was into the winery. Twice a year we take out everything that we can and clean the floors. We also make sure the drain is working fine and clean the gutters up. We do some reorganizing as well to try and get everything in a good place before harvest. While Stef and I worked inside Jerry was outside cleaning the chiller tank and press. He also cleaned up all the picking bins and started bringing up the 1/2 ton and 1 ton bins.

He will go back on Monday to finish up cleaning the bins, and pull some samples for Stef to test. Tomorrow we'll check again on Crimson Clover and do some planing on barrel usage. I'll also try to get over to visit our friend Ian and see about a pump we may need to borrow for a day.