We had a few people out at the winery this weekend to help us with some of our first fruit. Merlot came in from Washington for our Soleggio Super Tuscan blend. We sorted just over 1.5 tons of fruit and ran it through the destemmer into a small fermenter. The first step on its way to a one week cold soak prior to fermentation. Chuck one of our assistant wine makers discussed the importance of cold soaks and punchdowns over a Sangiovese fermenter and then everyone had a turn with the punchdown tool.

This year we have had to make some major grape sourcing substitutions for our Washington veriatals. The vineyard where we have sourced our Cabernet and Merlot for many years, Pepper Bridge was devestated by an early freeze last November. This happend before the vines had become dormant and the vines where killed down to the ground. They will have no crop from Pepper Bridge in 2011; fortunately the vines in Walla Walla are own rooted as the phyloxera soil pest does not seem to thrive in their sandy soils. Because they are own rooted they will be able to grow new vines from the surviving root system.

What can I say its farming and is fraught with challenges. We are having our own challenging vintage in Oregon with cool weather and rain this year.