Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Pinot harvest



I picked 4.6 tons of the 828 Pinot block last Monday night at Devoto Garden, which I put at 23.5 brix after the warm weekend; perhaps a half degree higher than where I'd wanted to be, but just couldn't get a weekend pick to happen.  I love the flavors though, and the fruit was beautiful.
















Here are four of the nine bins I stacked in the 24' Penske.  For the record, I did not hit this pole when leaving the gas station.  Gas approaching $5/gal!

More shots through a grape-juice laden phone:



This year am going with 20% stems/whole clusters, passing through with the de-stemmer up.  There's Bill and Damon, per usual, with Nick from Bluxome lending a hand on the sort.  Fruit was so clean this year we pulled out no more than three-quarters of a tall boy from 4.6 tons.  These babies went right into the cold room (50F) to soak through the weekend, a long day indeed