Monday, October 5, 2009

...and Saturday turns to Monday

It's Saturday and you know what that means? Its going to be a busy day in both the tasting room and out in the feilds...
The boys brought us some Cabernet Franc grapes this morning and....

That is about how far I got in creating a post on Saturday, and then things got busy! We had some big groups come in and a nonstop flow of customers all day. It was a great day, but now I feel like I neglected the followers of this blog... So lets try this again!

Saturday morning began with testing the Cabernet Franc grapes. It is important to test the brix in the grapes to see when they are ripe and ready to be picked. I got a nice big bunch for the tasting room to try and everyone was commenting on how much sweeter the grapes were then they expected. After tasting one myself, I found that the Cabernet Franc grapes had the smallest seed in them of all the grapes I have tasted in the past.

Later that day, the boys sorted through the Petite Verdot grapes. We even had a few wine club members get their hands dirty and help sort the grapes. Luckily, the boys did not have to stay well into the night on Saturday, like they did the previous night.

Also, my predictions were incorrect! In my last post I said that the Merlot was going to sit for a few days before the yeast was added, but it was actually added on Saturday. At the end of the day, Stephen brought us a large graduated cylinder full of the partially fermented Touriga. It was still very sweet because the yeast has not finished turning the sugars into alcohol, but it has a wonderful flavor. It reminds me of a Lambic, which is actually a Belgian beer, the difference was the lack of carbonation in the Touriga. The 2008 Touriga is one of my favorite wines we currently have, so I am very excited to see the 2009 Touriga develop!

I'll be back to Keswick tomorrow with some updates on what happened on my days off! I'm sure Stephen has been keeping busy... By the way, Stephen is our wine maker, I'll be referencing him a lot, so think of this as your official introduction!

brix - the level of sugar in a grape

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