October 14- Our bladder came in for the press and it’s the right one! Talk about cutting it close. We start picking Riesling tomorrow and being able to press is vital. I can’t store the Riesling long, and while the little press works, it is about half the size of our bladder press. So relieved.
October 16- Picked all day yesterday and feel like we barely made a dent in what we have to do. I was definitely overly optimistic when I thought we’d get this all done by end of day today. At this rate it’s going to take 4 days to pick our Riesling! And then we have to process it all… I’m tired just thinking about it. Fortunately we’ve had help, we would have been in big trouble if it wasn’t for all the people who have come out to help us pick. From an hour to a few days, all the help has been so amazing!
October 18- Finished picking Riesling around 4 this afternoon. Part of me thinks we should start processing, but I am frankly too tired. So we added B-Nature to all the bins (a non-fermenting yeast that helps kill bacteria) and dry ice to displace oxygen, wrapped the top with plastic wrap and will work on it tomorrow.
October 19- Ugh, I’m an idiot. Spent the morning racking Colorado Nuovo out of one of our 300 gallon tanks to make sure we have room to press the Riesling into tank. Cleaned the tank, then realized I could have just used one of our totes (only good for very temporary use). Because I racked, cleaned and then was finally ready to process the Riesling after 2:00! It’s going to be a long night.
October 20- If I could sleep all day I would… was up until 2:00am last night! Casey is working his day job today, so he went to bed once pressing was done around 11:00 and I spent the next couple hours cleaning. Listened to a book on tape (I don’t even remember what book it was) and got cleaning. Honestly didn’t even realize how late it was until I was completely done, looked at the time and was instantly tired. But alas, we have little kids, which means I was up at 7:30am. Oh well, might as well get some more work done. And we have Souzao to destem when Casey gets off, which means another late night for me.
October 21- Pitched yeast without racking the Riesling. One tank is already fermenting, so want to get my yeast in quickly. Juice is dirtier than I’d like, but it’ll work.
October 24- Picked our Cabernet Sauvignon this morning. Woke up to freezing temperatures and snow on the vines. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to pick. We had some friends out helping and got all the Cab picked and destemmed before lunch! Which means harvest is officially wrapped up for 2022!