Our Zambelli crusher-destemmer is patiently waiting. It was used briefly, on Monday, for our small Pinot gris harvest, and will be used tomorrow on Clone 7 Cabernet sauvignon from a friend's St. Helena vineyard. It may be a while before we use it again on our own grapes.Vinoland's Syrah is coming along decently, I got a respectable sugar reading of 23.4 °Brix today. This was, of course, an average taken from several individual readings of juice, from berries selected randomly throughout the vineyard. But, more importantly the fruit tastes good; the seeds are maturing, and the berries are softening nicely. Slow, but sure.
The Italians definitely know how to make great small winery equipment...and great wine...and great food...and great shoes.
7 comments:
Yes, indeed, for the (us) Italians and their (our) equipment, food, shoemaking.
As for the Syrah, 23.4 Brix--potential nearly 13% alc; if the flavor characteristics are there, why wait? pH?
Curious: how do you do your random berry selection?
Thomas...she spins round and round till she falls into a bush.
Zambelli, that's a good Emilian name. Not far off from Zamboni.
Thomas: As random as I possibly can...top, bottom, side, facing the sun, back of the cluster, west versus east facing vines etc. I just do 100 berry samples, I'm looking for approx. sugar as a guideline only. Flavour and maturity of seeds of more importance. The vine itself tops out at 24.5 Brix (I know temp and watering schedule will alter this) but I try to at least listen to what the vine is telling me...I don't listen very often in life, so the least I can do is give the vines my undivided attention :)
Thud: Actually did that today, purely by accident, ouch!
2B: Our Zambelli might make a bit of a mess on an ice rink :)
Vinogirl,
There's a guy running around the world who teaches that the best random is to walk through alternating rows, slowly, stick out arms here and there, look straight ahead, and grab what you grab. Without looking at what is in your hand, dump what you've grabbed into a sack hanging around your waist and keep the process going until you fill the sack.
Every so often, stoop down and raise your arm higher as you reach out to grab.
His claim is that when we look, we direct ourselves and when we direct ourselves we unconsciously erase randomness, picking that which we want to meet our expectations.
Viticulture and psychology...
Yes Thomas, I sometimes think my randomness is too random and it has the opposite result. But simply sticking my hand out and grabbing anything might just add one too many raisins to the mix, or worse still, a spider!
On the downside, the Italians also have a Berlusconi, to balance out all the good things they produce ...
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