El Bloggo Torcido - Twisted Oak Winery

Cleaning the Press

Tempranillo Report, Vol 3

24 hours and the juice is starting to color up. Tasted it this am and decided to bump the acid just a touch with a Tartaric acid addition...just .5 g/l will do the trick.

The juice is quite flavorful...lots of raspberry, blueberry and plum characters.

New labs, post addition:
Brix = 25.3
pH = 3.66
TA = 6.2 g/l

-Fermento

Twisted After Dark!

Friday night we are currently pouring Rhone blends 04-07 as well as Marsanne from 03-04. Get up here!

Calaveras Tempranillo 2008

Ran some numbers on that Tempranillo lot that came through this am. That's the fresh juice there up top. We ran it through the destemmer/crusher and tried to leave about 25% of the berries intact (uncrushed) for a little carbonic maceration. That helps boost the fruit character in the finished wine (theoretically).
Initial labs:
Brix = 25.2
pH = 3.79
T.A. = 5.6

-Fermento

Kiss Kiss Crush Crush

First red lot of the year!! We're crushing Tempranillo from the Rolleri vineyard as I type this. The fruit looks and tastes beautiful. It'll be interesting to what the acids are like. They taste pretty high which is good, however Temp is typically low in acidity. I'll post the labs later today.

-Fermento

Some Sort of Twisted Rubber Goods Orgy...

...or something...!

Crush Has Just Begun!

...not a good sign!

Walkin The Mile...

Wow...it is damn hot out here today!! Walking vineyards & pullin samples from five different blocks today. I'm on the last one now...more of the 08 Viognier. The flavors are there and the brix is @ 23.7. We'll try to get a crew in to pick it Sat if possible.

Other noteworthy blocks...

Out at Poole Station, the Marsanne is at 23.3 brix, the Roussanne is at 24.2 and the Grenache Blanc is at 20.4.

Out at the Dalton vineyard, the Syrah is at 25.1 brix.

Vee-on-yay

The first (of two) lot of 08 Viognier went through the press on Monday. We'll be checking the second lot today. With any luck, it'll be ready early next week. I'll post from the vineyard.

Squeezin' 08's

Things are pickin' up!!  This "Post-Squeeze" picture of Rolle and Viognier grapes was taken yesterday as they were being dumped out of the press after a gentle whole-cluster pressing that squeezed some pretty awesome juice out for us to ferment.  We are seeing some pretty good activity out there in the vineyards and expect to be in full-blown crush mode by this time next week.  By the time BUSHWALLA shows up, there'll be plenty of cool stuff to see here at the winery.  Stay tuned to this here bloggo for more info.  Also, El Jefe is gonna try to get the live webcam up and running again this week...just in time to catch Nick the Rat pickin his nose!