Can You Dig It?
Have you ever seen a wall of grape skins 6 feet high and then crawled into a tank full of deadly CO2 gas, through an 18 inch hole, to shovel it all out. The guys out here do it every day during harvest, over and over again. Not to worry though, nobody is going to die at Castoro because we use every safety precaution possible to prevent an accident. They will, however, most likely be completely purple by the end of the day.
Once the red wine is done fermenting, it has to be drained out of the tank and separated from the skins and seeds. Below is an image showing the wine draining out through a spout and into a metal hopper with a giant strainer. The wine is pumped to a new clean tank and what’s left in the tank is a giant wall of skins and seeds that must be removed. The problem is that the only access to this wall, from the bottom, is a hole just 18 inches in diameter. The fermenting process has also created an excess amount of CO2 gas that can be deadly if inhaled for too long. Using shovels and pitch forks the cellar boys must dig a tunnel through the grapes in order to enter the tank. A fan is placed at the top of the tank to blow fresh air in and two guys are sent in the bottom equipped with oxygen monitors for extra safety. The tank is hot, the air is thick and the skins are sticky and moist, but it must be done because the next batch of juice is already ready for fermentation and we need the tank to complete it. The skins and seeds that were scooped out are loaded bin by bin into a press and squeezed of all remaining wine. Nothing goes to waste at Castoro.
Now for a grape update! The white wine grapes have all been picked and pressed, and we have just less than one quarter of the grapes left to harvest. However, that doesn’t mean things will be slowing down any time soon. When I talked to Tom he was really excited about our Late Harvest Muscat Canelli. The grapes were at a higher sugar level than Tom has ever seen at around 40 °Brix. This should create a wine with intense sweetness and ripe, concentrated flavors; a perfect topping for fruit salad, pancakes or sipped by itself after a meal. We also received a large amount of Cabernet Sauvignon and more Petite Sirah with a great inky color and aromas of plum and dark berries. The main crop of Zinfandel is still holding on due to the slightly colder climate of the organic Whale Rock Vineyard on the west side of Paso. This vineyard is also home to many other exciting varietals including the always interesting Carignane, my favorite Tempranillo and the dark fruit filled Primitivo.
That’s all for now folks, and once again thanks for reading!
Erik
