My friend Ray emailed me on Tuesday that the Zin at BellaGrace Vineyards slowed down in ripening, and would not be ready for harvest until next week.  This would not normally had been a problem, but Ray was going to South Bend to cheer on the Irish against Michigan State.  The grower told him that the primitivo would be ripe, however, and we could get that for the same price we were supposed to get the zinfandel.  So, Ray drove all the way up to Amador county on Wednesday, go up early to be at harvest at 6 am this morning, and drove all the way back with 1072 pounds of lovely primitivo grapes.  Needless to say, when he arrived at his house for the crush he was just slightly loopy, but energized.

There were several of Ray’s friends assembled to help.  He set up the crusher/destemmer and we started processing the grapes.

"jacks" -- grape stems

I had the honor of being jack-picker – I sat at the receiving end of the crusher and pulled out the little bits of stems that made it through, which look like the jacks in the game with the rubber ball.  The best part was being sprayed from head to toe with grape juice.

We processed all of the grapes in about 30 minutes, then it took another 45 minutes or so to clean up.  Not bad for a night’s work!  The grapes were at 26.5 brix and pH 3.4 at the vineyard.  I loaded the must up with dry ice and we took our 250 pounds home, I’ll test the brix and pH again on Sunday before pitching my yeasts.