This is what my friends said to me.  This guy Paul knew this other guy that makes wine and likes to share the grapes from this great vineyard in Sonoma with home winemakers.  So of course they thought of me when they found out they could get these killer grapes.  It also happens that I’m the only one of the bunch that has ever made any wine, so it’s also convenient for them to include me.  That’s fine, I’m sure it’ll be worth it.

We picked up the merlot grapes at Witch Creek Winery in Carlsbad.  They have a destemmer that they share with Chris Van Alyea of Christopher Cameron Wines, who is the guy that shares the grapes with home winemakers. It’s quite impressive: there are big boxes each holding a half ton of grapes. The boxes are loaded onto the destemmer with a forklift.

There are various volunteers to help with the whole process, and so we tried to pitch in.  As the grapes fall into an empty box, several things are mixed in:  sulfite, to kill any native yeasts or other bugs;  vinozyme, to help break down the skins when they get crushed later;  toasted oak dust and tannin extract, to add extra flavor;  and dry ice, to keep the grapes cold for a while before the fermentation is started.

We took our portions home in trash cans.  Yep, trash cans.

The gray cans are a food-safe plastic, and are perfect for hopping into.  Part of the merlot will be a shared effort, and then I took home 2 cans with 100 pounds each of grapes for experimenting.  I stomped them so that they were about 80% crushed, so that there would be some whole berries to ferment also.  They’ll get taken care of when it all gets pressed, no problem.

Doing the Lucy stomp

It was a long day!