Cellar Stuff: Racking the 2004 Merlot
Today we dug out the 2004 lot of Merlot from the back of a deep row of barrels.
I'm pretty careful about moving full barrels about with a forklift. I have this recurring nightmare that I'll klutz four barrels off the forks and lose half of one of my vintages in a single bone-headed maneuver. Mind you, I've seen it happen with other wine makers. I've seen 30 gallons of wine pour from the cracked head of a misplaced barrel. And at the price of that wine it was like watching blood ooze out of a dying man.
In another incident, I've witnessed the dismay of a sheepish winemaker as he approach me with the whimper: "I...uh...could use some help...I kinda screwed up...I was moving too fast..."
Sure enough, there high in the stacks, would be a couple of barrels teetering on the brink of disaster. The barrels were jarred out of their racks by an errant jerk of the forklift. I then had to lift the winemaker up on the forks (a move severely frowned upon by OSHA), whereby once aloft, he'd fashion a cradle out of some old polypropylene rope. I, below, trying to manage the forklift with extreme delicacy, would wonder who would die first (the winemaker or me) and how it might occur.
He could easily tumble down to the hard concrete or somehow slip between the barrels wedging himself in some oakened crevasse only to have another barrel shift in the stacks to crush him. Or, barrels could topple forward and hurdle themselves at me! At 500 pounds apiece, these containers are to be respected. If, somehow, the rollcage of the forklift managed to break the falling casks, I could still imagine drowning in the hundreds of gallons of Chateau D'Gravity.
Oops, I digress. All I'm saying is that it was a long day. That's because I'm careful. I don't want any bruises on my body, or my wine. I am here now to tell you, that the 2004 Owl's Ridge Vineyard Merlot was racked gently today and was put back to bed this evening. We'll wake it up soon, maybe this summer, and put it back to bed in bottles. Then, it'll be up to you when to wake it again.
I'm pretty careful about moving full barrels about with a forklift. I have this recurring nightmare that I'll klutz four barrels off the forks and lose half of one of my vintages in a single bone-headed maneuver. Mind you, I've seen it happen with other wine makers. I've seen 30 gallons of wine pour from the cracked head of a misplaced barrel. And at the price of that wine it was like watching blood ooze out of a dying man.
In another incident, I've witnessed the dismay of a sheepish winemaker as he approach me with the whimper: "I...uh...could use some help...I kinda screwed up...I was moving too fast..."
Sure enough, there high in the stacks, would be a couple of barrels teetering on the brink of disaster. The barrels were jarred out of their racks by an errant jerk of the forklift. I then had to lift the winemaker up on the forks (a move severely frowned upon by OSHA), whereby once aloft, he'd fashion a cradle out of some old polypropylene rope. I, below, trying to manage the forklift with extreme delicacy, would wonder who would die first (the winemaker or me) and how it might occur.
He could easily tumble down to the hard concrete or somehow slip between the barrels wedging himself in some oakened crevasse only to have another barrel shift in the stacks to crush him. Or, barrels could topple forward and hurdle themselves at me! At 500 pounds apiece, these containers are to be respected. If, somehow, the rollcage of the forklift managed to break the falling casks, I could still imagine drowning in the hundreds of gallons of Chateau D'Gravity.
Oops, I digress. All I'm saying is that it was a long day. That's because I'm careful. I don't want any bruises on my body, or my wine. I am here now to tell you, that the 2004 Owl's Ridge Vineyard Merlot was racked gently today and was put back to bed this evening. We'll wake it up soon, maybe this summer, and put it back to bed in bottles. Then, it'll be up to you when to wake it again.
posted by Todd at Friday, January 06, 2006
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