Weather  
Today

This may be the last 80 degree day of the year. A cool front arrives tomorrow, with probable rain Sunday night and up to an inch over the next week, in on-again, off-again sun and showers. The continued, unseasonably warm weather has accelerated ripening and is bringing in fruit in a hurry. Stoller and Corral Creek Pinot noir and Pinot gris will be completely picked by the Sunday night interlude.

Harvest to-date:
Pinot Noir:
Stoller Vineyards: 20.8 tons
Corral Creek Vineyards: 7.9 tons

Pinot Gris:
Stoller Vineyards: 19.2 tons

Key Winemaking Tool, the telephone: Cheryl negotiating delivery of urgent crush items

Harvest  2001 October 5 , 2001

And The Dance Is On!

	Bill Stoller and Cheryl at Stoller Vineyards

Blessed so far, we may be finally returning to normal vintage weather this coming week, but not before we've picked a great deal of our prime Pinot noir and Pinot gris in excellent condition--all of Stoller and Corral Creek Vineyards.

Ridgecrest Vineyards is a higher elevation vineyard and is our last picked, so will have to weather a little rain, as it always does.

Lots of Pinot Noir at the Scale

At this stage it is a choreographed dance:

  •  early vineyard visits, starting picking, and checking on what might come-in tomorrow;

  •  empty bins being ferried out to the vineyard at the winery;

	Dumping bins of Pinot Gris to Press

  •  punchdowns and pumpovers of pre-fermentation or early fermenting tanks of pinot noir;

  •  caustic cleaning and sanitizing tanks or presses for the day;

  •  early arrivals of fruit by truck from Stoller;

  •  tractors zipping in from Corral Creek with two bins at a time full of fruit freshly picked;

  •  calls to find out where the parts are we needed for the press;

Mike and Caroline loading press with Pinot Gris

  •  empty barrels being assembled into sets of interesting coopers/forests/ages, pallet jacks of three and four-high racks snuggling in compactly in any free space, including outside alongside walls;

  •  forklifts unloading bins, weighing them, stacking them and, as soon as the conveyor and destemmer are in place, rotating them to dump fruit onto the conveyor where sorting begins and the fermentor slowly filled--and that's just the first two hours.

A dance, with everyone having a job, but helping others at just the right time, the highest priority activity always happening. And now, that is moving fruit into place, quickly, excitedly.