Monday-Wednesday 21-23 September

By Tuesday we have everything cleaned up. Place looks great and now we can begin to make the wines. A couple of the reds are starting their fermentations and I always say when we enter in the AM it is as though we are a bakery. This is the fun part as we see the  juice literally changing before our eyes. Each morning we taste though the wines following their progress. It is fun for me to watch our three musketeers taste the young wines and get thier impressions.

This year, the physical piece of our punch downs or “piegages” is quite interesting. At the begining of the fermentations, there are literally two layers of grapes; the top “cap” which is 2-3 feet thick, an aqueous second layer and finally a third cap sumerged under the aqueous layer. This is the first time I have seen this and it makes for a rather challenging and heart pumping experience as one must try to mix these three layers.

The traditional and frankly the most effective way is by doing a “Lucy” and stomping the grapes in one’s shorts and bare feet. Needless to say this is a favorite of Jane, Etta and our chief Geraldine as the boys follow them with the pigeau to mix the second and third layers.

Wednesday morning the C02 fan was in full force and it took a good 30 miniutes to clear it out before we could begin to work. It is little appreciated how much C02 gas fermenting wine gives us and how deadly it can be. Unfortunately, every year or so there is a fatality in a tank where the proper security procedures were not followed. Some operations put a harness and a pully system on thier people when they get into the tanks. Chez Gambal, there is always one person out of the tank providing security for every person in the tank.

Finally, Indian summer has arrived. Each day of this week has been getting more beautiful and warmer. Today we were in the high 70s. Amazing.