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Well 2016 crush was last weekend and it is now just a memory.
For the last month or so, most of my spare time has been spent getting ready. All of the prep time paid off and this year’s crush went as smooth as silk.
On Thursday, the dumpster was delivered and people began arriving from out-of-state. I spent most of the day obsessing over the weather, but really enjoyed getting caught up with family that I have not seen for quite a while.SWMBO made her famous turkey meatloaf dinner and we all gathered to sip through some of the of the rarer vintages.
It had been raining for several days and my fear was that the ground will be too soft for a 22 foot box truck loaded with grapes. There was a year when the truck got stuck and it cost me a small fortune to get it pulled out to the street. So, at 4am Friday morning (who can sleep? It’s crush!) it came to me.I would leave the truck on the street and have my brother use his 4wd pickup to bring the sorted grapes around the building to the destemmer.I called the brother and, after the “do you have any idea what time it is” speech, got him to agree to bring his truck to crush.It was great to have one less worry!
Friday was all about the grapes and getting set up. We rented the truck, and went down to my local supplier.I really like this place!I was warmly greeted by the owner, Jimmy.It is funny how I am always greeted a little warmer on “grape day” that at other times of the year.Jimmy knows me too well.I have been dealing with him for well over 25 years and he can read me like a book.
Most years, Jimmy will delay loading me as long as possible. He knows that the longer I am in his establishment, the more likely I will submit to temptation and add to my order.It is funny how every year, on the trip out, we always say that we will be good boys and not add to the order, and every year on the trip back, the truck is much heavier than expected.
Jimmy always has limited supplies of interesting grapes and knows a sucker when he sees one. This year, however, I simply did not have much room for “specialty” batches and ended up only adding 5 additional lugs of a pinot noir from Paso Robles, to the order.I cannot wait to see how this one turns out.
In addition to the Pinot Noir, we ended up getting Merlot (100%) and Petit Sarah (100%) as our “main” wines (the wines that are shared by all members of the family), a cab/petit sarah/merlot blend as a “barrel reserve”, and a montepulciano as a “private reserve” to be shared just between myself and my brother.
While waiting to get loaded, we walked across the street to the Italian market for some cheese, salami, and bread to munch on the way home. It seems so fitting to eat this while driving a load of grapes to a winery!
We got back by 3pm and I spent the rest of the day setting things up and defrosting food. Got to bed early and (once again) tried I to get some sleep.
Saturday was the day! I got up at 4am, showered, and got the coffee going.I like this point in time, the calm before the storm.After a much needed cup, I got busy sterilizing equipment and attending to all of the last minute set up items.I then had 15 minutes to enjoy a second cup of coffee before my older brother (always the first to arrive) showed up with a number of other folks not too far behind.
My cousin, the homebrewer, arrived early to set up the beer station with the home brew that we made a month ago. I poured a short beer and am happy to say that the beer was awesome.Creamy, flavorful, and low octane.Just the right type of beer to be sipping while working.
The process worked great. I had a crew sorting grapes in the truck.Other folks stood at the end of the truck to load the sorted grapes into the pickup.I also had others taking the empty lugs, breaking them down, and loading them into the dumpster.My younger brother then drove the pickup around the back to the crusher/destemmer where a yet another crew loaded the grapes into the hopper and to also “hump” the crushed grapes into the winery where I had a person in charge of making sure that the proper grapes were dumped into the proper primary fermenter.Another person made sure that appropriate amount of k-meta was mixed in after each dumping.
MAN WHAT A CREW! It worked out great.Everyone was eager to help and smiled while doing so.It all went like clockwork.In fact, I was happy to see that work was finished by noon and cleanup was completed in only 30 minutes.All I can say is that it was just amazing.
Once the cleanup was finished, I called everyone over to the tent to begin the after-party. I had just enough time to pour out 2 rounds when the wife announced that lunch was ready.Unlike other years, we had no problem getting folks to the tables.The spread was awesome!Many folks brought a dish and we had all of the bases covered with all of the Hungarian favorites and a good selection of Italian foods to choose from.My goulash was a huge hit as was my brother’s chicken paprikash.I was surprised (and a little relieved) to see that most of the lunch selection was gone.
Right after lunch (around 3pm) it was back to the tent for most of us where we proceeded to run though about 3 cases of wine. I had stocked up my humidor and brought it out for some celebratory smoking.Things really got rolling when my sister in law and her husband brought out the guitar and got us all singing.By 7pm, some of the folks had left and we were down to our last 20 people, and we sat down to dinner.Unlike lunch, a lot less was eaten as most were still full from lunch.The after party went on until about 10:30, where we were down to just the folks that were staying at the house and a number of campers.
This year we tried something new. I asked folks to bring tents.Some took me up on this and we had our own tent-city set up right next to the party tent.This worked out great since the house was filled with out of state guests and every bed and couch were spoken for.For the campers, sleep was just a short stagger away and worrying about driving home was no longer a concern.I have no idea why I had not thought of tents before, but I have a feeling a new trend has been started.
The party continued inside the house. One by one, folks turned in and I ended up saying good night to the older brother around 1am.Slept like a baby!
All-in-all, this year’s crush was a happy one. There was no drama and no major problems.
Simply the best crush ever!!!
For the last month or so, most of my spare time has been spent getting ready. All of the prep time paid off and this year’s crush went as smooth as silk.
On Thursday, the dumpster was delivered and people began arriving from out-of-state. I spent most of the day obsessing over the weather, but really enjoyed getting caught up with family that I have not seen for quite a while.SWMBO made her famous turkey meatloaf dinner and we all gathered to sip through some of the of the rarer vintages.
It had been raining for several days and my fear was that the ground will be too soft for a 22 foot box truck loaded with grapes. There was a year when the truck got stuck and it cost me a small fortune to get it pulled out to the street. So, at 4am Friday morning (who can sleep? It’s crush!) it came to me.I would leave the truck on the street and have my brother use his 4wd pickup to bring the sorted grapes around the building to the destemmer.I called the brother and, after the “do you have any idea what time it is” speech, got him to agree to bring his truck to crush.It was great to have one less worry!
Friday was all about the grapes and getting set up. We rented the truck, and went down to my local supplier.I really like this place!I was warmly greeted by the owner, Jimmy.It is funny how I am always greeted a little warmer on “grape day” that at other times of the year.Jimmy knows me too well.I have been dealing with him for well over 25 years and he can read me like a book.
Most years, Jimmy will delay loading me as long as possible. He knows that the longer I am in his establishment, the more likely I will submit to temptation and add to my order.It is funny how every year, on the trip out, we always say that we will be good boys and not add to the order, and every year on the trip back, the truck is much heavier than expected.
Jimmy always has limited supplies of interesting grapes and knows a sucker when he sees one. This year, however, I simply did not have much room for “specialty” batches and ended up only adding 5 additional lugs of a pinot noir from Paso Robles, to the order.I cannot wait to see how this one turns out.
In addition to the Pinot Noir, we ended up getting Merlot (100%) and Petit Sarah (100%) as our “main” wines (the wines that are shared by all members of the family), a cab/petit sarah/merlot blend as a “barrel reserve”, and a montepulciano as a “private reserve” to be shared just between myself and my brother.
While waiting to get loaded, we walked across the street to the Italian market for some cheese, salami, and bread to munch on the way home. It seems so fitting to eat this while driving a load of grapes to a winery!
We got back by 3pm and I spent the rest of the day setting things up and defrosting food. Got to bed early and (once again) tried I to get some sleep.
Saturday was the day! I got up at 4am, showered, and got the coffee going.I like this point in time, the calm before the storm.After a much needed cup, I got busy sterilizing equipment and attending to all of the last minute set up items.I then had 15 minutes to enjoy a second cup of coffee before my older brother (always the first to arrive) showed up with a number of other folks not too far behind.
My cousin, the homebrewer, arrived early to set up the beer station with the home brew that we made a month ago. I poured a short beer and am happy to say that the beer was awesome.Creamy, flavorful, and low octane.Just the right type of beer to be sipping while working.
The process worked great. I had a crew sorting grapes in the truck.Other folks stood at the end of the truck to load the sorted grapes into the pickup.I also had others taking the empty lugs, breaking them down, and loading them into the dumpster.My younger brother then drove the pickup around the back to the crusher/destemmer where a yet another crew loaded the grapes into the hopper and to also “hump” the crushed grapes into the winery where I had a person in charge of making sure that the proper grapes were dumped into the proper primary fermenter.Another person made sure that appropriate amount of k-meta was mixed in after each dumping.
MAN WHAT A CREW! It worked out great.Everyone was eager to help and smiled while doing so.It all went like clockwork.In fact, I was happy to see that work was finished by noon and cleanup was completed in only 30 minutes.All I can say is that it was just amazing.
Once the cleanup was finished, I called everyone over to the tent to begin the after-party. I had just enough time to pour out 2 rounds when the wife announced that lunch was ready.Unlike other years, we had no problem getting folks to the tables.The spread was awesome!Many folks brought a dish and we had all of the bases covered with all of the Hungarian favorites and a good selection of Italian foods to choose from.My goulash was a huge hit as was my brother’s chicken paprikash.I was surprised (and a little relieved) to see that most of the lunch selection was gone.
Right after lunch (around 3pm) it was back to the tent for most of us where we proceeded to run though about 3 cases of wine. I had stocked up my humidor and brought it out for some celebratory smoking.Things really got rolling when my sister in law and her husband brought out the guitar and got us all singing.By 7pm, some of the folks had left and we were down to our last 20 people, and we sat down to dinner.Unlike lunch, a lot less was eaten as most were still full from lunch.The after party went on until about 10:30, where we were down to just the folks that were staying at the house and a number of campers.
This year we tried something new. I asked folks to bring tents.Some took me up on this and we had our own tent-city set up right next to the party tent.This worked out great since the house was filled with out of state guests and every bed and couch were spoken for.For the campers, sleep was just a short stagger away and worrying about driving home was no longer a concern.I have no idea why I had not thought of tents before, but I have a feeling a new trend has been started.
The party continued inside the house. One by one, folks turned in and I ended up saying good night to the older brother around 1am.Slept like a baby!
All-in-all, this year’s crush was a happy one. There was no drama and no major problems.
Simply the best crush ever!!!
