It could not have been a more beautiful day for harvest on the 30th of October. We harvested Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cabernet Franc

The group of just under 20, worked hard and got everything picked by about 3pm.

Kristi modeling the newly picked grapes.

After a lovely BBQ and some well earned wine, grapes went through the de-stemming process, which is pretty interesting. The grapes are loaded up into a machine that essentially dumps them out onto a conveyor belt and shakes them apart as helpers pull out things like leaves, bugs, or any other unwanted materials. You can watch the video below to get a sense of how it works.

This process is so much better when it is cooler because there aren’t as many yellow jackets! Once the grapes pass through the conveyor belt, they go through one more part that separates them entirely from their stems.

Sorting

Just the stems

Just grapes - ready for crush

Then we got to tour the winery, do some barrel tasting, and take turns “punching the cap” on grapes already crushed.

Barrel Tasting

Melissa punching down the cap.

So much fun and such great company. Looking forward to bottling through the winter. Cheers and thank you to Kristi and Jeff Fountain for so many beautiful pictures – you can see more of them on our Picasa web album HERE.

Gewürztraminer

Had a fantastic visit down to the vineyard and winery a couple weekends ago. South Dakota Eschenbaum family – Carol Sanborn’s brother Jim and wife Teresa – came in for a visit and we all headed down to Juliaetta for a grape picking extravaganza. This was just a little picking excursion the family participated in.

Teresa working on the vines.

Brother Mike in the vines.

Just a few rows of Gewürztraminer that yielded, oh, a teeny bit over 950 pounds of grapes. That is right 950 POUNDS! Wow! I had no idea it could add up so fast! That is one of the best parts of working at the winery – you get to watch them weigh your hard work and see that you did actually do something – even if you felt like you were going too slow or whatever.

Weighin' In

It was a gorgeous day and after picking, the grapes were crushed immediately and juice extracted.

Ready to be crushed

One of the neighbors brought his Gewürztraminer over too and our total came in at 1360 lbs of grapes, 102 gallons juice which is about 40 cases. After cleaning up, we made sure to do some tasting and take a tour of the new homestead Mike and Melissa have been patiently waiting to move into. We hung out with the Auntie and Uncle Eschenbaum, the cats (the real managers of the vineyards) and then headed back home. A perfect day!

The important work.

Relaxin on the deck.

Cats

View from the deck.

Yes, we’re at it again this year! We are adding another 4-5 acres of red grape cultivars this spring (or should I say summer already?), bringing our total planted acreage up to 15 acres. We decided to plant live stock this year, as live plants are known to be more disease resistant than dormant stock. Unfortunately, the nursery we source our vines from got hit with a nasty freeze this winter and much of their stock was damaged, setting us back at least 4 weeks. So if you were wondering “Why in the world are they planting in the middle of June?”, now you know. Lucky for us, the weather has been moderate to date, and the vines seem to be handling planting like true champs.

The beginning

We finished planting the first 2500 plants last week, and are now waiting for the remainder from the nursery. What are we planting? Until all 4000 vines are in the ground, I’m not exactly sure. We’re taking what we can get at this point with regards to clones and quantities, but if things work out like we planned, we’ll have a few new clones of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvingnon, Cabernet Franc, as well as vineyard newcomers Petite Verdot (a Bordeaux blending grape) and Mourvedre (typically used in Rhone-style blends). We’re super excited about the latter 2 cultivars.

Over halfway there

The next round of planting starts next week, so if you missed out on the first 2500, there’s plenty more vines to fulfill any unleashed planting desire you may have. Did I mention there’s wine involved…

Over half of the new planting completed in the upper Coyote block

November 30th, 2010

We finally made it through harvest, with our last grapes coming from Riverbend Vineyard November 6th. The seasonal changes in the vineyard have been fantastic! It didn’t freeze until late in November, allowing vine foliage to change from green to golden amber before the cold and wind forced the leaves to the ground.

Golden Chardonnay

Merlot just starting to turn color

Nesting for winter

Native fall Chinook returned to spawn this fall, and for nearly 2 weeks we watched female salmon protect their redds (nests) as males fought for the right to fertilize the eggs. We counted nearly 30 fish alone in the stretch next to the vineyard. A magnificent show!

Salmon Spawning

Chinook

To date we find the vineyard covered with snow. The vines have fallen asleep for the winter, and wines have been tucked into barrels for a rest. We have several tastings occurring throughout the holiday season – be sure to follow us on facebook for details or contact us to visit the winery. Also watch for more yummy recipes to appear, and thanks to Beth for the fantastic soup suggestions. Happy Holidays!

First snowfall of 2010

Nothing like the sweet nectar of Riesling! We’ve been picking our estate Riesling over the past few days, with one more ton to pull off over the next couple of days. Last year we let our Riesling hang until mid-November for our 2009 Late Harvest Riesling. This year’s cooler season made a late harvest unlikely, so we are picking it for a table wine. We whole cluster pressed these grapes, meaning the grapes were dumped directly into the press without being destemmed or crushed first.

Filling the press.

A hint of summer still lingers in the vineyard, making for beautiful days of picking. We only have our cabs left to pick, and it looks like they are still a couple weeks out. The weather has definitely been on our side this fall, allowing everything to ripen throughout the vineyard. This hasn’t been true for the entire Northwest, so we are lucky. One more reason why the Lewis Clark Valley is such a great place for growing grapes!

Our Riesling pickers (left to right): Bryant, Max, Massu, and Dolce

Grape pickers Cart, Mike, and Aileen

We had a beautiful day picking Merlot this past Saturday! The temperature was in the high 60’s and the sun shown on us all morning. The grapes are now bubbling their way to a delicious red wine.

Merlot Grapes

Once again, Carol found the “Star Clusters” of the day.

Julianne and the Star clusters

Much thanks to the Tolman Family, Cart, Justin, and my parents for their help.

Today was beautiful! A group of about 25 or 30 people picking and processing and having a great time in the vineyards.

Carol won the award for most beautiful cluster of grapes.

Carol and the prettiest cluster of grapes.

The process seemed so fast and yet here I sit 8 hours later and we are still cleaning up. We had a fantastic barbeque we had for lunch from Lewiston’s own Lunch Box Deli & BBQ (delicious!!).

And had some lovely folks from Spokane come for a tasting. Another great couple from North Carolina too.

Tasting wines!

Check our facebook page for all the photos.

Crush is here! We processed our first batch of 2010 grapes, Merlot from Jessica Vineyard (West Richland, WA) this week.

Vivian and a giant Merlot cluster

Fermentation is underway, and within the next 10 days or so, we’ll have Merlot wine to press!

Fermenting Merlot, Day 2

We plan on harvesting our Chardonnay October 2nd-3rd, after which will closely follow our estate Merlot and Syrah from the Dallas Vineyard in Richland, WA. Other varieties are another few weeks out but are looking good.

Vivian doing a thorough sampling of Gewurztraminer

For those interested in helping out with the Chardonnay harvest this coming weekend, feel free to contact us at contact@colterscreek.com for details. It should be a fun event with lots of people, food, and of course, wine!

The days are getting shorter, the nights cooler, and the grapes sweeter! It’s time for us to start doing routine checks on the sugar, acid, and flavor factors of the grapes. This is exciting time of year…the grapes change almost daily during these last few weeks of summer, and harvest is just around the corner.

Carol and Dolce checking on the grapes.

Waiting for grapes to drop.

So just how do we measure these values? We start by running around the vineyard, collecting random clusters for each variety. We usually shoot to collect 1-2 gallons grapes per acre for each sample.

Removing clusters for analysis.

Once we’ve collected our sample, we dump it into a bucket and start pressing them by hand. Each variety is analyzed separately as they ripen at different times, are harvested at different dates, and are processed individually. A juice sample is drawn from the crushed grapes. We measure the titratable acidity (or the detectable acid) with a simple acid-base titration. The sugar is measured using a refractometer. For red grapes, we shoot for sugar levels between 23-25 brix (roughly % sugar); for green grapes (white wine grapes), anywhere between 21-24 brix, depending on the variety.

Testing the sugar level of the Merlot sample. This sample was 18.4 brix.

The last factor, flavor, is up to the winemaker! If it tastes good on the vine, it’s probably close or ready to be picked. Because these 3 tools are vital to picking your fruit at the optimal time, we measure them at least 1-2 times per week throughout ripening.

Our first harvest is projected to take place September 25th-26th. We will be processing 7-8 tons of our estate Chardonnay. Look for upcoming posts with details of picking opportunities – come join in on the harvest fun!

The weather has cooled down a little more than we’d like this month, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the sun will show up and warm up the vines for the remainder of the summer. A good share of the vineyard is over half-way ripe, which means it’s time to protect the grapes from pests. At this point, our 2 major concerns are deer and birds. The 8 ft. fence around the vineyard keeps out the deer. To keep the birds at bay, we lay nets over the vines. We pull a contraption behind a tractor which helps drape the net over the vine rows. The process requires 4 people minimum: 1 on the tractor, 1 feeding net through the contraption, and 2 walking alongside each row, tugging the net down below the canopy. Minus a few bee stings and snags in the net, we conquered 6 acres of vines in about 8 hours. It’s not a fun or fast job, but it’s essential!

Bird-netted Chardonnay

Watch for harvest updates, grape photos, and crush posts to soon follow!!