A day in the cellar

Thanks to Joe Davis and Chris Bratcher for the generosity of their time and for their teaching and sharing spirit. I was able to work a day of crush at Arcadian Winery this weekend - my first day of meaningful time in a working winery.

First was a session of pigeage through the various fermenting lots of Arcadian and Bratcher Pinot Noir. This is the traditional foot-treading (as opposed to punch downs) of the grapes submerging the cap of skins and clusters back into the wine. It’s like jumping into quicksand, with the cap quickly giving way to the fermenting juice below. And with about 5-10 minutes in each bin churning about 3 feet worth of wine, it’s hard work. Also depending on the stage of fermentation, it may either be hot or cold on the bins.

The most difficult part of the whole thing though is pulling yourself out of the fermenter, and balancing yourself back onto the ladder without touching the floor, before moving on to the next fermenter. At about the time I got into a groove with all this, I got an audience of guests visiting the winery!

Later it was sorting the previous night’s harvest (Clone 115 from Clos Pepe for Arcadian) of Pinot Noir going into the destemmer. This is looking for poor clusters to sort out- botrytis or green berries. It’s also looking for good looking clusters to separate out and put into the fermenter whole. The free-run juice from the sorting table, and the juice and skins from the destemmer, goes on into the fermenter. The best-looking bins of grapes were spared the de-stemmer and shoveled into the fermenter whole-cluster.

Below are a few pictures I took. Unfortunately no action-shots of the pigeage, but you can get an idea of what I was jumping into.

Getting ready for the pigeage

Taking a break on the forklift while Joe entertains guests

Part of the prior night's harvest

Clone 115 going into the destemmer

Cold-soaking clone 115 pinot noir