Flaherty Wines

We made it through last week with some warm fermentations, but no real problems in the end. We pressed out two of the bins on Saturday morning to make room for the second round. Syrah takes on good color and extraction right away, so the lots have remarkable depth despite the short maceration. (In fact, I was surprised by the difference between the sorbets I made from freshly crushed Syrah and Tempranillo juice–the Syrah was deep purple and big flavored, whereas the Tempranillo was a dusky lavender in color and seemingly sweeter though technically drier. The Tempranillo will definitely need a longer maceration.) One of the Syrah lots is finishing fermentation in barrel, which will add some nicely integrated oak characters.

Later that afternoon, we received two and a half tons of Syrah from Manzur’s Encon vineyard. Very nice fruit, as usual. We then picked about half of our tempranillo on Sunday, so we have a total of four bins fermenting right now. The Syrah lots are moving along nicely–the fermentations are cooler this time around, with a very steady progress. The Tempranillo is just peaking today, and again the temperatures have been manageable.

This harvest has been complicated by the fact that I fractured my shoulder a week before we received any fruit. I’m normally in charge of holding down the fort during the week, in terms of punchdowns and cooling measures and generally following Ed’s instructions. I’m absolutely useless this year! The injury isn’t serious, but it is extremely frustrating to be unable to, say, move the cooling unit as needed. We were very lucky to find Don Armando, who is taking care of the daily chores and also helping out on the weekends. Our other key assistant is Nico, whom we have known since he was Ben’s age. It’s very fun having him on staff. All told, the harvest is going smoothly, despite my badly timed sick leave.