Another Harvest at PugWine! 2008
Benny is the youngest of the Pug Wine dogs and his baby portrait is the label for the gold medal winning 2006 Pug Pinot from Amber Ridge Vineyard in Sonoma County's Russian River area. Since there is a tradition to maintain, Benny came to the winery this year to supervise the pressing of Amber Ridge grapes from the 2008 harvest. These grapes had been transported from the vineyard to Crushpad, an urban winemaking facility in San Francisco about and hour and a half south. There they were hand sorted and destemmed, and left in the bin for a ten day fermentation, with daily "pushdowns" to insure that the grape skins yielded maximum color and flavor to the wine. As a good pug should Benny began his work by allowing himself to be hugged and kissed by the winemaking team. Then he backed off to watch the grapes be dumped into a high tech press:
After the free run juice had drained through, the grapes were then pressed to precise levels. THe juice from each pressing was individually tasted before progressing to the next press. This is part of the winemaker's art because too much pressure can result in bitter and too tannic flavors which are undesirable in fine pinot noir. Volume must be sacrificed for quality at this point:
Benny is the youngest of the Pug Wine dogs and his baby portrait is the label for the gold medal winning 2006 Pug Pinot from Amber Ridge Vineyard in Sonoma County's Russian River area. Since there is a tradition to maintain, Benny came to the winery this year to supervise the pressing of Amber Ridge grapes from the 2008 harvest. These grapes had been transported from the vineyard to Crushpad, an urban winemaking facility in San Francisco about and hour and a half south. There they were hand sorted and destemmed, and left in the bin for a ten day fermentation, with daily "pushdowns" to insure that the grape skins yielded maximum color and flavor to the wine. As a good pug should Benny began his work by allowing himself to be hugged and kissed by the winemaking team. Then he backed off to watch the grapes be dumped into a high tech press:
After the free run juice had drained through, the grapes were then pressed to precise levels. THe juice from each pressing was individually tasted before progressing to the next press. This is part of the winemaker's art because too much pressure can result in bitter and too tannic flavors which are undesirable in fine pinot noir. Volume must be sacrificed for quality at this point:
posted by pugwine | 10:47 PM
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