winegirlblogs

The bottling process has begun here at our new facility in Lake Chelan. We’re finishing the blending of our 2008 red wines including some Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. It’s hard work coming up with the perfect blends; lots of sampling. There’ll be another Kamari Black Label Reserve this year and fan favorites, Cab Franc and Malbec varietals and some new blends to be announced later.

Unfortunately there’ll be no photos today. While pouring wines at a most recent event in Seattle, our vehicle was burgled. Stolen was our laptop and digital camera among other things. We lost the machine itself as well as 6 months of wine artwork and photos. It’s a major bummer at an extremely busy time for us. But we’re pushing on, friends.

After deciding on our blends, we set up for the bottling line. As a true nano-winery, we bottle by hand which means washing, sanitizing, rinsing, sparging, filling, corking, foiling, and labeling the bottles pretty much one at a time. It is quite an operation to get up and running. On the first day, there are always a few snags and snaggles as we try to remember how the equipment works and what is the most efficient system of bottling. We usually call in a few dedicated winos to volunteer on the line.

After two sessions bottling, we have our 2008 Kamari Cabernet Franc and 2008 Kamari Malbec in bottles and resting in the cold room for a little while so they can deal with their bottle shock in cool, humid peace. These are long days, usually around 15 hours, after which we stumble home for a “nap” before the next day of flying water and flowing wine.

The Blending Room, our winery and tasting bar, on the North Shore of Lake Chelan, is open for business while we work. Come check us out for a taste or a case, ask questions, and watch out for the errant hose sprays from the bottling line.

J.H.

And now for some actual winemaking on this blog. It’s been a while. Our time has been occupied and our blog has been clogged with moving the winery, construction on the new facility and settling into our new location. We’re getting prepared to bottle our 2008 reds and 2009 whites soon. That means some filtering is in order for the ’09 Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer (that’s French for Gewürztraminer).

WineGirl and her helper, Delice, rolled out the small but mighty plate filter for some action. It had been in the closet for a while, but performed its duties very well. Delice took to the sometimes hectic process with quick feet and cool attitude.

As always, there is lots of cleaning and sanitizing in winemaking, which makes for lots of water everywhere, especially down my boots. Our new helper came out relatively dry though. There were lots of hoses on the ground too. No one tripped and no one fell. The wine got filtered, and it was good.

Success.

J.H.

This week, we took the time to rack some aging wines. Racking entails transfering the wine from the barrel, washing out the sediment (lees), returning the wine to the barrel and topping off the barrel with extra wine. We transfer the wine by pressurizing the barrel with inert gas and pushing the wine through the hose to the waiting vessel. This method is very gentle on the wine and limits unnecessary exposure to the air. It’s nice not to have to use the pump for this process. As much as I like our little pump, it requires priming which can be a chore, especially for this job. The WineGirl was anxious to get started moving wine, so I cranked up the stereo and connected the bulldog to the nitrogen tank and got going.

With the wines properly racked off the lees and the barrels cleaned, WineGirl, Brother Ben and I returned the wine to their home barrels for some more months to age undisturbed. The 1 1/2 inch diameter hose can get heavy after a while of being filled with wine, but everyone was holding up fine until the last drop. I won’t forget again that I can’t clear the line of wine by pushing the gas through to the barrel. It seems like a fine idea until you see the result all over the wall or your brand new sweatshirt.

Brother Ben was a good sport about the eruption, our largest to date. He learned a valuable lesson about wearing new and/or light colored clothing to the cellar. I learned that time taken to clear the lines by gravity is better spent than by scrubbing the ceiling. The WineGirl was amused by the whole situation though, and it was she who was at the controls. She didn’t look too sorry, Ben.

J.H.

My tribute to the WA wine industry!

WineGirl in Washington

WineGirl

www.winegirlwines.com

We’re getting ready to bottle our new Merlot and the pieces are coming together. The corks and foils are on the way. The labels are at the printer and look great. We picked up some bottles the other day from down south. The warehouse in Kent looked ready for the great deluge. There were sandbags piled neatly around the perimeter and we had to climb in the front door of the place. I figured it was preparation for the dam failure, but they seemed to say it was normal flood season prep. We got the bottles home safely. Thanks go to Joel for the generous use of his vehicle.

I was on my own again to wash, rinse and dry the bottles for our first round of bottling. The drying trees nearly stumped me into submission. They are pretty stupid pieces of plastic, but they do their job well when I can figure out how to stack them correctly. The work isn’t bad but I have managed to get completely soaked every time I use the hose lately. It’s all worth it, I guess.

J.H.