Harvest is in full swing! We got off to a slightly early start, beginning with the Chenin Blanc on August 24 and it's been non-stop ever since! Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, spends his mornings either checking the vineyards or crushing and his afternoons tending to the aromatic, fermenting wines, so it's seven days a week for him until we wrap it all up.

Anticipation is high because the growing season has been just about ideal so far. Geoff has been amazed at the nearly textbook conditions, remarking: "Warm, mild days, cool nights, no rain. It just doesn't get much better than this! With our early start, we expect to finish up with Cabernet Sauvignon or Petit Verdot late this month or early October. Please check here frequently for updates and see our vintage update for more detailed information about the 2007 growing season.

August | September | October

Glossary:

Aerated: Geoff "stirred the wine" to give the yeast more air.

Cold fermentation: We cold ferment most delicate whites to enhance the fruity flavor. Cold fermentation will make the Chenin Blanc wine smell and taste very much like Chenin Blanc grape juice. The yeast works slowly in the cold environment, much like trying to get bread dough to rise in the refrigerator.

Crushed: The hand-picked grape clusters are fed into a machine called a crusher-stemmer. Crushing is a misleading term because it implies that we smash the grapes. Smashing them will cause bitterness. Instead, rubber-tipped batons gently knock the grapes off of their stems. The grapes are then run through soft rubber rollers to break their skins and release the juice so we can begin fermentation.

Fermentation: Yeast is added to the juice, causing the sugar in the grapes to convert to heat, CO2 and alcohol.

Filtration: In general the term refers to clarifying the wine by pumping it through a medium such as cellulose, diatomaceous earth or a synthetic membrane, leaving fine particles behind. At this stage of production, the lees filtration is a very loose filtration designed to remove dust and grape solids that may impede fermentation or contribute off odors. 

Inoculated: Geoff adds the yeast.

Malo-lactic fermentation (ML): The conversion of tart malic to soft lactic acid, caused by bacteria either native or added.  Diacetyl is a by-product of the malo-lactic fermentation that contributes a buttery flavor and a bit of weight to the wine and is most often associated with Chardonnay (but not at Goosecross).  Virtually all red wines undergo Malo-lactic fermentation, but the effects are not nearly as noticeable as they are with whites. It is often called a secondary fermentation, because it usually follows the primary fermentation.

Pressing: The press separates the liquid from the solid. It's like a big strainer. Once the wine has drained off, pressure is applied to the skins and seeds remaining in the press to get more of the liquid out, hence the term "press."

Pump-over: As the skins rise to the top of the tank during fermentation, Geoff mixes them back in to the fermenting wine by circulating wine from the bottom over the top. He will do this several times a day until the fermentation is over in about a week or 10 days.

Racked: Solids have been allowed to settle and the clear wine moved into another tank.

Stop fermentation: Geoff will chill the wine so much that the yeast goes dormant and the fermentation stops, in order to retain the residual, unfermented sugar in the finished wine.