Intense Three Days of Vinous Activities - Day 1

Last Friday 26th March I got up early so as to get to the winery as soon as possible because I knew I had an intense 3 days ahead of me. First I had to bottle and cork about 100 bottles of assorted wines: some young white (2009, 100% Airén), some young red (2009, 97% Garnacha 3% Cab Sauv) and some Crianza (2008, 100% Tempranillo). Thankfully the Crianza was already bottled last year, so I only had to pack it up in boxes.

Crianza Labels

The day before I had prepared sticky labels to distinguish it from the young red – as all our bottles are recycled/reused it’s difficult to tell one from the other as all the shapes, sizes and colours of the bottles are used randomly among all the types of wine!

Crianza labels close up

This is what we call in Spain a ‘chapuza’, ie a quick-n-dirty highly unprofessional job done very quickly (and perhaps effectively).

Crianza bottles being labelled

More Crianza bottles being labelled

 

On the way to the winery I wanted to stop off in Tielmes at the laboratory where they’re doing an analysis of some of our wines, to ask when the results would be in, but it was closed - Easter holidays started early for some! So, on to the winery, or rather on to the bar for a coffee and sticky bun, before starting the bottling.

I needed all those bottles for an organic trade fair in Puebla de la Sierra (Madrid) – more on this event in Part 2 of this post. Well, the bottling was quite straight-forward, as I’d soaked and scraped off the labels beforehand. While I was at it, I bottled a couple cases for some consumers and on the way back to Madrid that night I dropped them off in Perales.

State of the vineyard on Friday 26th March

It was now about lunch-time and time to go to the vineyard to do some more pruning. We STILL haven’t finished, but there’s not much left to do. After munching down a ‘bocadillo’ and a swig of wine in the vineyard, I managed to do quite a lot of pruning; when till the sun started to set, it got chilly and a cold wind came up, so I decided to call it a day even though I could have carried on for another hour or two before it got too dark to see. And besides, my back was sore.

Another view of the vineyard

More recycling of wine-bottles

The weather has been so bad recently, ie raining a lot, that we haven`t been able to finish pruning the vines, it's so muddy underfoot. It really must stop raining soon, as it's getting rather late in the year. The local folklore here says that you should have your pruning finished by San José, ie 19th March. Well, we have a week! I think the idea is to have the pruning done while the vines are still dormant and before the sap starts flowing, otherwise you'd be removing the nutrients that the vine needs to sprout before the leaves can photo-synthesize energy for themselves.

So, if the vineyard is out, .. to the winery, to recycle wine-bottles for the end of the month:

Ismael scrapes labels off

We left these bottles soaking last week, so most of the labels came off quite easily. Some, though are just impossible to take off no matter how long you leave them soaking. it makes you wonder what kind of glue these wineries are using.

More bottles soaking

We managed to de-label about 150 bottles, and next week (or whenever!) we'll set up the washing-sterilizing assembly line, before bottling and corking.

150 de-labelled green bottles

And talking about corks, here we have 000's of corks that we've been accumulating over the years. The idea is to make "curtains" for the windows and doors of the winery, but of course we never have any time! There's always something more urgent/essential to do!

Used corks awaiting recycling

Belated Post - Bottling, Corking and Posing in the Winery

This post should have been uploaded two weeks ago, but I was waiting for my friend Edu to send me the photos, as I forgot my mobile (cell-phone) that day! He finally sent them last night, so here we go.

These first three are of poeple actually working:

Manually filling bottles of wine

Manually corking the young red (97% Garnacha, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon)

More manual corking

And these ones are of people posing:

Yours truly (Fabio) beside the fermentation tanks

Bottlers, corkers and quality controllers

Lovely lunch, after a hard morning's work

Another day in the Vineyard and Winery

It actually stopped raining for two days in a row, so I went to the vineyard to do a bit of pruning, but it was still very muddy underfoot. I did a few rows and then took some photos with my mobile:

The grass is just beginning to sprout

The buds on the almond tree are just beginning to swell

The ladybirds are making more ladybirds (Spring has indeed sprung!)

Hundreds of squawking flocking storks

Then on to the winery, to face the facts! I spent several hours just sweeping up rubble from the roof, and generally tidying up.

Rubble from the roof

Then I put about 150 bottles in water to soak off the labels in about a week’s time, hopefully in the company of new victim-helpers

Wine bottles submerged in water to soak off the labels

Then inside to check the equipment: 

Collateral Damage I - Oak barrels are damp and mouldy

 

Collateral Damage II - Oak barrels are damp and mouldy

Collateral Damage III - The presses are damp and mouldy

Bottle-Washing in the Winery (2)

Last Sunday 31st January, we were filling bottles of young white (100% Airen) and young carbonic maceration red (97% Grenache, 3% Cab Sauv). This was a pleasant fun task, as it was accompanied by interesting conversations, glasses of wine (quality control is important!) and regional music (specifically Manu Chao and Radio Futura on this occasion).

Unfortunately, before that we had to wash bottles and/or take the labels off. That wasn't so much fun, but at least we consoled ourselves knowing that we were doing a good turn for the environment by recyclcing so many bottles - and not only we 4 who were there, but also all our beloved consumers who made the effort to return their bottles and (in some cases!) to take the labels off :)

José Luis and Fermín taking labels off, and Juan in the background, at the bottle-washing machine

Fermín and José Luis taking off more labels

More bottles to be soaked for the next time

Strict quality control procedure

Recycling grape skins, pips and stems; Bits and pieces in the winery

Yesterday, (Sunday 1st November) I finally got round to cleaning up and tidying the patio outside the winery, which was a huge mess after the crushing and pressing, and wine-making etc. I took the sacks of skins, pips and stems back to the vineyard and made quite a large pile next to a larger pile of organic manure, which we'll be spreading this winter sometime.

Pile of pomace next to pile of organic manure

This pomace (skins, pips and stems) will slowly decompose over time and eventually we'll spread it among the vines, thus increasing the fertility of the soil and closing a cycle of nutrients and organic matter.

The same pile seen from closer up

Very pretty, but is it art?

I also decided to tidy up inside the winery too. Despite appearances, these photos show part of the winery after tidying up!

On the left, stainless steel tanks, against the back wall, boxes full of bottles (dirty but with labels removed), in the foreground flattened cardboard boxes, and underneath a box and a bag full of recycled corks


This looks like a junkshop! Manual destemmer-crusher (white, on the left), manual crusher (blue), pneumatic lid for tank, two more bags of recycled corks, in the background my great-grandmother's marble-topped bedside table (no kidding!), manual bottle-washer, plastic crates, wooden parts of the manual press, 3 shelves, two of them freed up to receive wine, one full of stuff such as old barrels, glasses for tastings, oddly-shaped bottles, etc.

And lastly, a photo of the organic vineyard (in Carabaña). The leaves have turned brown and have started dropping, and soon the vines will enter their dormant phase. When all the leaves have fallen, we can start pruning, as by then all the sap and nutrients will have gone into the roots and trunk, ready for use in spring. If we were to start pruning too soon we would be removing sap and nutrients and the vines would not be so healthy or vigorous.



Next week it's bottle-washing time, so as to be ready to bottle the Crianza 2008, and the new young wines from the grapes harvested in September 2009.

Recycling and sustainability

Here's a summary of what and how we're recycling.

Recycling of bottles:

Right from the start of this organic wine project (5 years ago), we have made an effort to reuse our bottles. Apart from the obvious envirnomental reasons for recycling, there is also an economic benefit - both for us (the producers) and for you (the consumers). This is because we pass on the cost savings to the end customer by keeping our prices lower than if we had to buy all our bottles new.

Each new bottle costs us around €0,20 if we were to buy a whole pallet of 1561 bottles, and it would cost a lot more if we were to buy smaller quantities. We estimate that our consumers return about 50% of the bottles over the course of the year, which we then wash and reuse.

It's easy to return your bottles to us (in theory!). Just leave your empties at your pick-up point on delivery day (or a few days before if possible) and we'll take them away. You can also take them to the winery of course whenever you pop in for a visit.
We can also use wine bottles that are not ours, but in this case, we'd really appreciate it if you soaked the labels off first.

Cardboard boxes:
We've never actually bought any 6- or-12 bottle boxes, ever! We have this arrangement with a wine-bar whereby they keep their empty boxes and we pick them up every week or so. A classic win-win situation, as we get free boxes and they get free trash removal!

Corks:


Used corks can't be used to reseal a bottle of wine, but you can return them to us if you want. We've accumulated several thousand so far and we're saving them up make 1) anti-fly curtains for the doors and windows of the winery and perhaps 2) cover a wall of the winery like this shop has done: [link]

Reuse of stems, skins and pips:
We have two uses for these materials. Usually we take it all back to the vineyard where it decomposes/composts and so we improve the quality of the soil by adding organic matter. Some years we make grappa/orujo using a still.

((Vinos Ambiz - sustainable vineyard, natural, genuine, authentic, good quality wine expressing the terroir, recycling as much as possible, improving the fertility of the land, doing our bit for the environment and people's health))

Bottle-washing day

Here we can see the "semi-automated bottle-washing line", with a stategically placed bottle on the hydraulic bottle-washer!

We are almost ready to bottle the Crianza 2007. It's spent 10 months in oak and is very good (even if I say so myself!). This weekend we washed over 300 bottles that you've been returning to us these days. Recycling all the way!

When we have an exact date for the bottling, I'll publish it, in case anyone wants to come out to help.


Here are the boxes (also recycled) full of nice clean bottles, ready for filling.