Grape Harvest 2010

Preparation for Harvest

Well, today is Thurs 9 Sept and I've just about recovered from the harvesting we did on Fri 3rd, Sat 4th and crushing on Sun 5th, and from the cleaning and preparation the week before, combined with the moving of all our equipment from our old bodega in Ambite to our new one in Morata de Tajuña!

First, we had to move out all our stuff from Ambite, which we did in a van. The heaviest things were the presses and the bulkiest the 700 l stainless steel tanks, and all the rest were bits and pieces. We also took along several hundred empty wine bottles for later use. The most complicated item was 300 l of wine which we hadn't got round to oaking. So what we did was load an empty 300 l tank onto the van and pump the wine into it. Then at the new bodega we pumped it straight into the oak cask.

This took about 2 or 3 trips per day over 3 days, as after each trip we had to thoroughly clean everything. At the same time as this was happening we were also negotiating with several neighbouring (organic) grape-growers with a view to buying around 3000 kg of grapes from them. This was because our own production is way down this year due to an overnight frost back in May, which killed off the tips of the new shoots. So we were visiting vineyards and negotiating all week too.

1st Harvest (Carabaña)

On Fri 3rd we harvested our own Tempranillo in Carabaña. This was pretty straight-forward and quick: we met at the vineyard at 7:30 in the morning (I took the van, which we'd loaded up with clean crates the night before). By about 14:00 we we done, as there was only about 400 kg. Then to the new bodega, where we unloaded, destemmed and crushed the grapes using a new machine (not by hand as usual). Then, cleaning up and loading the van again for the next day.

Harvesters harvesting Tempranillo in Carabaña

Crate of Tempranillo

Lunchtime

2nd Harvest (Titulcia)

Sat 4th. This was the big one. We had finally agreed to buy about 3000 kg of grapes and we had 1 day to pick them. We figured (on the back of an envelope) that 7 people could do it, ie 500 kg/person over 10 hours (with 1 person driving, not picking) which equals 50 kg/person/hour, which is five 10 kg crates person/hour, which is 1 crate in 12 mins. So much for the theory.

Well, in fact, it worked out more or less OK and we ended up taking 3900 kg (3500 kg Tempranillo and 400 kg Shiraz). We worked out exactly how many grapes we took by using the municipal weighing machine in Morata. On the trip out to Titulcia I weighed the van empty and on the trip back to Morata I weighed it full. The difference is the weight in grapes!

Municipal weighing machine panel (with token thingy)

It was hard, hard work, and it was hot, hot, hot that day. Tempers and nerves were on edge! At one point we ran out of water and had to to into the village to buy more (we had calculated 2 liters each and it wasn't enough).

Long rows of Tempranillo (in Titulcia)

Note the stones between the rows - they retain moisture.

Clusters of Tempranillo

Almost all the vines were like this one, ie very abundant and healthy clusters.

Crates of grapes awaiting loading

Loading up

Video clip:

Loading up crates of grapes

Lunchtime under olive tree

While driving to Morata with the 3rd load of grapes, at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon (ie the hottest time of day) I started getting all mystical and philosophical (light-headed? dehydrated?). There was absolutely no-one to be seen, neither on the road nor the villages I drove through; just the landscape and tarmac shimmering in the heat. Everyone was either having lunch or sleeping off lunch. I was thinking "What am I doing in the middle of nowhere in the Castillian Plain, at 40ºC, driving a van full of grapes? 'Normal' people are are watching TV or sleeping!!!" It must have been some sort of existential angst attack or something. Anyway, I'm alright now :)

So we finished picking and loading just as the sun was setting and drove back to the bodega in Morata. The last task was to move all the grapes out into the patio so they could cool down overnight and be ready for processing the next day.

Processing the Grapes

The next day (Mon 6th Sept) we discovered the wonders of mechanization! The new bodega that we're sharing this year is a 'real' bodega with a capacity of about 30,000 kg and is full of machinery and equipment that's needed to handle that quantity of grapes. For example, before it took us hours and hours to destem and crush the grapes by hand using this machine:

Manual Destemmer-Crusher

It now takes no time at all to do it using this machine (which has an electric motor attached to it).

Motorized Destemmer-Crusher

The grapes are tipped into the top; the stems are ejected into the blue box on the right; the must, skins and pips are pumped through the yellow hosepipe into the 700 l fermentation tank in the corner. I think we've just jumped into the 20th century :)

Fermentation Tank

A 700 l stainless steel fermentation tank tastefully mounted on a stack of three pallets and covered by elegant plasticized tablecloth.

Another novelty is this machine:

Pallet mover

Now we can move approximately 300 kg of grapes around all at once!!! Before it took us hours and gave us a sore back!  Now it takes minutes and makes us grin like maniacs!!!

Here's another 20th century machine:

It's called "Pump"

As the name suggests, this machine pumps liquid from one tank to another, or from the bottom of a tank to the top of same. This latter task is in fact what we've been using it for recently. Whereas before we used to do "punching down" with a stick like this

Stick used for 'punching down'

we now do "pumping over" with the pump like this

Pumping over

The motorized pump (on the floor) sucks out wine/must through the thick hosepipe stuck into an outlet at the bottom of the tank, and pumps it through the thin hosepipe that snakes its way across the floor and up the side of the tank and which is hanging over the lip and over the cap of skins that floats on the wine/must.

Juan (left) and me (right) feeding the crusher

This is actually phase 2 of our quality control system. Phase 1 is in the vineyard where we ensure that we only pick ripe healthy grapes and don't include any leaves, twigs, pebbles, etc. During Phase 2 here, one of us holds the crate and the other drops the clusters into the crusher and removes any stray leaves, twigs, etc that managed to get into the crate.

The final task after cleaning up (at about midnight) was to load up the stems into the van and dump them in the vineyard in Carabaña, where one day we will spread them around and they'll decompose and improve the fertility of the soil. (More existential angst here, ie 'Why am I driving a van full of grape stems in the middle of nowhere at midnight, when I could be sleeping like a normal person!!!' but like I said, I'm alright now.

Grapes stems in vineyard at midnight

Well that's about it. Today was a day of rest, uploading photos to FaceBook, a bit of Tweeting, and writing this post. Hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, comments, criticism, etc, don't hesitate :)

Taking More Samples

I collected another sample of Tempranillo yesterday, though this time I did a quick-n-dirty job, ie around 30 berries only more or less at random from all over the vineyard. All done in 15 mins.

Sample of Tempranillo Berries

I just realized that at this stage it's not really necessary to be methodical and to collect a truely representative sample. It doesn't matter of we get a reading of 9% probable alcohol or 10%, as the grapes are obviously not ripe. In a week or two, though, it'll be very important to know of it's 13% or 13.5% for example! Duh!

It was 37ºC at 5 o'clock yesterday.

Wandering around the vineyard I came across this vine: see the incredibly long shoot/cane (what's it called in English anyway? it's a "sarmiento" in Spanish.)

"Oooo my! I've never seen one that long before"

(said the actress to the grape-grower)

Next, when having a rest, some water and roll-up in the car, I was attacked by a cloud of flies!! First I blew smoke at them, but no use. Then I tried rubbing oregano and thyme onto my arms and legs,

Oregano and thyme

but that didn't work either. Finally I managed to get rid of them by trying to take photos of them with my mobile. They must have an instinctive fear of social media! I could only get this one, all the rest disappeared!!!

A fly on my knee

And then, while driving to see a neighbour (fellow producer of organic grapes and wine), to talk about possibly buying grapes from him, (we have excess capacity in the winery and expect a small harvest of our own grapes this year), I took this photo from the window of the car. (I pulled over first!)

An ex-vineyard

That pile in the middle of the field are vines, that have been uprooted. There's been a lot of uprooting of vineyards going on in Spain over the last few years. The EU pays a few thousand Euros/hectare to vineyard owners if they uproot them.

Sampling and Analyzing the Grapes

Even though it's very early on (harvest is still about 2 or 3 weeks away) we thought we'd start sampling the grapes now, so we can plot a nice graph and see how the sugar level goes up over time!

Link to YouTube: http://bit.ly/ahlmM3 (short video from vineyard)

You need about half a kilo of berries, which you then crush and strain. I thought that you could just wander about the vineyard and pick a few berries at random, but it's more complicated than that - according to my partner Juan - if you want a proper representative sample!!! Here are some of the criteria: berries should be picked from all over the vineyard - if not from every vine, then from every "x" number of vines; from the outside of the vine and from the inside; from the N, S E and W of the vine; from the bottom, middle and top of the cluster; big, medium and little berries.

Well, I made an effort to be methodical and I complied with the criteria, more or less, even though it took me more than 2 hours to collect the berries!

Tempranillo clusters (1) (22 August 2010)

Tempranillo clusters (2) (22 August 2010)

Pretty strange! Some clusters haven't changes colour at all! Any thoughts?

Tempranillo clusters (3) (22 August 2010)

Tempranillo clusters (4) (22 August 2010)

Then at the bodega I crushed the grapes, strained the must and poured it into a test-tube type container: 10.4 on the Beaumé scale, which looked up on a conversion table gives 10.5% probable alcohol content if harvested now. I also put a drop of juice on the end of the spectrometer, held it up to the sun and looked through the other end; you get a view similar to what a U-boat commander sees when looking through his periscope before launching a torpedo at the convoy! The three readings in the periscope were: 19% mas sacch.; 79 º0e; and 16.1 ºKMW Babo; I'll let Juan figure those ones out :)

(Next time (in a few days) I'll take photos of the process. I forgot to take any in the winery)

Ideally we should also test the acidity too. Over time the sugar content goes up and the acidity goes down, and the trick is to harvest at the optimum moment. Too much sugar and the wine will be too alcoholic, flat and heavy. Not enough sugar, and the wine will be thin and acidic.

Does anyone know a way to measure the acidity? (that we can do ourselves, that is, without having to send off samples to a lab)

The above reading were for Tempranillo: I also did the Airén, which had a Beaumé level of 7, which converts to a probable alcohol content of 6.5%.
 
A lastly, some wild vines (ie, where the grafted varietal didn't take and the rootstock itself is sprouting):
 

Wild vine (1)

Wild vine (2)

As I say every year at this time, 'next year we're going to graft a varietal onto the rootstocks'!! We never seem to find the time - but this time we really must do it :)

Lazy July Post

Well, it hot and there’s not really a lot to do, except potter around, procrastinate, and check the vineyard every now and then, to make sure that everything is OK.

Apart from the fact that there are not a lot of grapes (due to the overnight freeze on May 6th – see this video: http://bit.ly/aMtKhR ) the vines are happy and healthy. So far this year, we haven’t sprayed any sulphur (or anything else) on the vines. A few weeks ago we ploughed up between the rows as the grass was extra high this year due to all the rain we got during winter and spring, so the vineyard look a bit scruffy at the moment, but it should look nice again when the grasses and flowers and plants grow again.

General View (not much grass or many flowers)

I made a video with my mobile the other day “A walk through the vineyard” which I’ve uploaded onto YouTube here: A walk through the Vineyard

A vigorous vine

A not-so-vigorous vine

Baby grapes (no veraisson / 'envero' yet)

Bunches (I)

Bunches (II)

White-flowered creeper

Grasshopper

New Vineyard

The other day, we confirmed that we’re taking on a second vineyard as of October (ie after the harvest). It’s near a village called Villarejo, just about 10 km up the road from the vineyard we have now (in Carabaña). It’s about the same size (1 ha), Tempranillo, old vines – even older than the ones we have, judging by the thickness of the trunks. I guess about 50-60 years. I’ll find out soon enough when we get to know the neighbours.

New vineyard in Villarejo

Note the the soil - completely different colour, texture and composition from the vineyard in Carabaña, just 10 km down the road! Note also lack of grass, flowers, plants, etc. We'll soon put that right :)

(I took a video too but am having problems downloading it!)

New Winery

And we’re moving into a new (temporary) bodega. A neighbour in the village of Morata de Tajuña (who also makes organic wine – and organic olive oil) has kindly taken us in for a year, to give us time to look for a suitable place of our own.

So we have to move all our equipment and bits ‘n’ pieces from Ambite to Morata over the Summer. But before that we have to clean and disinfect everything. All our wooden equipment (presses and barrels and accessories) are mouldy because of the leaks in the roof over the winter.

Wine Hits the Shops in The USA

The wine from our first ever international shipment has hit the shops in the USA. This is the wine that we sent off on June Xth by ship and which arrived in Oakland (CA) on July 8th. It’s a Vinos Ambiz young white, 100% Airén, unfiltered, no added sulphites. I don’t know exactly which shops it’ll end up in, but I do know these ones for sure:

- Paul Marcus Wines (Oakland, CA)
- Chambers St Wines (NY, NY)

I’ve had some feedback already, via a comment on this blog in the post below called Natural Wine Shipment

Happy summer

I suspect that this will be the first, last and only post in July, as I’m taking off to Italy (Barga, Tuscany) on Saturday, until mid-August. I’ll maybe post from there, though I won’t be doing much wine-related activities (except drinking the stuff, of course). I hope to visit Tenuta Valgiano, who make natural wine, and which is just down the road near Lucca. So have a great summer everyone. I’ll be back!

The World of Wine Comes to Visit

The other day, Wednesday 16th June, the world of wine came to visit me, in the form of José Pastor, a US wine importer (JosePastorSelections) specializing in natural artesanal wines from Spain, accompanied by Keven Clancy (Farm Wine Imports), an import and distribution company based in California, and Chris Barnes (Chambers St. Wines), a natural wine shop in Lower Manhattan, NY.

But the visit really started the night before with an invitation to dinner at Los Asturianos restaurant (c/Vallehermoso, 94; Madrid). In fact, rather than dinner, it was more like a wine tasting accompanied by food. What an experience, to see wine world professionals in action! It took about half-an-hour to sort out the wines we were going to taste, and their order. Some had to be chilled, some had to be decanted, and the rest were lined up at the end of the table. Ordering the food, on the other hand, took about 30 seconds!

We were joined at the last minute by another mysterious (for me!) wine world personality, who came in carrying several bottles and a magnum in his hands and under his arms and who was introduced to me as ‘Victor’.

We tasted a good few wines (sorry, I didn’t take any notes!) for about 1 hr with tapas, including a wine from Méntrida made by the owner of the restaurant, and one from La manchuela made by Victor. Then, when our plate of steamed ‘berberechos’ (cockles) was served it was time to taste my wine, which had chilled nicely by then (Vinos Ambiz, Young White 2009, 100% Airén). JP, my importer, serves it up and says to Victor (who’s been talking 20-to-dozen ever since he sat down):

 “Here, taste this.” So he stops talking and takes a sip,

 “What’s this?” he asks.

 “100% Airén, from Madrid”. Pause. Then “Hmmm, muy buena expression del Airén!”

That means “A very good expression of Airén”. I was pleased of course, but I was even more pleased the next day when I found out who he was! Then, after my 15 seconds of glory, it was back to the previous conversation!

Some of the wines we tasted

So we stayed there for another few hours, tasting and eating, till about 1 o’clock in the morning. I couldn’t keep up with the professionals though: they went on to another place, but I just took a taxi home.

Next morning at 10 o’clock I met JP, KC and CB at their hotel and we drive out to the vineyard. How do they do it? They’ve been ‘on tour’ in Spain for 6 days, eating, drinking and sleeping 4 hours/night!!! What a life, eh?

The vineyard: they liked it because it smells beautifully (thyme, flowers, wild grasses) and because it’s flat! They’ve just come from Galicia and El Bierzo, where they have a lot of slopes!

Jose Pastor in my vineyard

Chris Barnes in my vineyard

Keven Clancy in my vineyard

Another beast in my vineyard!

The bodega (winery): they like the bodega too because it’s so ‘garagiste’ (see pics from previous posts)! Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of wine there for them to taste, as it’s all sold out. But this is what happens:

JP: “And what’s in that tank there?”
Me: “Garnacha 2009 that we’re going to oak”

JP: ”Can we have a taste?”
Me: “Sure, just let me find a clean glass!”

I hadn’t tasted or checked on that Garnacha since before Christmas. I’ve been so busy that I’d actually forgotten it was there and that we were supposed to have oaked it months ago!

So we all taste it, and JP goes crazy! “No way can you oak this!” he says “It would just kill it! The fruit and the freshness would be overwhelmed by the wood!” “How much of that have you got?” So I look inside the stainless steel 700 litre tank and its about ¾ full. “Er, about 500 bottles, I think”

“OK, I’ll buy the lot! Don’t touch it! No sulphur, no racking, no nothing! Just bottle it and send it over!”

What could I say? These guys are expert tasters, whereas even though I can grow grapes and make wine, I’m a hopeless inexperienced taster. In fact, I remember tasting that Garancha before Christmas and thinking “hmm, I hope this improves in the barrel!”. I think the cold temperatures over the Winter have made that wine evolve and improve a lot. It’s now a completely different wine from what it was 6 months ago.

Next we drive back to Madrid for another tasting-with-food at La Cave du Petit (c/Ponzano, 93), a wine shop that specializes in natural and ‘interesting’ wines from Spain and France. Carlos opened the shop specially for us – lucky we called, because he wasn’t going to open that day as Spain were playing football in the World Cup and the streets were empty! Again it took about 30 mins to sort out the wines and 30 secs to sort out the food!! And again, no notes and no photos either! The food was beautiful – all home-made (paté de fois gras, canard no-sé-qué, smelly and non-smelly cheese, etc) and of course a selection of natural wines (including Alfredo Maestro, Josep Garriga, Samuel Cano, Laureano Serres, and many more).

Then we parted ways: I went home for some rest and recovery (!) while they drove up to La Rioja, before going on to Catalonia to Alice Feiring's book presentation. What a life! Just one long party of touring around and eating and drinking, no? They denied that it was like that of course and went on about how hard they work during the rest of the year, but I don’t believe a word of it!!!

Natural Wine Fair, Madrid

Yesterday, Monday 7th June there was a little Natural Wine Fair here in Madrid.

My table and my wares

Only 6 producers were there, which on the one hand is quite sad considering how much wine is produced in Spain (and also considering how much organic and/or natural wine is produced in Spain!). But on the other hand, as it was such a small and intimate gathering, we had the chance to actually talk at length to the people who came to taste our wines, as opposed to just non-stop pouring and parrot-like repeating of the data!

Petit Salón de Cata

I don’t think I’ve ever drunk and talked so much wine for such an extended length of time: from 10:00 in the morning to 22:00 at night. My feet are still sore! (from standing up and maybe sitting for a total of 15 mins throughout the day!).

The 6 producers:
- Samuel Cano (Patio)
- Alfredo Maestro
- Jordi San Feliu
- Josep Garriga
- Bruno Ruiz
- and me! 

The Organizer:
- Malena (Observatorio del Vino)

2 wine shops who were involved in the event:
- Carlos (La Cave du Petit)
- Delia (La Fisna) 

Wine bloggers:
- Nacho Bueno 
- Fermín

And here’s the link to a video I took with my mobile: Video Petit Comite Madrid 

Here’s a thing:

While chatting to Alfredo Maestro (he was at the table next to mine) we decided to get together next year and make an experimental batch of champagne (or cava or spumante or sparking wine!). This is something that’s been at the back of my mind for years, but have never been able to do because 1) I don’t have the equipment and 2) I don’t have the knowledge! But I do have the grapes – and Alfredo, being an experienced taster (unlike myself), says that my young white (100% Airén) has the qualities required to make a good champagne!!! Well, we’ll just have to wait and see 

And here’s another thing:

We’ve been wanting to plant/graft new vines for years, but never had the time to plan it properly, but finally all the pieces are beginning to come together. Firstly, we had to decide on a variety, but we didn’t know which one to plant. We knew that we wanted to plant an autochthonous, native, local variety (as opposed to an ‘international’ commercial variety, but we’ve had no time to research into it. Then a few weeks ago, talking to an old (and retired) grape-grower, he mentioned a variety called Torronés, which he said used to be grown around Madrid, but which has now all but disappeared. One piece falls into place. Then another piece fell into place, as yesterday I met a man who works at IMIDRA (a body run by the Madrid Regional Government that has over 2,500 grape varieties under cultivation!!!!) and who seemed keen to work together on a planting project! Again, we’ll just have to wait and see!

And lastly, the anecdote of the day:

After packing up and leaving the building (at about 23:00) we all decided to go for a drink! There were about 10 of us (some producers and others who had been there all day). So we sat down at a ‘terraza’ (pavement café/bar), the waiter came, and … every single person ordered beer!!!

Natural Wine Shipment

At last! On Friday 28th May, our pallet of wine (Vinos Ambiz, Young White 2009, 100% Airén, Unfiltered) began its journey to the USA.

It took me two-and-a-half months to do it, counting from the day that importer Jose Pastor came to visit the vineyard and winery and taste the wines (on 11th March).

This is basically what I had to do:

• Design and print a front label and back-label (by Hola Por Que)
• Find a box manufacturer who would sell me ‘only’ 100 boxes (Cartonajes Hurtado)
• Remove labels and wash and disinfect 400 bottles
• Fill and cork and stick on labels and put in boxes
• Find a special US-homologated pallet, (thank you, Vinos Jeromín) stack it and wrap it
• Do the paperwork!

The ship is leaving the Port of Barcelona this Saturday (5th June) and arrives New York about two weeks later, so I assume that by the end of June the wine should be in the shops.

I’m looking forward to following up on the ‘progress’ of the wine down the chain of consumption and interacting with the final customers and/or retailer on blogs and forums, etc.

Here’s some final photos:

Truck backing up to winery gates

Wine moving out

Thank you, Juan, for doing all the hard work, while I swan around taking photos!

Elevator... going up!

Bye-bye wine

Our First International Shipment (Labels, Boxes, Pallet, ...)

Yesterday, Tuesday 25th May, I spent all day sticking labels onto bottles, exactly 804 labels (for the record), ie 402 front-labels and 402 back-labels.

It's our very first ever shipment abroad! Vinos Ambiz Young White, 100% Airen (not filtered, not clarified).

The following photos are a bit dark, because I was in a 'real' bodega, ie dark and cold (unlike our own place in Ambite).

After bottling and corking the bottles the other day (see a previous post) we decided to move the bottles to the bodega of our friend (and fellow organic winemaker) just down the road in the village of Morata de Tajuña - temperatures are rising in Madrid (at last!) and our place in Ambite doesn't have good insulation.

Bottles being labelled

Labelling station and detritus

The other day, I discovered by chance (luckily!) that you can't just use any old pallet to ship goods to the USA! It has to be a specially approved model that is made of plastic (as opposed to wood). No doubt the reason for this is to reduce the risk of accidentally importing insects, larvae, germs, etc that can live in wood.

Plastic pallet, homologated for entry into the USA

Below is Juan, sealing up the 6-packs and stacking them on the pallet.

Sealing up the boxes

The stack grows

Well, it's almost ready to go. Now we just have to wrap the stack up in plastic film (I forgot to buy it yesterday!) and call the transport company to come and pick it up.