Moscato, My First Child

I'm currently celebrating my 1-year anniversary of working at Grimes Mill Winery, and I have managed to go through (almost) every step of the winemaking process for a few varietals.  I say almost every step because I did not plant the vines that we harvested this year, but I've done every other step to take the grapes from vine to wine.

The very first wine that we finished from this year's harvest was our 2012 Moscato.  In my opinion, we've made no better wine at GMW.  I don't have kids, but I am starting to understand how hard it is to see any faults in something that I've put so much time and effort into.

Moscato was one of the first vines that we pruned during the early Spring.  Though we hit it early due to its proximity to our back door, it stuck out in my mind because it made my hands hurt for days.  Moscato vines grow quite thick in a very short period of time.  A 2-year-old Moscato vine can look as thick as a 6-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon vine.  The plants grow very tall.  You can find a Moscato row in our vineyard by finding a row with an extra length of wire above all the others to support the height of the plants.  The outermost layer of the vine, the bark, gets very thick and tough to cut.  Yet, we had to cut it, many times, until the blisters turned into calluses and the muscle aches slowly went away.

After pruning, we left them to do their own work  Other than light aesthetic trimming every once in a while, and the occasional mow around the base of the vine, we concentrated very little effort on our 3 rows of Moscato.  That was, until we found the outbreak of phylloxera smack-dab in the middle of our Moscato crop.  We had to cut away all of the infected leaves, which left us worried that the grapes wouldn't mature appropriately, or that they'd get too much sun.

Then there was the drought.  Not only did our Moscato get too much sun, just about every vine on our property got too much sun, and too little rain.  It's a surprise that the Moscato even lasted the whole season, but when it came time to harvest, our little grapes showed their resilience by being deliciously sweet and balanced.  We had high hopes, but we didn't want to get too excited until we took them through weighing and crushing and pressing and fermenting and racking.  When we finally got to the bench-trial phase, the true beauty of this year's Moscato became very clear.  We decided to add 8% sugar back to the wine, since we fermented it completely dry (meaning we let all of the natural sugars in the grape convert to alcohol).

This is only our second year producing Moscato, so we only have last year's for comparison.  This year's Moscato isn't quite as sweet as last year's, but it is still quite sweet.  You really don't want to drink a full glass of it, but you'll find yourself wanting to; it's a perfect way to end a meal.  The amount of sugar is the primary reason we sell them in smaller bottles.  This year's Moscato has none of the strong, bitter-almond finish that last year's had, and we also didn't have to play with adding orange or carbon dioxide to try and balance it.  It did all of the balancing on its own.

The only down side to this year's batch of Moscato:  there isn't a ton of it.  There's actually only 4 cases left.  So, hurry in and snag a bottle of our 2012 Moscato, or what I'm still considering 'my first child'.  By the way, if you're going to purchase a glass of Moscato, it makes more sense (economically) to just purchase a bottle for yourself.  Don't tell them I told you that.

Cheers!

The Winemaker's Apprentice

P.S. The web address for this blog has changed, so check your bookmarks!

Into a Winery

Chances are that if you've been to Grimes Mill Winery's Tasting Room, you've been taken back into the winery by Phil, the owner, or me, if you're lucky.  Unlike the tasting room, the winery has the aesthetic appeal of a garden shed.  Until now!

After a successful season (regardless of the difficulties with frost and drought), we now have barrels resting on top of barrels!  Our winery is starting to look like the winery we've always imagined.

What once was:

Secret: the fourth barrel is turned the wrong way... and empty.

Is now:

And they're all full (and turned the right way).

One day, maybe the wall of barrels will reach the ceiling.  One can only hope.  What did we fill the new barrels with?  5 different blends of red wine, where every single grapes was grown right here in Lexington!

We also harvested a bunch of Cabernet Franc this year that tasted great.  However, we didn't quite produce enough of it to fill an entire 60-gallon barrel by itself.  (We wanted to keep it at least 75% Cab Franc so that we can legally put the varietal on the label.)

So, what are we doing with it?  We're currently experimenting with a more cost-effective way of imparting French Oak flavor into a red wine (lovingly referred to around the winery as "poor man's French Oak").  We have a bunch of segments of new French Oak barrels (that likely didn't make the cut at the cooperage), and we're just floating them directly in our wine.  Instead of wine in a barrel, it's barrel in a wine.  Here's what it looks like:

Yes, there are many pros and cons to thoroughly consider when attempting this.  The good news for you is:  you may be able to get your hands on our first-ever Cab Franc by this summer!  We'll need several months to play with it, but we have high hopes that we can make something great out of it.

The better news affects you even more.  A French Oak barrel can cost upwards of $600 to $1000.  An American Oak barrel costs somewhere between $300 and $600.  The opportunity to remove these from the price of the bottle (not that the segments were cheap) allows us the opportunity to provide you with a local, hand-crafted, high-quality wine at a reasonable price.

Who could ask for more?,
The Winemaker's Apprentice

Slow Season & Catch-up

Jan-Feb is always the slowest season at the winery.  If you want to feel like you're getting personal attention, there's no better time to show up at the tasting room than now.  Be careful though, almost all of the wineries in the area cut back their hours during the cold, dark, snowy months, so give them a call before you drive there.  (I believe we are Sat-Sun 12-5pm only right now.)

I appreciate the lull in the activity, though, because it has felt non-stop since the last time I posted.  Well, after the drought, watching the grapes was like watching grass grow.  I literally mowed my yard a handful of times before having to deal with the grapes at all.  We just let them grow and develop the best they could with the little water we were able to provide them.

As Autumn was peeking her head around the corner, we started harvesting.  This year, all but one varietal on our property (all except Pinot Grigio planted in 2011) were old enough and mature enough to be harvested.  In general the crop may  have been a little light due to the lack of water, but the quality of most of our fruit was spectacular.  Lack of water slightly dehydrates the grapes so that they're not big and watered down.  Instead they're smaller and full of flavor.  However, it's a fine line between slight dehydration and killing the vine, a line that we walked way too closely this past summer.

Harvest 2012.  That's me in the maize shirt.

We picked through sun and rain and storm and cold, starting with Moscato and ending with our very unique Petit Manseng varietal.  We weighed, crushed, fermented, pressed, racked, and even bottled some of the wines.  I'll try and take some time over the slow season to catch you up on the interesting things that have happened to the winery (and to me) over my busy 6-month blog absence.

Happy New Year,
The Winemaker's Apprentice