Punching down the cap

Once our red wine grapes are run through crusher/stemmer, the resulting "Must" is pumped into a fermenting vessel. We have several stainless steel tank fermenters for this purpose, but some of the smaller lots are fermented in bins like those in the pictures below. As the must ferments, the berries will rise to the surface and form the "cap". To extract skin color from the berries, the cap must be churned back into the liquid.  This is called punching down the cap and it is done at least twice a day while the wine is actively fermenting. These pictures were taken on Sunday afternoon. Pablo drove from & to Napa to do this 20 minute job. Had I known it needed to be done, I could have saved him the trip.

Our intern "Pablo" punching down the cap

 

The Punch down tool

 

Mixing up the must

Winery Dog Yogi, Part 5 – Long Live Yogi!

I love this picture:

 

Yogi making dust at the Wolff Vineyard

 

 

It's been over 2 years since I've written about Yogi. Since our visitors to the winery enjoy seeing him more than me, I thought it was time to give his fans an update.

 

I was in Wyoming last week. Yogi had a dog-sitter for 6 days. It's the longest we've been apart in almost 2 years.  To say that Yogi is with me 24/7 is only a slight exaggeration.  No, he doesn't get to sleep in my bed. But he does come to work with me every day and he has a bed in the corner of my small office at the vineyard management company. He considers me the "Big Dog" and prefers it that way. When I'm not around, he seems to get anxious and has a hard time relaxing with the responsibility of protecting those in his presence. It's not a job he takes lightly.

 

So for those 6 days, he was the Big Dog. In addition to the added responsibility, he didn't get as much exercise as when he is with me.  When I got back, I knew he needed to run and let off some steam. So I took him to the Wolff Vineyard. The Wolff Vineyard is at the end of State Lane East of Yountville. The vineyard blocks are on both sides of a hill that is fairly steep in some spots. And Yogi seems to prefer running up the steep spots, even when he's been exercising regularly. He started running as soon as his feet hit the ground. He stopped at the first gate to wait impatiently for me to open it. But as he was waiting, he spotted wild turkeys on the hillside. Even though Yogi has Lab blood in him, he's not that interested in birds. But wild turkeys are a different story. They spend most of their time on the ground and will only fly when forced to fly.  The chase was on and was over as soon as they lifted off and flew over the vineyard. Yogi barked as if to say “and stay away!”, but they had gotten his adrenaline flowing. So he continued to run and found more wild turkeys on the other side of the hill. It was after he made this second flock fly, that he spun around and headed down through the vineyard again. It was then that I snapped the picture above. He was kicking up lots of dust but not chasing anything. He was running for the pure pleasure of running.

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, rabbits are his specialty. When we walk the vineyards, he is obsessed with finding and chasing rabbits. He has never caught one, and I don't think he would know what to do if he did. In his younger years, if a rabbit was within sight, he would be chasing it. But Yogi turned six this last May. He has learned that if a rabbit has a big head start, he might as well try to find one that’s a bit closer. At least that’s what I prefer to believe – not that he’s getting too old, he’s just maturing and getting wiser. So he certainly doesn’t comply with one of my favorite quotes:

 

 

Age does not always bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone.

Garrison Keillor