I am not quite sure why, but now that the actual picking is finished, we seem to be working harder than ever. OK, the hours are not quite as long, as we can accomplish most of what we need to do within ‘normal’ opening hours, but the physical demands are quite exhausting. We seem to spend most of our day on the staircase between the lower and mid levels of the bodega – in other words, between the top of the tanks and the bottom of the tanks. And then there is the seemingly back breaking job of seeding the tanks. I say back breaking because of the system that we use for preparing the yeast – all done very carefully by hand. We use large 300 litre containers, firstly to re-hydrate the yeast, and subsequently to add grape must to the mixture to slowly lower the temperature, until it is cool enough to add back to the tank. For example, the yeast is re-hydrated at body temperature, around 38°C, whilst the temperature of the must at this time is nearer to 15°C. If we simply poured the warm yeast mixture into the cold must, then the shock alone would probably kill most of the yeast and render it useless. That’s why we have to reduce the temperature of the yeast mixture in a very slow, controlled fashion, and all the time bending over what is essentially, a big bucket!

As I mentioned in a previous post, owing to the two breaks that we had during the picking, this year’s cellar ‘routine’ will also be disrupted. Usually there is pretty much a natural ‘flow’ as our attention moves from one tank to the next, but this year it is already much more disjointed, and obviously will be spread over a longer period. Today we have just finished the last of the seeding, and will shortly start on adding Bentonite for protein stabilisation and to clarify the wine (although technically it not wine as yet). As you can see from today’s photo, Angela is quite partial to tasting the yeast, although her stomach is not quite as keen!I am not quite sure why, but now that the actual picking is finished, we seem to be working harder than ever. OK, the hours are not quite as long, as we can accomplish most of what we need to do within ‘normal’ opening hours, but the physical demands are quite exhausting. We seem to spend most of our day on the staircase between the lower and mid levels of the bodega – in other words, between the top of the tanks and the bottom of the tanks. And then there is the seemingly back breaking job of seeding the tanks. I say back breaking because of the system that we use for preparing the yeast – all done very carefully by hand. We use large 300 litre containers, firstly to re-hydrate the yeast, and subsequently to add grape must to the mixture to slowly lower the temperature, until it is cool enough to add back to the tank. For example, the yeast is re-hydrated at body temperature, around 38°C, whilst the temperature of the must at this time is nearer to 15°C. If we simply poured the warm yeast mixture into the cold must, then the shock alone would probably kill most of the yeast and render it useless. That’s why we have to reduce the temperature of the yeast mixture in a very slow, controlled fashion, and all the time bending over what is essentially, a big bucket!

As I mentioned in a previous post, owing to the two breaks that we had during the picking, this year’s cellar ‘routine’ will also be disrupted. Usually there is pretty much a natural ‘flow’ as our attention moves from one tank to the next, but this year it is already much more disjointed, and obviously will be spread over a longer period. Today we have just finished the last of the seeding, and will shortly start on adding Bentonite for protein stabilisation and to clarify the wine (although technically it not wine as yet). As you can see from today’s photo, Angela is quite partial to tasting the yeast, although her stomach is not quite as keen!