This is the pic you get when you are driving across Hwy 29 in Napa, hauling a truckload of Chardonnay barrels and you stick your iPhone out the window.
The Chard is such a small ammout I am trucking the wine from the winery to a place that rents out a bottling line. So, two trips later the wine is in place.
First step- transfer it to a stainless steel tank and cover the headspace with a thick blanket of Argon gas. Its now in the deep freeze at 25 degrees to drop out the tartrate crystals. A shot of Bentonite will precipitate out excess protein and the last step is to filter out all the dead yeast and grape solids. A week from now it will happily in bottle at out 55 degree storage warehouse.
This is when I go through my mental (perhaps I should write this down) checklist:
1. Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) -Uncle Sam needs to sign off on every single label.-Check.
2.Bottling date set.Check, confirmed 6/11/09 with Chris.
3.Labels ordered.-Check , due on 6/9/09 cutting it close!
4.Bottles ordered.-Check, I'm picking them up on 6/10/09.
5.Corks ordered.-Check, Terry's going to call me when ther're ready.
6.Pick up foils- I tried but Rui closes the office whenever he feels like it (Europeans!). I'll try again today.
Bottling is the least fun part of winemaking. There are a lot of vendors and supplies that need to come together at the right time. Bit stressfull, but once its safely in the bottle its all good. (and tasty!)
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