Monday, September 9 2013

Today was a brand new adventure. Starting at 7:30am and ending at 9pm. My day started with manual punch downs switch is by far the most exhausting activity I've ever done in my life. Not only are you trying to push a "cap" down, which can be as thick as a foot and a half, your also working against CO2 gas rising to the top and this must be done two times a day on every container. Not an easy task. After hours of punch downs Kathy and I hit the fields. I learned about looking, touching, and tasting grapes to find the proper picking time. It was an experience I will never forget. Every row was different in every area of the row. It was amazing to see how temperamental grapes are. After deciding what was ready to pick and climbing under vines to tie markers, we were back at the winery for the second session of punch downs. Today was long but fun and tomorrow starts at 2:45am. I hope to see, do, and learn more tomorrow.