The Inoculation Debate and Pressing the Days Away

It's been a month since my last post and I feel overwhelmed by writing everything that has happened in that time. Let's just say that hundreds of pumpovers have been completed, 30 or so delestages, lots of yeast have been pitched (a beer reference to keep it real), a few tons of pomace has been pressed and continues to be pressed, endless amounts of mate has been consumed, and an almost equal amount of tortitas and sopaipilla have been scarfed down by somebody with cracking wine stained hands. There have been 2 asados and many more liters of beer as well as a handsome amount of Malbec and other varietals. Ping pong champions have been crowned and dethroned, homemade pizza marathons, a few soccer games, one winery visit, a birthday party and a trip to the uco valley round out the month. Now that that's taken care, I'll get back to the blog.

Ready to inoculate a tank

There is a lot of debate about the use of cultured vs. indigenous yeasts. The ideology here is that each tank completes fermentation without complication. This means that we use cultured yeast that can sustain higher alcohols and higher temperatures during fermentation that will get the job done time after time.  With indigenous yeast, depending on what strain you happen to have been given by nature, there are no such guarantees. If, for example, the pickers didn't get to the syrah block when they should have and it comes in at 28 Brix, the wine would reach 16.7% alcohol. If your native yeast stops working at 15%, you're stuck with residual sugar, a stuck fermentation and a huge headache for the winemaker.

Recently inoculated experimental bin of Barbera

Some expensive designer yeasts supposedly help round out the mid-palate or express more fruit in the nose, but the ones used here are your standard workhorse that won't affect the final product in one way or another. There are a lot of winemakers that swear by using indigenous yeast and I've had a lot of wines that I really enjoyed of this nature, but I can understand the concern, especially when producing even a small to medium amount of wine. That said, if I were to make another barrel anytime soon, I'd let it go 'au natural.' What normally happens in small experiments is that a winery is infested with cultured yeast which overtake whatever the natural yeast anyways and there isn't much difference in the wine or its subtle nuances. An interesting debate and one that I expect to continue for years to come.

Our faithful supervisor

Not so controversial is pressing. We have finished fermenting all of our tanks and now are filling the days with lots of pomace cakes and the noise of our 70 year old press chugging away like a freight train from years past.  We have an old school hydraulic basket press that works when it wants and requires a lot of TLC on a day to day basis. It reminds me of a grouchy old person with irritable bowles. The 'repair men' come to 'fix' it every other day and even then we cross our fingers with each load hoping that it isn't its last. At times it builds up so much pressure that it spews out chunks of pomace in any which way.  We may have set the world record for longest distance yesterday of at least 90 feet. I feel fortunate that I've been on the wrong end only once, but that one time was enough for me as I got blasted in my ear from close range and had to check to make sure I still had all my body parts.  If nothing else, I provided everyone with some comic relief and then gave one of the girls here the opportunity to wash me off which she took full advantage of by drenching me from head to toe. I guess I had it coming.


As tends to be the case here at the winery, much is done by hand or without the use of mechanized equipment. Where in Napa there seems to be a higher standard level of equipment and machinery, things down here tend to be quite the opposite. That said, things get done just the same but tend to be more time consuming.  As the tanks are dug out, somebody awaits with a wheelbarrow.  Once full to the brim, it's then run up a ramp and dumped into the basket press awaing below.  Once the basket press is full, it's then directed over to the press and slowly elevated and pressed against a fixed steel plate, until vibrant tones of violet and fucsia are seen squirting out the crevices. and draining into the hose below.  This pressed juice is pumped over to it's other half, the wine that has already been made and the two are reunited until further action is to be taken. 

A halfway dug out tank

                As opposed to using a large bladder press which can damage seeds and produce extremely harsh and tannic press run, the advantage of the basket press is that it is more gentle.  In the end we get relatively less juice, but it is of higher quality. For this reason all the pressed juice is used.  One of the nice things about pressing is that there is a finite amount of work to be done and then all that is left to do is wait. Inbetween press loads, there isn't too much to do other than gossip, drink mate and tidy up a few things here and there. Whereas the weeks that I spent doing pumpovers there was also something that either should or could be done with whatever spare minutes I had.  What's also nice about pressing is the conotation that it carries, the end is near. Just as the wine itself is about to be finished, so to is the harvest.  Every day there are less pumpovers, less tanks to be cleaned and sanitized, and more time to enjoy the fruits of our labors.

Tea and Wine, Strangely Similar

We are coming into week three here at Calle Bodega and things are hitting full stride. We are probably about half way through the Crush portion of things which is both encouraging and daunting, knowing that another half still awaits. What that also means is that we have various
tanks of wine fermenting at various stages with our first two finishing up shortly. Since I've given the rundown of the crush side of things, here is a look at the day to day work in the winery and why it's like making a cup of tea.

We do 2 different types of pumpovers here in 2 different ways as well as delestage or 'rack and return.' A pumpover is basically the act of pumping must (soon to be wine) on top of the cap (grapes, seeds, skins, etc which have risen to the top). The idea is always to extract as much as you can from the grapes. The skin contains the color that a wine will have and also gives some tannin and that ever illusive term, complexity. The seeds also give the wine some tannin structure. The goal is to mix it all up together, the more surface area between must and grapes the better. Another purpose for keeping the cap moist and in contact with th

e must is to ensure that it doesn't dry out. If it does, it is much more likely to home all of the problematic microbes that winemakers try so hard to keep out of their wine.

--Which tea would be darker and have more pronounced taste: The one that you poor water on top of, or the one that you poor the water and place the tea bag on top of? The more a tea bag is in contact with the water, the darker and more pungent the tea.

1)Closed pumpover: Tank-Pump-Tank

Less exposure to air involved here and used more frequently before fermentation begins and as it is finishing up. Before a wine is inoculated with yeast, it's best not to give the 'bad' yeast the oxygen necessary to start fermentation. At this stage, the purpose of the pumpover is to extract color and keep the whatever cap has begun to form moist.

2)Open pumpover: Tank-Bin-Pump-Tank

Here the goal is to let the fermenting must breathe more. This process is beneficial in that it gives yeast the needed oxygen necessary to keep fermentation going. To a small extent, it might help 'blow off' any off odors (rotten eggs for example) that inevitably will be found in varying amounts. It is a little more aggressive in that and will also help soften tannins to some extent. This requires a bit more labor since one has to constantly monitor the level of wine in the bin so that it neither overflows nor sucks air into the pump (which would be a pity since they cost a few thousand dollars a piece).

Both techniques are done either by hand or with an irrigator, which basically sprays the cap like a sprinkler.

A) By Hand: A bit tedious and uncomfortable, but the personaled care of a trained professional (or a complete novice such as myself) ensures a job well done. it is also a little more gentle on the wine than the irrigator. On hands and knees this can get very uncomfortable, especially for the bigger tanks which we pumpover for 40 minutes. When done correctly however, one can make sure that every nook and cranny of the tank has gotten its far share of must sprayed on top. I believe that achieving excellence is all about the details and use this incentive to do the best job I can.

B) Irrigator: This is one of a cellar workers best friends since you can set everything up and let 'er rip. If it's a closed fermentation, you can walk away and get other things done. The idea is that it equally sprays the cap, which it does, but in most cases won't be able to spray the entire cap. That said, it does a good job and is only slightly harsher than by hand.

Delestage-Rack and Return:

This is the grand daddy for getting oxygen to your fermenting tank and for softening up tannins. This whole idea of softening tannins is key when making wine that is ready to drink young, as many Argentine wines are and in Napa is used to tame some of the (in)famous Cabernet Sauvignon tannins. Must is pumped out of the body of one tank into another. As the must diminishes (as well as any lazy yeast that have settled at the bottom), the cap sinks to the bottom of the tank. At this point, air/oxygen fills the first tank and the skins, seeds, etc lay at the bottom. After a period of time, here about an hour or two, the must in tank two is pumped back on top of tank one. As the tank begins to fill with fermenting must, the CO2 produced in fermentation slowly pushes all the solid particles back to the top of the tank and in doing so, ensures that all the must is in contact with the skins at some point.

The regimen in regards to how many times a day and for how long depends on the winemaker, what style of wine he wants to make, what type of grape is fermenting, and various other factors. Here, we generally do 3 pumpovers per day, each one lasting from 10 minutes to 40 minutes depending on the size of the tank. As mentioned earlier, a wine is more fragile before inoculation and once it has about finished fermenting and thus we use primarily closed fermentations for shorter durations of time. When fermentation is humming along nicely, we use more open fermentations for longer periods of time. The other part of the day to day maitenance is analyses of temperature and Baume (how much sugar is left in the must).

For each of the three pumpover shifts (morning, afternoon, and evening), we are given a worksheet of our tasks. It tells us what type of pumpover is due for each tank and if any additions need to be made. Here is where we write down our findings for temperature and Baume, which is later entered into a spreadsheet or graph to track the fermentation of each tank. If anything looks fishy, further action will ensue to make sure that all is well and that the people will have wine to drink.

More importantly than any data we record, however, is tasting each tank daily. Sergio, the winemaker, makes his rounds and smells, swirls, tastes, and spits each and every tank. He looks at the color and usually says, something like, 'this has great color.' I nod and agree. If the yeast aren't happy, they begin to make stinky rotten egg smells and it's a cue to either give it some food or give it some oxygen in most cases. Here, we also get an idea as to whether the acidity is where it needs to be, what type of mouthfeel the wine will have, and what flavors it will have. The nose and aromatics will only become more pronounced after the secondary or malolactic fermentation. I always make myself available when I see Sergio walking around with his glass and bucket to see if I can taste what he tastes and bounce ideas off him. It's pretty tough to taste a huge difference in the musts at this stage for me, but there are some sublte differences that I can't quite put my finger on yet. I also make a glass available to myself when he isn't around to double check everything of course. Spitting optional.

As you can see, an infinite amount of variables are always in play and there are no set rules as to how wine 'should' be made. At this point, I am following orders and taking note of whats happening. Most of the day to day work in the winery is to extract color and tannins and to make sure that a healthy fermentation is taking place. The concepts are simple, just as putting a tea bag in hot water for a period of time depending on your taste, but the seemingly insignifcant decisions made along the way make all the difference. If it weren't this way, I'd probably not be here and I probably wouldn't ever think abou the similarities between tea and wine.

What Is This Crush You Speak Of?

It's Saturday morning, I've had some yogurt and fruit and a cup of coffee. My freshly washed clothes are hanging to dry and I'm trying to figure out my plans for the evening. Yet this is no typical Saturday, how could it be after five 13+ start to crush? Days are long and labor intensive, muscles ache, and my purple hands have seen better days. All of this was to be expected, but until you throw yourself into the mix, it would be difficult to understand what it is. Luckily enough, the initial excitement and anticipation hasn't died off for me and the more grapes that get processed, the more 'winemaking' duties there are to be done.

Many people talk about wine as a living thing, and anyone who has seen 'Sideways' can probably remember the seen where the hypocritical Miles (his most prized wine was composed mainly of Merlot, despite the movie's bashing of the same varietal) and Maya wax on about the uniqueness of each and every bottle, everything that goes into making it, and how it is constantly evolving until the moment that that cork gets taken out. I, too, like this idea. So here is crush from a grape's perspective, so to speak.

--Unloading: Grapes arrive in 18 kilo or 40 lb. bins. Those bins are unloaded onto a slide, and the freshly picked grapes and everything else that comes with them pop out onto the the scene. No bums are smacked but I can imagine it would be a bit of a shock to slide down a ramp and crash onto the sorting belt.

--Sorting: This is where all undesirables are taken out. By all, I mean probably about half of them. Green leaves are the biggest enemy, but any and all foreign items should be discarded. Such items may include sticks, spiders, bugs, dirt clumps, different types of grapes and from one vineyard, we see quite a few olives, since the bins are placed under them to shade them from the sun.

This would be the formative years of a wine. You go through picking out the bad apples in life, and whatever one takes from these essential years, will stay with you and shape the person you become down the road. If you hang with the wrong crowd, you might end up in prison and if you don't sort out the crap on the sorting belt, you might end up on the bulk wine market.

--Destemming with the option to crush: The grapes taken the incline up to the top of the belt as we might take a roller coaster. Whereas we come out in one piece, the grapes fate isn't the same. They pass through the destemmer, berries fall down to another container (or pump) and stems get shot out the back end. Some people choose to crush the grapes as well at this point, rollers are used to squeeze the grapes and break them open. If not crushed, anywhere from 25-75% of the berries will come through unscathed. Either way, it's a very stressful moment I'm sure.

This equates to the dramatic life lessons and my favorite, 'character builders' that we all must go through. They are often painful moments, but nonetheless necessary. I can't imagine having your stem ripped off you feels good and then getting doused in Sulpher Dioxide would just make matters worse. Depending on the winery, this is also where you might add other things like tartaric acid to prevent a flabby wine (a lot of people like the taste benefits of picking grapes at higher brix-more sugar, but consequently compromise the wine's natural acidity).

Move, Lift, Move, Dump, Lower: Here at Bodega Elvira Calle, we use a gravity flow system, which in this case means that wine (or must technically) is not pumped into tanks. Since pumps aren't doing the work, we are. Grapes fall from the destemmer into a receiving bin. Each bin, when full of grapes, weighs over a 1000 lbs. We move the bin to a crane which then hoists it up to the top of the cement tanks. Depending on the vineyard and quantity, we then move the bin once again to the appropriate tank and pull a lever to empty the bin. A days work includes 35-40 trips which at times seems extremely daunting and at times manageable.

This final stage is the time where you've found some stability in life. Not so many late nights and anxiety about your future, this is your future, you are where you're supposed to be, doing what you will be doing. You've figured things out so to speak, and are the summation of what you've lived to that point. Were you well nourished and healthy on the vine, did you have enough sun, did they pick you at the right time, did you avoid bad crowds or are you surrounded by stems and leaves and olives? Changes can be made and the winemaker will adjust you but can't change you. You will be inoculated with yeast and you're skin will sag and break, your chemistry will change, you are no longer who you were before. Frequent check ups on your Brix, pH and acidity will be measured and analyzed to make sure all is on track, that you are healthy. And with 2-3 weeks, you will become the desire of so many thirsty individuals, your destiny and theirs will meet and they will judge you. You will be swirled and spit in some cases, mixed with ice in others, and if you end up in the hands of Miles, you might just be consumed from a styrofoam cup in a diner, accompanied by a hamburger to your final resting place.

1 Down, How Many More To Go?

Soooooooooo, that was a long day of work. Officially ending the day at 23.oo local time, that would be about a 13 hour workday. The idea of writing an entry at this point is ridiculous, so I'll keep it short and sweet. In total, we had 4 trucks come in from two different vineyards. Two girls helping sort, 2 hired hands dumping from the truck onto the sorting table, another part time intern helping with sorting, Alberto (the guy that gets shit done), Bernardo (the new guy that has something to prove to the bosses), myself (the Californian with a funny accent), Sergio (Overseeing and pitching in here and there), Kirk and his wife Roxanna (helping with sorting and shoveling up the spewed stems), 3 dogs, 3 kids, Kirk's brother and wife (enjoying the show) and various truck drivers watch us in desperation hoping that we'd finish up sooner so they could go crack some beer on the couch.

What does that equal? 16,050 kg of grapes or about 18 tons.

WHEW!

What gets overlooked by the numbers is all the work that accounts for nothing, namely, the cleaning. Anybody that has worked a crush knows that at the end of the day, when you've spent the extra gas you were saving already, the thought of clean up is hideous. You all know that the savvy, slink off to the bathroom, find something in their shoe which won't come out and even take off. That is what happened today. Of all the people that we had today, the cleaning was performed by myself, Alberto the Rock, and one of the hired mercenaries. A 30 min clean up turned into an hour plus and if my body wasn't already pissed off at me, it finally starting putting its foot down and refusing to do as ordered as I swept up the days remnants.

The positive sign of today's events is that after one day, nothing has changed. I can see myself doing this exact same think for quite a few more. There is something very rewarding about busting your ass. Whether studying for a test, a tough day of basketball practice, a great class where you feel like people learned, or a great night of service, the feeling is similar. But when you do it while doing something you are coming to love, the feeling is only that much better. If I had a glass of wine, I'd raise and proclaim, 'Here's to another day tomorrow as good as today!'

Buenas Noches

1st Day Update

Welcome to crush in Argentina ladies and gents: where the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.

The 10 truck from the first vineyard arrived at 12.30. And then the second arrived at 13.00. Which meant we had all the fruit from the first round of picking arrive at the same time. In hind sight, it we used the extra time effeciently, cleaning up everything once again and getting done in the last second which could probably have been done on Sunday. But Sunday is for asados and futbol, so........

We worked the first two trucks and have now been waiting for at least 2+ hours for the 3rd and 4th to arrive. To put it in perspective, I got up at 7.30 today, had mate and yogurt by 8-8.15 and was busy cleaning by 8.45. From 12.30-16.30, lots of work was done and its now 18.30 and we are still waiting for the next truck. Efficient, not exactly, but a bumpy start was to be expected and will probably continue pretty bumpy for the rest of the harvest.

The main issue is with getting the grapes picked. Since we source fruit, we don't have a picking crew. That responsibility is up to each grower independently. What happens next, is out of our control, with so many cogs and wheels and moving parts, it's not surprising that things don't work like a well oiled machine. And..................WE'RE BACK. The third truck has arrived. More updates will come shortly. We probably won't finish before 11 or so tonight, so no promises as to when the next will be coming.

One last mate of course, and then we'll be ready to go.

A Trip to the Uco Valley

If Lujan de Cuyo is the valley floor in Napa, Uco valley would be the various mountain designations and the buzz surrounding them. It is the south of Lujan and slightly cooler and at higher altitudes. the soils tend to be rockier and with more sand. All these factors improve the possibilities of growing high quality grapes. The French and Italians bought in while the land was still cheap and are now making some of the most expensive Argentine wines. This wasn't always the case however, as past generations realized that excellent drainage and cooler nights meant lower yields and less profit. Having had and tasted some of the differences between the two regions was more than enough reason for me to get up at 7am on Saturday (the day after 'Boxing Day') and take the 1+ drive with Guille to check out the vineyards.

Much like our previous outing, I threw him every question I had and his responses were always calm and measured. The main issues to keep in mind are the dramatic temperature shifts from day to night (better balance and acidity), the drainage of the sandy, rocky soils and lack of organic matter (lower yielding vines of higher complexity), and intense sunlight due to the higher elevation (thicker skins, thus more tannins and polyphenols which will enhance color and complexity).

I have had the pleasure of growing up in Napa Valley and visiting the surrounding wine regions. The beauty of this area is so striking that I frequently find myself veering into the other lane while driving up the Silverado Trail. I have also taking a ferry down the Rhine River in Germany and sat in the back seat of vintage bug (top off, of course) as we buzzed around the famous Langhe in Italy, visiting towns like La Morra and Barolo. In Bulgaria I took a 5 hour car ride with two unknowns to check out the vineyards of Melnik tucked back into sandy mountains and in Croatia the vines hug the beautiful Dalmation coast. Each place is stunningly gorgeous and each place is unique. None of them, however, are set in as majestic a setting as are those in Uco Valley. I am not talking about asethic beauty, although the snow capped Andes certainly are that, instead I'm referring to the imposing background they provide. They loom over the vineyards with a regal elegance and also act as a natural compass so that one never loses track of their orientation.

We spent the day collecting samples, driving down one lane roads littered with pot holes and stray dogs. We said hi to the people that live in tiny houses along the dusty, rocky roads that head into the vineyards. Nobody seemed to notice when we strayed into other lots and tasted fruit that wasn't ours and it made me think about how many mix ups have happened over the years, both intentionally and unintentionally, where wineries didn't end up getting what had originally been planned. We picked out which lot we'd buy of the three available and decided to go with the least vigourous of the three. We drove North, South, East and West and stopped off to get some deli meats, cheese and bread. We stopped off at an abandoned vineyard and took some souvenirs. Vestiges of a time when quantity trumped quality, these gnarley vines were as thick as telephone polls and had 4 main arms instead of the two we see today. It made me think of Morimoto Napa and how one of the poshest, trendiest places in Napa Valley had old dead plants highlighting its interior design. I ate grape after grape and crunched on seed after seed. I prentended that I knew which were 'better' and which were 'worse' but came to the conclusion that those that I liked the taste of more were not necessary better or worse. In time, I trust that I will know. I ate so many grapes that the tip of my tongue became numb and prickly and when I was tired of the sweet juice and drying tannins, I scooped up the various soils into my hands and wished that somehow by touching it and smelling it, I would understand it better, as if by osmosis. It's exciting to feel that I have learned something from these two field trips with Guille and humbling to think that I know so little.

As we did before, we came back and analyzed the various samples. We ooed and awed about the color of the Bonarda and Tempranillo, we quadruple checked the brix of one of the Malbec plots which had actually gone down in brix (yet another case of the produce watering even though they've been instructed not to at this point), and we speculated as to how much longer it would take the seeds to mature. Basically, it was the first day that I started to feel like I could at least hold a conversation about viticulture and not be completely full of it. That's a good enough start for me.

'Moving Day'

Friday was a rough day. We all know the pleasure of carrying a case of wine, it's a little heavy for some, not at all for others and worth making somebody else do it for the wise and wimpy. One thing that makes it all worthwhile is knowing that once you get that wine to its final resting place, the pleasure of drinking it is the only 'work' left. Unfortunately, when you know that you will never be swirling, smelling, and swallowing the contents, the boxes tend to get just a little bit heavier. When you multiply that by 8 hours and stairs, one starts appreciating inventions like the elevator and escalator with newfound respect. What started as a nice morning workout turned into an intense full day work out as we not only loaded two pallets of wine (56 cases each) but also re-boxed many others, organized the wine library (which meant more bending, lifting, opening, marking, sliding, and cursing) and then stored the tens of cases that would need to be relabelled at some point in the future. What I took away from the situation was essential importance of taking short 2 min. mate breaks, thinking twice so that you only have to move once, and the handiness of a nice fat sharpie to negate any confusion. More importantly, however, was that I worked with Bernardo (assistant winemaker) and Alberto (the rock that gets things done around here) throughout the day and we all get along really well. I think I impressed them with my mate-drinking-slang-using-joke-administering abilities and they seemed to have accepted me as an equal as opposed to just another American intern.

Not a very impressive picture, but I now have a new appreciation for yet another step in the vineyard to wine glass process.