California Grapes

Picked up our fresh California grapes this morning and went straight to work crushing and pressing them.  Two lugs (72lbs) of Cabernet Sauvignon and 1 lug (36lbs) of Merlot were picked up from Washington Winemakers and mechanically crushed/destemmed on site.  Back home we went to work pressing the grapes to get a beautiful rose-color.  It will be a few months until the wine is ready to drink, but after some "lessons learned" from Harvest Fest, we have high hopes for this batch!!

Yo Ho Ho and a Bucket of Grapes

The First Annual Harvest Festival was indeed an Event!  Our neighbor, Benjamin set (perhaps) a new world record for youngest grape stomper, nearly 108lbs of grapes were manually destemmed and quality inspected by our guests, and Early Wines "Rin Zin Zin" came in 1st place in the latest Double Blind Taste Test!!!

Final Results:
1st   Early Wines "Rin Zin Zin" ($9)
2nd  Truett-Hurst ($20)
3rd   Montoya ($14)
4th   Bonterra ($10)
5th   Ravenswood ($7)

Picking Grapes

We had a wonderful time meeting Bob White of Quail Vineyards in Manchester, MD.  He generously loaded us up with ~100lbs of Sangiovese and Barbera grapes.  We also got a personal tour of the vineyard where we picked up samples of 4 other types of grapes to show back at the party (Cabernet Sauvignon, Chancellor, Pinot Grigio, and Nebbiolo).  Next year we hope to be back for even more delicous grapes!

Harvest Fest 2012

It's our first fall season here at Early Wines, and what better way to celebrate the Harvest Season than with a First Annual Harvest Festival!?  We'll be ordering 200+lbs of California grapes and 100+ from a local vineyard for...wait for it...good ol' fashioned foot stomping!