One more cup of coffee 'fore I go. To the valley below

Ah, another Sunday, driving to work at 6:30am.

First I checked our tank fermentations, which don't usually take very long, but since every conceivable vessel is filled with juice or wine, ferm checks currently take an eternity.  Also, all the sampling valves have been removed from the tanks, so we have to open the racking valve to pull a sample every time.  Every time.  I know it sounds mundane, but I promise it is a pain in the ass.  Maybe I will make a video to illustrate.  Because really, it's bananas not having sampling valves.

It continues to rain, which makes the valley look incredibly lovely.  Sometimes when it rains, it makes places look depressing.  Like Cupertino in the rain is depressing.  But Napa in the rain is lovely.   A very different lovely than when it's sunny and warm, a more cozy romantic type of lovely.

This is the same view from yesterday's video.  It's still foggy, but you can at least see the vineyards, and some of the mountains.

After ferm checks and some light daydreaming, I set up a tasting of all our finished wines so far:

Sauvignon blanc on the left and reds on the right.  That's a lot of wine to taste early in the morning, or really, at any time.

As I'm sure I've made abundantly clear over these past weeks, harvest is a time of early mornings, late nights, and trying not to fall asleep on the forklift or the drive to and from work.  Because of this I believe that caffeine should be considered the third ingredient in wine making besides grapes and yeast.**  Our break room has several pots of coffee going at all times and the berry sorters consistently slam back red bulls throughout the day.

So I continue to impress myself with my restraint towards caffeine.  

I've never drunk the stuff and I don't intend to.  And like most things this can be traced back to my mother.

My mother is an addict.  

(She's not on the internet so I'm not conflicted about outing her)

That woman takes her coffee very seriously.  Growing up I saw how dependent she became on coffee to function and I decided early on that I would not follow in her footsteps.

Anyway, this evening she brought my baby sis to see me, since they were forgetting what I looked like.  And the woman brought her espresso machine to my house.  

Yeah she did.

To be fair, she doesn't always travel with it, but she knows I do not have my own coffee making device, so she brought hers.  Her visit was only a few hours, but that is how much that woman needs her coffee.  But she didn't just bring the machine and coffee beans from Guatemala, she also brought her special cups and her electronic wand to froth her milk.  Oh, and she also brought her own milk.

And yes my stove still has the tags and plastic wrap on it from when they delivered it several weeks ago because that is how much I cook, about as often as I have coffee.  Also, I live in an old Victorian that was built when they didn't believe in closets or counter space, and thought one electrical outlet per room was abundant, so the stove doubles as counter space and it's also the only place in the kitchen where you can plug the machine in.  They call that 'character'.

Goodnight Sunday, it's almost time to start another week.

-L

**Although caffeine will have to battle it out with beer, since it is already accepted that "It takes a lot of beer to make wine"