I am pleased to show my good friend Meredith's first winemaking venture: Meredith Love Riesling. She and I studied winemaking at UC Davis and she has since moved to Oregon and was back in California last week for her release party. I admire her and this wine for many reasons. The packing is beautiful, the wine is delicious and she did it all on her own.
This was taken a few moments after my first taste of her wine. She made 125 cases of Riesling and inspired me to make my own wine this year. Meredith and I talked about making wine together several years ago but we couldn't get it together and now she lives in Oregon.
2012 will be my 6th harvest and I'm finally ready to take the plunge.
I'm not worried about the "making wine" part, that's easy, if left alone grapes will ferment themselves. But buying fruit and finding a place to make it and buying barrels and storage is very expensive. The more you buy and the higher up you scale you can get bulk discounts, but at the small volumes I'm looking at it's going to be even more expensive.
So my first step is to figure out where to make the wine. Some wineries let their employees make small quantities at their facility, but my winery is not such a place. So I've been shopping around for Custom Crush Facilities in Napa.
2012 will be my 6th harvest and I'm finally ready to take the plunge.
I'm not worried about the "making wine" part, that's easy, if left alone grapes will ferment themselves. But buying fruit and finding a place to make it and buying barrels and storage is very expensive. The more you buy and the higher up you scale you can get bulk discounts, but at the small volumes I'm looking at it's going to be even more expensive.
So my first step is to figure out where to make the wine. Some wineries let their employees make small quantities at their facility, but my winery is not such a place. So I've been shopping around for Custom Crush Facilities in Napa.
Judd's Hill has a micro crush program that works with people who want to make as little as 1 barrel. Each bottle on the wall represents a different client's wine.Typically 1 barrel will give you 25 cases. I would like to make 3 barrels. Correction, I would like to make a hundred barrels but I think I can currently afford to make 3.
The tanks are all open top fermenters, about 4 tons.
Still looking at a few other places. But I'm going to have to decide soon because they require a deposit and places fill up with other clients.
Another important decision is where to source the fruit. So I'll be interviewing vineyards soon.
I'm excited for 2012, it's going to be a very different Harvest for me.
-Lucia
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