Dave Grohl Visits the Lab! OMG

This is what the lab sink looks like almost everyday now.

Harvest is officially over, but the workload has yet to reflect this fact.  Harvest is the busiest time of year for a winery but I've found that the lab's busiest time of year is post harvest.  We still have several tanks that are fermenting, which necessitates daily checking.  We also have several tanks that have finished fermenting and therefore we need to confirm dryness (residual sugar levels).  The yeast consume the sugar in the juice and create alcohol as a byproduct, but sometimes they can be too efficient and the alcohol levels get too high and create a toxic environment for the yeast so that they die before they finish consuming all the sugar.  This creates a stuck fermentation, when there is still sugar to be consumed, but dead or sluggish yeast cannot finish the job.  

A stuck fermentation is a problem because even if it is a small amount of sugar, this creates an opportunity for undesirable microbes to feed on the sugar and create off odors or flavors or unpleasant mouth feel.  Usually 2g/L is considered dry, but we feel more comfortable calling a lot dry at 1g/L.  

It is part of the lab's job to confirm dryness and I do this by pulling a sample from the tank and analyzing the sample with a spectrophotometer (time consuming).  Additionally, after the wine is dry, we initiate a secondary fermentation called Malolactic fermentation.  In ML fermentation, lactic acid bacteria convert malic acid into lactic acid, and this fermentation needs to be monitored as well.  On the spectrophotometer.  

This means that during this time of year the lab is monitoring the wines at three different stages.  So T and I spend all day collecting the samples, analyzing them, and then cleaning up after ourselves.

So I hope I will not sound too unreasonable when I say that I was not be in the mood to celebrate the End of Harvest with the annual Harvest Party on Friday.

Harvest parties are usually a fantastic tradition.  An opportunity to relax after the difficult season, have some beers with coworkers and meet each others families and forget about work.  However, since this season was so particular and late, we haven't had much of a break.  Usually there is a longer period of time between the end of harvest when things start to slow down and when we can let loose.  But we haven't slowed down. Friday was a hectic day and most of us had to work early Saturday.

The party was set up at the winery, and the crew scrambled to finish early so that they could go home and change our of their work clothes and pick up their families.  I fortunately keep a spare closet in the lab, so I stayed at work until the party started.

And then, a fantastic thing happened.

For the half hour that everyone went home and I stayed, the winery had a visitor.

I can safely claim that this is the only time in my life that being a workaholic has paid off.

Dave Grohl was getting a private tour of the place and I didn't know about it until I walked out into the cellar and nearly ran into him.  Oh I wanted to play it cool, I really did.  

Like this happened all the time.  But I was so not cool.

We shook hands outside and introductions were made (like I didn't know who he was).  We made small talk about the winery and how much he was enjoying the tour.  He said he thought the caves were the coolest place in the winery and I countered with "then I can't let you leave without seeing the lab, it's way cooler".  Which isn't actually true, our caves are pretty impressive, but I had to say something.  

He laughed and followed me in, I explained some instruments and bless his heart his eyes didn't glaze over.  His time was almost up so I asked if it wouldn't be too tacky to ask for a picture.    He said of course not but that he wanted to wear some "science glasses".  

" You mean goggles?" I asked.

"Yeah, those." he said.

"I got those."

Then I handed my camera over to the tour guide, and as always when I hand my camera over, the picture comes back blurry and poorly framed.  That was my one chance, before I could ask to take a million more he had to go!

So my only picture is this one, where I am beaming like a nerd, so not playing it cool.

Dave Grohl came into my lab.

He listened to me talk about science.

He wore my goggles.

He hugged me.

He posed for a picture.

And no one else was there!

A few minutes after he left, everyone started to arrive for the party.

Which meant that I got to re-live the moment by repeating the story and busting out the picture every 10 minutes.  But I was a few beers in and being obnoxious was the last thing on my mind.

The Party*

We had a mobile pizza oven park at the winery and make pizzas for dinner.  Which was way classier than when the taco truck came.  Classier, since no one turned it into a taco eating contest that lest several people feeling sick.**

Inside the winery there were tables set up where we could eat, drink, schmooze and if the mood struck, embarrass ourselves.

While sitting at a table I noticed a classy lady in her Alexander McQueen scarf sitting at a nearby table.  Fortunately I had my emergency McQueen scarf in my lab closet for such an occasion.  I went to grab it and we bonded over silk skulls.

Also in attendance was a face-painting clown.  Since I kept my drinking moderate, I did not succumb to the urge to pass for a child and get my face painted.

However, since I was moderately drinking I did spend a portion of the evening sneaking pictures of painted faces, unbeknownst to the kids.

Which I maintain is only a little bit creepy.

 

Since I had to work the next morning, the night ended for me pretty early, (though I know a few continued to party on).

I went straight to bed when I got home and then straight back to work Saturday morning bright and early.

Most of the party had already been cleaned up, but there was still plenty of cold pizza left for breakfast.

Delicious.

-L

* A most excellent movie starring Peter Sellers.

** I have Taco Truck footage still on the camera.  I never got a chance to post it and since it's been a while, I wasn't going to, but maybe, just maybe, it needs to be shared.