FILL WHAT’S EMPTY

EMPTY WHAT’S FULL

SCRATCH WHERE IT ITCHES

I don’t know who to credit for this wisdom, I read it some years ago, but I do think that all of life can be summed up in these lines. See if you agree.

Selene is getting ready to bottle the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc and 2006 Merlot in February. The first thing in preparation for bottling is deciding on the final blend. This is definitely “scratch where it itches.” You’ve got to know where your itch is (what kind of wine you want to make) and then be ready and willing to scratch right where that itch is. And it’s not always easy. Especially when people are watching, if you know what I mean.

Take the 2007 Selene Sauvignon Blanc, for example. I know the style of wine I want to make and have been making since 1992, but what happens when not all the wine makes the blend I want, not because it isn’t good enough, just because using all of a particular lot or lots doesn’t make the blend I want. I can sell this left out wine in bulk to other wineries easily because it is yummy. So, winemakers watching me scratch this itch might ask why I wouldn’t just put it in the blend. It’s good, but it wouldn’t scratch right where my itch is. My accountant, on the other hand, would say it’s more profitable to blend that wine into the bottling and she’s right. But it doesn’t scratch where my itch is.

In this picture you can see the Sauvignon Blanc barrels getting racked. Obviously this is “empty what’s full.” There is also a little “scratch where it itches” left in the shot as well. The barrels with tape over the bungs are the ones that will be left out of the blend. The shot also shows what the stainless steel barrels look like. About half of the Sauvignon Blanc is fermented in these and the other half in new French oak barrels.

So how about “fill what’s empty?” These next shots are taken at Ganau, a local cork company.

There is a shot of me doing some sensory quality control. Basically I am sniffing glasses looking for unacceptable aromas. Each glass has had one cork soaked in a 14% ethanol solution for 24 hours. This day there is 150 glasses to smell. A pretty good day, too; we did find six bales of cork with no off aromas and rejected only four.

The other shots are of some of the production equipment—de-dusting machines,

branding machines,

counters, etc.

Sourcing the particular bottles I want (scratch where it itches again), the foils, the labels, having a good day on the bottling line, etc., etc., Anyhow, all this is a little part of “fill what’s empty.”

All so I can get a bottle to you so you can simultaneously fill what’s empty (you, empty of Sauvignon Blanc), empty what’s full (the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc), and, hopefully, scratch where it itches (most important, sometimes challenging).

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 12:27 am and is filed under Harvest 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.