How not to be a winemaker - Part 4

[Florida Jim]

Bottling is often a comedy of errors.
In a custom crush, a bottling truck comes to the winery and clients are scheduled to bottle on a date certain. By that date, you must have the wine finished and ready to go into bottle, the right bottles on hand at the winery, the correct labels for each lot printed in sufficient quantity and on rolls spooled to work with the bottling truck’s system, the corks also in sufficient quantity, capsules if you use them and arrangements with your outside storage facility to come and pick-up the pallets of wine after they are bottled. This many moving parts is frustrating; the number of things that can go wrong are many and even the slightest delay in any of these tasks shuts down your chance to bottle - the chance you have already paid for in advance.
If dealing with an agricultural product were not stressful enough, bottling your wine with many other clients at the same time is enough to make you wonder why you’re doing this.
But somehow it gets done and you finally have something to sell.
And if you like your own wine, something to drink.
It always fascinated me how many winemakers made wine they didn’t care to drink. Why the hell would you do that?
Market driven sales being what they are, I learned, but I thought it a high price to pay for making a living.
Even so, mine is not the only way to make wine . . . or a living.

 

[Oswaldo Costa]

Fascinating series of posts, Jim, many thanks. Didn't know that WS was also a yeast.

 

[scottreiner]

Loving this series, Jim. Thank you!

Hoping to make it to FL this winter, looking forward to seeing you and Diane!

 

[Steve Edmunds]

you do this sort of thing really well, Jim; a treat to read!

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Florida Jim:

It always fascinated me how many winemakers made wine they didn’t care to drink. Why the hell would you do that?

I recall visiting Sven Enderle in Baden. As we were talking, he told me the story of how he and Florian Moll met and became friends. They were the only two students in their enology class that actually liked to drink wine. I’ve lost track of the number of winemakers I’ve seen swilling a Bud on a hot afternoon.

Mark Lipton

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by Florida Jim:

It always fascinated me how many winemakers made wine they didn’t care to drink. Why the hell would you do that?

I recall visiting Sven Enderle in Baden. As we were talking, he told me the story of how he and Florian Moll met and became friends. They were the only two students in their enology class that actually liked to drink wine. I’ve lost track of the number of winemakers I’ve seen swilling a Bud on a hot afternoon.

Mark Lipton

I've seen winemakers drink beer openly at wine tastings in the summer when it gets unbearable hot. I never attributed that to their disliking their wine but to a preference of a cold drink on a hot afternoon. I suspect there are many here who would feel the same.

 

[Steve Edmunds]

a very old, casually tossed off recitation among winemakers, I recall; 'It takes a lot of beer to make good wine!"
With respect to more ancient reference to the blood of the lamb: "This blood's for you!"

 

[MarkS]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by Florida Jim:

It always fascinated me how many winemakers made wine they didn’t care to drink. Why the hell would you do that?

I recall visiting Sven Enderle in Baden. As we were talking, he told me the story of how he and Florian Moll met and became friends. They were the only two students in their enology class that actually liked to drink wine. I’ve lost track of the number of winemakers I’ve seen swilling a Bud on a hot afternoon.

Mark Lipton

I've seen winemakers drink beer openly at wine tastings in the summer when it gets unbearable hot. I never attributed that to their disliking their wine but to a preference of a cold drink on a hot afternoon. I suspect there are many here who would feel the same.

But beer? C'mon. They can drink cold water or juice, soda, yoghurt drinks, ice tea for goodness sake.

 

[Larry Stein]

originally posted by MarkS:

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by Florida Jim:

It always fascinated me how many winemakers made wine they didn’t care to drink. Why the hell would you do that?

I recall visiting Sven Enderle in Baden. As we were talking, he told me the story of how he and Florian Moll met and became friends. They were the only two students in their enology class that actually liked to drink wine. I’ve lost track of the number of winemakers I’ve seen swilling a Bud on a hot afternoon.

Mark Lipton

I've seen winemakers drink beer openly at wine tastings in the summer when it gets unbearable hot. I never attributed that to their disliking their wine but to a preference of a cold drink on a hot afternoon. I suspect there are many here who would feel the same.

But beer? C'mon. They can drink cold water or juice, soda, yoghurt drinks, ice tea for goodness sake.

Yup, beer. I worked crush at Rosenblum in 1987. 3-4 weeks of the hardest physical work I've ever done. The entire crew was all of 4 or 5 people including Kent. Every day, Kent's brother would bring in a case of Anchor Liberty Ale or Steam. We'd go through a whole case over the course of the day/evening.

I help bottle here and there for Ed Kurtzman and others. Ideally, you want 6-8 people. Each person is at a particular station. Being Capsule Queen (male or female, that's the job title) is probably the area that can give the most trouble.

 

[Brad Kane]

originally posted by MarkS:

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by Florida Jim:

It always fascinated me how many winemakers made wine they didn’t care to drink. Why the hell would you do that?

I recall visiting Sven Enderle in Baden. As we were talking, he told me the story of how he and Florian Moll met and became friends. They were the only two students in their enology class that actually liked to drink wine. I’ve lost track of the number of winemakers I’ve seen swilling a Bud on a hot afternoon.

Mark Lipton

I've seen winemakers drink beer openly at wine tastings in the summer when it gets unbearable hot. I never attributed that to their disliking their wine but to a preference of a cold drink on a hot afternoon. I suspect there are many here who would feel the same.

But beer? C'mon. They can drink cold water or juice, soda, yoghurt drinks, ice tea for goodness sake.

As someone that used to professionally put wine tastings together for a distributor, while I've never seen anyone down beers at the actual wine tasting, literally the first thing every rep and supplier is grabbing after a tasting is a cold beer.

 

[Florida Jim]

Brad,
Some time in the past I heard that professional tasters clear their palate by drinking beer between wine tasting sessions. Sounded crazy to me but, maybe not . . .
Best, jim

 

[BJ]

I still remember being in CnP during the 03 Canicule. I got to be buddies with the guy who ran the Pegau tasting room in town. They had all sorts of cool stuff open; it was hot as hell. I went in there maybe 4 times, and on the 2nd or so time he offered me a cold Heineken. It was tempting, but I stayed with the Pegau. He looked at me quizzically, but always happy to give me a glass.

Jim, these are great, and very interesting. Thanks.

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by BJ:
I still remember being in CnP during the 03 Canicule. I got to be buddies with the guy who ran the Pegau tasting room in town. They had all sorts of cool stuff open; it was hot as hell. I went in there maybe 4 times, and on the 2nd or so time he offered me a cold Heineken. It was tempting, but I stayed with the Pegau. He looked at me quizzically, but always happy to give me a glass.

Jim, these are great, and very interesting. Thanks.

Pegau tasting room? Really? The two times I’ve tasted with them (‘98 and ‘01) it consisted of ringing the doorbell of the Feraud’s house and being ushered into the “cave” underneath. It would be a shame if that’s changed.

Mark Lipton

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

Pegau has a storefront where you can taste in the village. I expect that was what BJ was talking about. But, yes, the Pegau layout and cellar has changed. They now have a very nicely appointed tasting room at the estate with hired help who do the tastings. They also have a rebuilt cellar. Paul is retired. When I was there, I told the person doing the tasting to say hello to him and when he found out I knew him and Laurence, they came out to say hello. But, except for arranged tastings, and large shows like Printemps au Chateauneuf, or with people they know, I don't think either of them do tastings for drop ins at the estate that much anymore. It has become a much larger operation making a fairly large line of wines in addition to the CdPs long made there. It's more like visiting Vieux Telegraphe or Beaucastel (before they stopped giving tastings at the domaine) than like Pegau of the 90s and early 00s. As with VT, though the operation is much larger, the original wines are still what they were, though

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Pegau has a storefront where you can taste in the village. I expect that was what BJ was talking about. But, yes, the Pegau layout and cellar has changed. They now have a very nicely appointed tasting room at the estate with hired help who do the tastings. They also have a rebuilt cellar. Paul is retired. When I was there, I told the person doing the tasting to say hello to him and when he found out I knew him and Laurence, they came out to say hello. But, except for arranged tastings, and large shows like Printemps au Chateauneuf, or with people they know, I don't think either of them do tastings for drop ins at the estate much that more. It has become a much larger operation making a fairly large line of wines in addition to the CdPs long made there. It's more like visiting Vieux Telegraphe or Beaucastel (before they stopped giving tastings at the domaine) than like Pegau of the 90s and early 00s. As with VT, though the operation is much larger, the original wines are still what they were, though

Aha! Thanks for that. Coincidentally, last night Jean asked something outstanding with our grilled rack of lamb, so I opened our last bottle of the 06 VT. It was distinctly a point, with a purity of fruit balanced with secondary elements. As I said to Jean, it was a reminder of why I fell in love with CNdP way back when (‘78 vintage to be precise).

Mark Lipton