Borin Family Vineyard: Press 2012

Well, another year is in the "barrel" (ok, the carboy). We pressed on Tuesday afternoon, October 2nd, in the 90 degree heat. Looks like we got just under 5 gallons from this year's harvest. To my reckoning, it doesn't taste quite as nice as last year's right after pressing, but I also didn't think much of 2010 and it is turning out to be quite a nice vintage after its had some time in the bottle.

This is the first year that Julia was really engaged in the press, taking part in all aspects of cleaning, pressing, collecting and the clean up (again) at the end. She was very into helping daddy.

The wine that simply drains off as you scoop the must* out of the fermenter is called free pour. This is considered the best part of the finished wine. As you press the skins/seeds harder and harder, you can actually begin to extract oils (from the seeds) and harsher tannins from everything in the must, along with other not so great flavors, so at a certain point, you stop trying to squeeze every little bit out of the press.

Of course we all took a sip of the free pour to sample the wine, and Julia wanted her annual tiny sip, so we indulged. However, Miss Pinot decided to go back for seconds, thirds and even fourths. Each time that Kim and I would turn away for a moment (Kim taking pictures, me doing something press related), our little wino would grab the plastic cup and stick it under the drain spout on the press to grab another sample and take a sip. Most kids (her cousins Josh and Ashie included) take one sip, make a sour face, and want nothing more to do with the wine. We finally were able to communicate to her that little girls only were supposed to take one teeny tiny taste, not several sips throughout the pressing process.

Secretly in my heart it makes me happy that she enjoys the taste of her Pinot. It is kinda cool that she gets into the spirit of the pressing by enjoying some wine along with it, but of course this is all tempered against the fact that she's only three years old!!

My little elf is a wine maker at heart.

In Vino Veritas!

*must = the mass of grapes skins, pulp, seeds and occasional stems as well as juice