Pruning Complete
on February 28, 2012
Given that the Mourvedre was still in its infancy and the grafts for the Grenache and Syrah have yet to make it through a full year, I enlisted some help from a fellow winemaker to help me prune. In return, I paid his way into the 8th Street Wineries Open House (an event that shouldn’t [...]
Great Giraffe Graft
on February 22, 2012
Since my last post oh so many months ago, a truckload of changes have occurred in my little winery. I finally got around to getting the grafting done. I scored some great budwood and 99.9% of the grafts have taken. So much so that I actually had about 6oz of real grapes this year. Which [...]
Skip a Year? I Think Not!
on February 22, 2012
While the new grafts were coming into their own, I decided to not skip a year and do something very sacrilegious in the home winemaking arena … buy grapes. I purchased about 600 lbs of Grenache (250), Syrah (250), and Mourvedre (100) grapes which I estimated would fill up my newly-acquired 30 gallon recouped French [...]
A Rose is a Rose
on October 6, 2010
The harvest is late. Later than usual that is. I would normally have already piked the Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc by this point, but with the extremely cool weather this summer, I’m two to four weeks behind. Two weeks ago, I picked the Pinot Noir for the last time. As stated previously, it will [...]
When to Graft
on September 7, 2010
Step 1. Find bud wood. Step 2. Hold the bud wood through the winter. It seems these are the first steps to getting the bud wood I need to graft the Grenache and Syrah. JG (my winemaker friend) has already found Syrah bud wood, and is now looking for Grenache. Next step is to figure [...]
Out with the Old, in with the GSM
on August 3, 2010
I had a revelation the other day driving home. Given that I have three distinct varietals planted, and never shall they find themselves in the same barrel, I’ve decided to chop the tops of the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir vines, and graft in Grenache and Syrah. Why? This will allow me to field blend [...]
What I’ll Do Different This Year
on April 8, 2010
After another unsuccessful wine competition, I’ve got yet another few key things I need to keep an eye on for this year’s harvest. Now that the garage is mostly insulated, I’m going to try fermenting outside of the wine cellar, and thus at a higher temperature (at least for the Pinot). Before insulation, temps got [...]
Spring in the Vineyard
on April 1, 2010
Well, the crush came and went. The holidays. The new year, and not much from the Giraffe winemaker. So let me see if I can catch you up. Pruning happened sometime in January, early February. I took each cane down to a spur with two buds. In hindsight, and talking to a fellow winemaker, I [...]
Bottling 2008
on August 31, 2009
Finally got a chance to put the 2008 Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc into the bottle. Two cases of each was the pull from last year’s light harvest. Ron and Dave came over to perhaps help with this year’s harvest, but the brix didn’t move as much as we expected. SB was at 20 and [...]
Ve-ra-sion
on July 27, 2009
It’s Happening… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veraison
