It’s gonna be a big day a Laughing Stock today. Grapes on the way. The first reds of the season are coming as well as some more white. We’re gonna see what 15 tons of grapes look like up close and personal.

To get things off, we get the press going with some whites.

Here’s David tipping some Viognier into the press. (Yes, that’s the tippy thing again.)

And here is the Viognier as it’s going down thru the hopper.

Love all the crazy colors eh? Bright green, pinkish to grayish… And all tasting big juice and lush peaches, bananas, pear, pineapple… Even just the grapes smelled fantastic! Have I ever said how much I love Viognier? They say Viognier is a bit of a bitch to grow. As we see, it looks very uneven, all the clusters on their own agenda. If conditions aren’t right this could become hugely problematic. But man it’s gonna taste good.

Ok, now on to reds. We have the sorting table set up inside the winery on the top floor.

Game on.

Grapes come in and get tipped into the hopper, the grapes cruise across the sorting table with the team picking out leaves, unripe or rotten grapes, or whatever else is not supposed to be there…

That’s Kori. I’m not the only one really excited to be here!

Then the clusters drop into the destemmer.

A wild machine that gently knocks all the berries off the stems. Looks crazy violent to me, but hey, apparently grapes are tougher than I give them credit for.

Then the secondary sorting table, the “Shaker” table. This table shakes back and forth and all the little berries roll across and then down the chute into the 5,000 liter tank below. The team here grabs all of the jacks (Small bits of stem that look like that game when were kids… Before video games… Ya, I know, I’m old-er, and I made the connection all by myself.)

That’s Cynthia, Jamie and Samantha. My bet is they are smiling because they’re dizzy.

After the second sorting table the grapes fall again down a ramp into bins.  Soon this will be full of  _ tons of grapes.

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Later that day, we had a bit of fun. Two bins of the Syrah that came in, we dropped thru the crusher into bins destined for Laughing Stocks first ever Rosé!! After punching down for long enough to realize I wasn’t winning my hopes were renewed, and the fun really started.

David jumped in first, and ya gotta know I was gonna follow!

Yup. Another tick off the “Things ya gotta do in life” check list!!!

I’m sure everyone has thought of how fun this would be. who remembers the “I Love Lucy” Episode?  The grape fight was tempting, but it was hour 14 on the day, i would probably be the one cleaning up so i just imagined.

Still later on that evening after an hour and a half of skin contact, the Syrah and it’s bright pink juice got dumped into the press…

Ya gotta love the CSI look as we watch the pink juice fall… Oh yeah, it’s dark out.  That was quite the day.

Living the dream.

Cheers!