Noooooo…. Ed just called to let me know we’re getting another half ton of Pryor Syrah. I don’t know what happened—his workers started picking the wrong block, and it was either send us the fruit or dump it. I am so tired of punching down must. This will make it close to eight tons for the year. On the bright side, the Ovalle Syrah we already fermented looks really nice.

Things are finally winding down. We pressed out the Manzur Cabernet yesterday and received the last of the Pryor fruit—
860 kilos of Carmenère. One last bin, and then no more punch downs. Until next year….

It was another hectic weekend. We pressed out the second bin of Syrah and the first Tempranillo. Our neighbors came around to help, which means it was a pizza day for Jen. Basil pesto, roasted red pepper, caramelized onions, and plain old cheese and salami for the kids. We made a paella after the work was done. And at some point, we received 1300 kilos of Cabernet Sauvignon, which we’re fermenting in two bins (one regular small bin and one super small microbin).

Early this morning we pressed out one of the bins of Syrah to make room for the next round. The other bin of Syrah and the Tempranillo will macerate for another week. Later we received another 800 kilos of Manzur Syrah and picked and crushed the rest of the Tempranillo (about 600 kilos). What a day.

On 31 March, we harvested the first fruit from our tempranillo vineyard. The vineyard was planted in the summer of 2004, so the vines weren’t carrying a heavy crop. We hired a local gardener and his wife to pick it out, and we picked a couple of rows with our kids. It took about six hours (it’s only a tenth of a hectare), and yielded 1100 kilos of fruit. That should give us about two barrels of wine (225 liters each).

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