Last Saturday, we picked the tempranillo from our home vineyard in the Aconcagua Valley. Although the weather has generally been cooling as we move into fall, Saturday was very hot, with temperatures hitting 37.4 C (99 F) in Santa María. The pickers finished shortly after lunch, and we then crushed the fruit immediately to get it out of the sun. Since the grapes were fairly warm, the fermentation took off quickly. It was our only active fermentation, which made it easy to manage the fermentation temperature using both our cooling unit and ice jugs. (We freeze jugs of water to float in the must; the melting water is contained in the jugs, which we then refreeze to use again.) This was a model fermentation: it started quickly, never overheated, and fermented steadily until dry. Let’s hope they all go this smoothly!
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@flahertywines
@flahertywines