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Chris Vais
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Just glad that there were no fatalities, and it looks like only minor injuries...no sense crying over spilled wine.
Hope everyone is safe,
Jay
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It awakened both my wife and as well as the cat. Lasted about 20 seconds, the whole house was rolling back and forth like a boat in a sea swell. We had bedrooms windows open and it sounded as if a freight train was passing through the back yard. The sound was everybody's houses moving.
My winery didn't suffer any damage, however they are several wineries in Napa were the barrels jumped off of the barrel racks and landed on the floor. There is at least winery, a vintner friend of mine knows, in Napa, that lost most of their 2012 and 2013 reds that were in barrels for aging.
Tomorrow will be the first day of the 2014 crush. We will be receiving 3 tons of Pinot Grigio and I believe 1.5 tons of Merlot.
Chris Vais
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(This post was last modified: 08-25-2014, 04:43 AM by
Chris Vais.)
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Barrels full of wine will either burst when dropped or deform to the point where they leak. Sometimes the bung will get pushed out by the wine inside and drain. If the barrel remains intact and the wine stays in the barrel, no harm will come to the wine except that any solids will be resuspended and the barrel will have be given time for the solids to settle out. Dropping a full wine barrel, which weights in excess of 600 lbs on a concrete floor is not unlike dropping an egg on the kitchen countertop.
Gotta go crush grapes!!!!
Chris Vais
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Longevity Wines 2014 harvest began yesterday with 3 tons of Pinot Grigio and 1.5 tons of Merlot. Merlot on the left and Pinot Grigio on the right. The effect of our draught can be seen in the small compact cluster size and the individual berries which are the size of buck shot. Should translate into seriously good wine.
Chris Vais
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Halfway through harvest. We should finish crushing before October 1. Definitely a record. In 2011 we didn't finish crushing until after Thanksgiving. If the fruit we have been receiving is any indication at all, 2014 should be an outstanding year for California wines. Stay tuned !!!
Chris Vais
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(This post was last modified: 09-19-2014, 03:02 PM by
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Well. as quickly as it started 5 weeks ago, Longevity's 2014 crush has ended. We still have fermenting wine to completed pressing to do and barreling of the new wine, but we are done processing wine grapes. The drought brought us lower yields characterized by small compact grape clusters and small individual berries. We expect the wines from this year to be outstanding.
We also received a new de-stemmer crusher that permitted us experiment with whole berry fermentation. Our new equipment permits us to de-stem the berries and then pass them into the fermentors without crushing the fruit completely. The fermentations look to be some of the best that we have experienced and we got superior color and tannin extraction, so now we wait and see how all this turns out.
Last year I made a Grenache Rose which we entered in an International Rhone Wine Competition. Our wine took a silver medal, a significant accomplishment for us considering the competition include some of the most famous Rhone Wine producers in the US and internationally.
Chris Vais
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I saw this as well and I don't know what to think. Wine, the way we make it at Longevity is about as unadulterated a product as you are likely to find. We only add potassium metabisulfite a preservative and yeast. Sometimes we add water to adjust brix or acid to adjust pH prior to fermentation. Franzia and the other bulk wine producers produce wines on a massive scale using fruit from many different sources. Industrial winemaking at its best. Who really knows what goes in an industrial winemaking plant.
Chris Vais
1994 Coupe Midnight Blue Metallic
2015 Audi Allroad Quattro Brilliant Black
2008 Audi A5 Brilliant Black
(This post was last modified: 03-22-2015, 04:15 AM by
Chris Vais.)
